On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Weird Are You?

This interview with Tony Hsieh, the chief executive of Zappos.com really struck me.?? Looking at a company's culture and how that can make it a great place to work – definitely a hot topic around my institution.?? I don't think it's a novel concept to "formalize the definition of our culture into 10 core values".?? Lots of places look at their core values in order to define who they are but are they being honest in that??? The idea of coming up with committable core values that they actually would be willing to hire and fire people based on, regardless of their individual job performances, is brave.?? I Love that one of their values is "Create fun and a little weirdness"… the idea that they want to recognize and celebrate each person's individuality and that they want their true personalities to shine in the workplace environment – would we all want to be in a place like that??? Sometimes I feel that the term "core values" makes people think that these values must be very High Brow… intellectual.?? Well, "Fun" and "Weirdness" works for me!?? Zappos puts together a culture book and they are brave enough to do it (other than typos, they note) unedited.?? That means you get to hear the good things and the bad.?? How often do we not say what we think because it's not Happy or Good – we are afraid that we'll get in trouble… so we don't say anything instead but we're frustrated by the lack of change. I also like the idea of relationship building because, no matter what anyone thinks, we spend way too much time at work to not call what we have with our co-workers a relationship… perhaps dysfunctional, perhaps dreadful… but a relationship, nonetheless.?? And I love the closing: "I think if someone is self-aware, then they can always continue to grow.?? If they're not self-aware, I think it's harder for them to evolve or adapt beyond who they already are."?? YEAH!??

Thanks to by Adam Bryant at the New York Times for On a Scale of 1 to 10, How Weird Are You?