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“By the work one knows the workman.”
J De La Fontaine (1621-1695): The Hornets and the Bees. Fable 21.
The common sense of the word “culture” – as in, the collective customs and achievements of a people and a particular form of collective intellectual development – has been around only since roughly the mid 1800’s.
Before this, it was a term borrowed (especially by Cicero) from agriculture mostly referring to a systematic refinement of the mind (e.g., is he “cultured?”). In other words, in the background of any use of the word “culture” in reference to an institution, we must remember that we are borrowing a farming term to ask the question: “what is grown here?”
So when we look for a “culture fit” for a particular company, that is the seed of what we’re asking. What kind of people and communities does this company aim to grow, both in-house and with their product?
Simultaneously, then, we’re looking at what they do and how they do it: do they help people build cars or rent offices? Manage money or go on weekend adventures? What is their mission statement, Does the mission statement matter to people, and if so, how does it permeate the atmosphere?
“What art thou about, great king?”
[The Song of Roland, CCLXI]
From what we’ve said so far it follows that we can work best for companies that know who they are. A strong mission statement and a strong sense of who thrives there show us what makes this company interesting, because interesting people are interesting because of what they choose to love.
It seems to be the case that not every company will have a strong sense of just exactly what they are about. Thus, the kind of questions we ask employers are meant to get to the heart of their entrepreneurial spirit – the same entrepreneurial spirit that embraced the challenges of a new founding to deliver… whatever it is that they do. We will need this from employers to succeed.
The same goes for any questions that we ask current, thriving employees of the company. We will need to ascertain from them why they like doing their job, what allows them to reframe challenges at work, and what keeps them engaged.
Given what we’ve said so far, hunters can be a culture fit if they’re on board with what the company is attempting to grow. If you can look at the mission statement and think: “yeah, I could give 40+ hours a week to those people doing that thing,” “I think the challenge this organization is facing is worth facing personally,” and ultimately: “I feel that I could grow and help this firm grow if I took this role there.”
Moreover, it seems like the primary question we need to understand regarding hunters is: what is the effect you have on the people around you? What we really want to get to is – how do they help others to grow around them?
