Some of culture is about “not hiring assholes” sure, but a lot of culture is finding people who will be a great fit for the way you work.

Someone can be a wonderful colleague and a star in one culture, and struggle tremendously in another culture.

Ex: one company may work by identifying and discussing the biggest risks at the beginning of a project. They engage with “what could go wrong”.

Company B works by focusing on what does work and doubling down. They focus on where they see opportunities.

When a successful PM from Co A switches to Co B, she can often be seen as negative - always talking about what might not work, instead of focusing on what will work.

She’s trying to pace a way for success but can be seen as always preparing for failure.

This isn’t an indictment on the person OR on company B, it’s a mismatch between culture fit.

She may be a superstar at Co A; but at Co B she’s always mad for being the only one in the room who is “realistic”.

And her coworkers feel like she shits on every idea they have.

Culture is really about how people align to solve problems in a baseline approach and vocabulary.

It’s not about finding the only people who care about solving problems.