My first tech job had several pithy cultural phrases folks would wield during discussions:

"If you must oppose, you must propose."

"Kill a snake."

"Make tragic moments, magic moments."

We even got tiny pocket knives to kill all the metaphorical snakes. 1/12

These pithy statements were a great way to influence & safely correct behavior.

Is someone seeing something that needs fixing? Empower them to kill the snake.

Mike McGarr referred to these as "behavioral heuristics" in a great Qcon keynote. 2/12 https://www.infoq.com/presentations/microcultures-organizational-culture/

In that keynote, he brought up famous value statements:
"Disagree & commit."
"Bias to action."
"Move fast & break things."
All of which enforce the culture of the company from which they originated.

The statements are so famous that organizations borrow them... 3/12

...hoping to change their culture.

I used to think you could change a culture by adopting new behavioral heuristics, but you can't. The pithy statements are born out of the culture; they don't create it.

The value comes in being shorthand for what's already established.
4/12

You can set goals for improving your culture and work towards the goals, but pithy statements aren't a magic mantra to get you there.

(I know because I've tried this and failed, and I've seen many others try it and fail.)

5/12

If your culture doesn't match the statement, one of two things happen:
1. The statement becomes a joke.
2. The statement becomes a weapon.
You may ask, "How can it be a weapon?" People get to map what they want onto the phrase and then they use it to shut down disagreement. 6/12

"If you must oppose, you must propose," starts out reminding folks we're about solving problems and not to block good solutions without a better one.

Then it gets used to suppress legitimate criticism. Harmful solutions move forward because no one had a better idea. 7/12

"Bias to action"

This is one that I do like when it's used to move beyond analysis paralysis in complex problem spaces.

I hate it when it's used to continue down a path that has obvious problems because the team or project isn't allowed to pause and reflect. 8/12

"Assume good intent"

This one can be used to shut down honest and necessary conversations about how well-meaning actions still can have bad consequences. It isn't supposed to do this, but it does, frequently. 9/12

Pithy cultural statements aren't inherently bad. They're bad when the group doesn't have an underlying common and complex model of how & when they should be applied.

You need to have other pieces of the culture in place to build that model. Otherwise the words get abused. 10/12

To "disagree and commit" you need psychologically safe ways to disagree & a common understanding of how and when decisions are made.

To "Kill a snake," people need time & resources to solve problems outside of their core work.

Build that into your culture first. 11/12

And for fun, here's my "Kill a snake" pocket knife that was meant to make me feel empowered to solve problems even when it wasn't my job to solve them. 12/12