Giftbit's 8 Cultural Principles
We weave these principles through our culture.
Each principle gives perspective to help us assess our behaviour and decisions.
Exemplifying these principles is how people succeed at Giftbit.
What is culture?
What we do is who we are, so we take great care in the things we do.
Our behaviors show the beliefs and values that operate in the company. Our way of doing things is company culture.
When culture is aligned with strategy, the culture equips people to make good judgements more quickly, with less oversight. Good culture creates good growth for people and for the business.
While Giftbit's culture has established ways, we know that these ways are not perfect or fixed. Our people are diverse and dynamic. Change is constant, so we cultivate Giftbit's work culture continually. We see it as an ongoing effort and process.
We have a practice of candor & kindness
- Kindness is a strength that always serves us well.
- We're candid about our performance—what we do well, what's tricky, and what we'd do differently.
- We lean into our strengths and positive feedback.
- We purposefully invite candid input from others.
- If something needs to be said, we say it directly. We are kind, not nice.
We focus action on the job to be done
- We deliver results by being outcome oriented. Clear definition of our goal lets us select the best method to attain it.
- We emphasize clear ownership and delegation.
- We manage harsh realities, discomfort, and pain to produce progress to our goal.
We are earnestly open-minded
- We are open-minded about ourselves, our team, and our work.
- We seek to accurately understand reality so we can deal with it. This clarity is the foundation for consistently good outcomes.
- We pause for clear thinking before we take action.
- We look beyond of ourselves to solve problems.
- We are humbled by data, reason, iteration, and collaboration. We consider multiple perspectives.
Our work supports success and prosperity in the fullness of our lives
- We cultivate fulfilling and integrated lives. We each have one precious life and work is a meaningful part of it. Work and life are not on opposite sides of a balancing scale.
- We are flexible so work can support the needs and timing of events in our lives and so our lives can support performance events that occasionally come up at work.
- We promote physical and mental wellness. Health is wealth.
We cultivate trust & collaboration with each other
- We invest time to see one another and acknowledge one another. This understanding helps us get in sync, collaborate well, and disagree constructively.
- We celebrate each others strengths and achievements. We help each other grow and succeed. We acknowledge our weaknesses and mistakes.
- We cultivate trust continually. Each interaction we have with one another charges or discharges our trust battery.
- We know conflict is inevitable and essential to have trusting, candid relationships.
- We ask naive and challenging questions to support learning and deliver better outcomes.
We adopt a growth mindset
- We purposefully invest in developing ourselves—our talents, judgement, character, intelligence, and creativity.
- We actively pursue learning by setting proactive learning goals each quarter.
- We dedicate time to settle confusion, follow surprise, and investigate curiosity.
- We love our mistakes and imperfections.
- We choose to grow so we can experience more and make a greater impact. We remind ourselves that growth and comfort are in opposition.
- We write down what we learn and share it.
We craft our work
- We undertake our work with first-, second-, and third-order consequences in mind.
- We deliver great work more quickly when we iterate and collaborate.
- We make time to acknowledge good work—our own and others.
We lead ourselves and each other
- We give people ownership and autonomy early.
- We delegate and take on challenges to develop discernment and competency.
- We lead from the inside out. When we lead ourselves well, we lead others well.
- We exemplify our cultural principles and habits.
- We create clarity, give energy, and deliver results.
Note: The values and exemplary behaviours that underly these principles come from the Giftbit team and what they have said about Giftbit's work culture. When we sought to better articulate our cultural principles, we took inspiration and direct quotations from numerous sources, such as: Principles by Ray Dalio, some interviews of Tobias Lütke on Shopify’s culture, The Mind of the Leader by Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, content from Reboot.io, What You Do Is Who You Are: How to Create Your Business Culture by Ben Horowitz and Mindset by Carol Dweck.