It’s National Poetry month, so where better than in poetry to find some of the raw truths of human nature?
Let’s talk a little bit about culture fit.
Culture fit is what judgy teenagers are assessing as they silently judge each other. You see it at every lunch table in every high school cafeteria: smart kids sit at this table, cool kids at that one. The jocks in one corner, the theater kids in another. If you’ve ever seen The Breakfast Club, you know the various types.
When it comes to a work environment, you often hear the old chestnut “Hire for culture, train for skills.” And that’s a helpful rule of thumb for finding the right people.
Or is it?
We spend so much time trying to find the right people to fit into our culture, and once they’re in, we tell leaders they need to be authentic, all while beating the culture into them and ensuring they understand the company line.
Lewis Lapham astutely pointed this great grinding down of anything remotely unique and human in Money and Class in America:
“As often as not, corporate success depends upon the aspirant’s willingness, over many years and under a bewildering variety of circumstances, to sacrifice whatever trace elements of personality might get him in trouble with the management or the police. The poor fellow learns to submerge his own being in the corporate being, to subvert his own voice to the institutional voice, to acquire the ‘plastic capability’ that President Nixon so much admired in General Alexander Haig. Only when the candidate has enlisted in the ranks of the Hollow Men does he become eligible for the reward of a tax-deductible personality; only when it is certain that he will have nothing to say does the corporation set him up with a microphone and an audience.”
But what about people who just show up as themselves? People who aren’t trying to fit in, but are simply who they are?
Here’s a real-life example from Bian Li, a former investment banker:
20 yrs ago, as an investment banker, we held Super Saturdays — an intense day where each recruit had 10-15 interviews with different members of the firm.
We’d assess each candidate’s “culture fit.” Often, many of my top picks were rejected and I didn’t get why, since to me, they demonstrated “fit”: merit, skills, poise, coachability, enthusiasm, etc.
Later, I’d hear, via my male peers, some of the REAL reasons for rejection — as the higher-ups didn’t dare say these to my face:
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“We don’t hire fat chicks” (rejected an average-sized woman. She wasn’t “hot” — their words)
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“We don’t hire guys with accents” (rejected a Polish guy with an accomplished resume + great personality)
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“We don’t hire guys named after pastries” (rejected an Indian guy named Danish)
I shouldn’t have been surprised as they instantly wrote off a recruit at dinner when he ordered an apple martini.
I quickly learned that “culture” was never about merit. It was about conformity.
It was my first job out of college — was told the “old boys club” should be aspiration. At 21, I stayed silent, rationalizing that “this is just how corporate works.” But I could never shake the “ick” feeling when I’d be the only minority in the room, the only woman, often the only one under 50.
It wasn’t until years later, as DEI became a national topic, that I fully grasped what I saw: a system that used “culture fit” as an excuse to exclude talent, all while preaching “meritocracy.”
You can read her entire thread.
Evidently, appearance and personality are everything. You have to have the right ones before you even have a chance submit to the monoculture.
