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CHARACTERISTICS OF SILICON VALLEY COLLABORATORS

I have found that many of the Silicon Valley employees who are committed to collaboration are distinguished by six fundamental characteristics:

1. A drive to succeed.
2. The desire to contribute to something meaningful.
3. Persistence.
4. Acceptance of differences.
5. Desire for genuine communication.
6. Connection to company-wide goals.

Let’s explore each of them.

A DRIVE TO SUCCEED

The desire to succeed is intrinsic to many Silicon Valley employees. Of course, success means different things to different people. To one person it might mean being inducted into the National Society of Professional Engineers. To another it may be attaining a vice president–level position. Many relate success to financial achievement. Yet there’s a common thread. These employees all have an inner drive that pushes them to accomplish whatever success means to them.

Regardless of their job title, these people are willing to work unusually hard—harder than most—to achieve the success they crave. For some, it means discovering some new consumer desire and creating a business around it. For others, it means working at a company that encourages creativity and involves them in developing new products, because not everyone in Silicon Valley wants to start their own firm.

In summarizing a particularly tough project, one Silicon Valley leader said, “We were very proud of what we achieved, but weren’t totally satisfied.” I asked what he meant by that seeming contradiction. He explained that even when projects are profoundly successful, his company urges employees to look critically at their work and figure out how to do even better with the next project. He likes that. It encourages him to do the best he can, every time. This is just one example of the many ways that Silicon Valley firms encourage employees to tap into their innate desire to be as successful as they can.

THE DESIRE TO CONTRIBUTE TO SOMETHING MEANINGFUL

Every Silicon Valley employee I spoke with told me that they are driven to contribute to something that will make people’s lives better. The definition of “meaningful” is as personalized as the desire to succeed. To one person it means curing cystic fibrosis. To another it is helping to develop a smart phone with an earth-shattering new feature. However it’s defined, the shared characteristic is a desire to be involved with work that makes a positive difference for people.

One leader said, “We want to know that what we’re doing has a purpose beyond profit. Nobody wants to come to work every day and work so hard just to make money.” When employees are passionate about what they are creating and the good it will do in the world, they focus on that goal rather than daydreaming about their next vacation.

This was confirmed by Dr. John Sullivan, an internationally known human resources thought-leader from the Silicon Valley, who conducted research at Apple and Facebook. He learned that “The number-one attraction and retention tool at both firms was not the free transportation or food but instead . . . was to have their work impact the world.”¹

PERSISTENCE

The third shared characteristic of Silicon Valley employees is a willingness to see their work as a mystery to be solved. These people see problems and barriers as fun challenges. Their curiosity and persistence energizes them to keep working on an issue to find the best solution while still respecting time and other constraints.

One Silicon Valley leader told of a time when his project team was asked to find the cause of a bug that was making a software program freeze up. They divided the code and each member scoured their section over and over to locate the problem. They couldn’t find it. Eventually, the leaders told them to give up and just remove that feature. But they didn’t want to. They knew how much customers wanted that aspect of the product. They kept going, working evenings and weekends. And they were rewarded. They felt huge pleasure of accomplishment when they located and fixed the bug.

Employees with this characteristic remind me of Sherlock Holmes. They enjoy using detective-like skills to come up with amazing insights and solutions. Part of their success is based on a willingness to question legacy or sacred cows when they inhibit effectiveness in particular situations.

ACCEPTANCE OF DIFFERENCES

The fourth characteristic these people have in common is a willingness to accept many others as equals. Silicon Valley employees do a very good job of judging others based on knowledge, skills, and contributions. Their trust and respect for someone increases the more that person demonstrates these abilities. These employees are better at refusing to judge people on characteristics unrelated to their job performance (factors such as sexual orientation and nationality).

In many other companies the fact that someone is older, younger, or gay takes precedence over work performance. It shouldn’t. These people have to work harder to get respect. Judgments are made based on factors unrelated to that person’s competence and performance.

Although Silicon Valley firms are farther along than some other companies in accepting many of these differences, it needs to be explicitly stated that their cultures are not yet inclusive of all people. Progress in Silicon Valley is still limited when it comes to hiring, retaining, and promoting women and people of certain ethnicities. There have been many efforts and some improvement. Success, however, is still a goal rather than a reality for women and some people of color.

That said, Silicon Valley employees are much more accepting of differences than many others. What does this mean for collaboration? Employees are willing to embrace differences rather than shy away from them. They are also willing to embrace out-of-the-box thinking and ideas that others bring to the table.

One Silicon Valley consultant who works with companies in this region said: “When you put a baseball team on the field, you don’t put nine catchers out there. You would never win with that strategy. You have to leverage the differences that folks bring.” She explained that folks are getting much better at figuring out what skills are needed and disregarding facets of staff unrelated to those competencies. “It is increasingly about skills and competencies rather than the differences that used to (artificially) separate us from each other.”

DESIRE FOR GENUINE COMMUNICATION

The fifth characteristic of Silicon Valley collaborators is authentic communication. Those with a Silicon Valley outlook desire genuine conversations in which people can express their views honestly, even when they disagree. Discussions stress directness, straight-talk, and respectful disagreement about content rather than personal attacks.

People are more willing to explore the assumptions beneath their own beliefs without getting defensive. Respect seems both a cause and an effect of these dialogues. It is a cause because people abide by a basic level of civility, and it is an effect as these conversations further build people’s regard for others.

CONNECTION TO COMPANY-WIDE GOALS

The sixth shared characteristic is having an awareness of company-wide directions. Silicon Valley employees in firms that stress collaboration are aware of overall goals and how their projects contribute to those goals.

Leaders in many companies try to assign employees to projects that they are passionate about. That passion makes the project more fun, makes employees more vested in its success, and increases their willingness to work harder to achieve it. One of the unintended side-effects, however, is that this passion often makes it difficult for employees to let go of the hard work they’ve put into the project if conditions change and the work needs to be set aside. In many companies, employees feel betrayed when they have poured huge amounts of energy into a project and it has to be discontinued.

Silicon Valley employees “get the bigger picture” and see themselves as owners of those bigger goals. As a result, they are willing to change direction even when it means dropping something they have put a lot of work into.

SAN FRANCISCO’S UNIQUE HISTORY

Why are these characteristics found in such large numbers in Silicon Valley employees? I discovered that many of these traits have been a part of the culture of the San Francisco Bay area long before the formation of Silicon Valley. Some go as far back as the gold rush of the 1850s.

The San Francisco Bay area became a highly desirable destination after the discovery of gold in 1848. According to the U.S. Census, the population of San Francisco exploded from a mere 200 in 1846 to 34,000 in 1852.² The area drew massive numbers of people who planned to mine their way to riches. It also drew another type of entrepreneur. It attracted people who saw even greater potential in creating businesses that would help those miners pursue their dreams.

Those early business leaders had a drive to succeed and a willingness to work hard in pursuit of that goal. A few examples follow, showing how those leaders embodied many of the six characteristics.

Isidore Boudin came from a family of master bakers in France. He brought his family’s expertise to northern California in 1849 and started a business baking his now widely regarded bread. It became popular because of its unique taste and texture. Isidore and his wife worked extremely hard to make their business successful. After his death, his wife and daughter continued that tradition. Boudin’s sourdough bread is still synonymous with the city of San Francisco. It has the privilege of boasting that it is San Francisco’s oldest continuously operating business.³

Levi Strauss emigrated from Bavaria in 1846, joining his two older brothers who were already in New York City running a wholesale dry goods business. Levi brought the family trade to San Francisco in 1853 to make his fortune during the gold rush. He split off from his brothers’ business and started his own company that produced durable trousers for men engaged in physical labor. Eventually, he partnered with a customer in Nevada to apply a new process that made the pants last even longer. That marked the birth of blue jeans. From those beginnings, Levi Strauss & Co. grew to become the largest pants manufacturer in the country. Mr. Strauss was also very philanthropic, contributing to the betterment of the community and its people.⁴

In 1850, 14-year-old James Folger migrated to San Francisco with his two brothers after a fire destroyed their livelihood in Massachusetts. Upon arriving in this exciting west coast city, his brothers left for the gold mines and he got a job with the Pioneer Steam Coffee and Spice Mills. His hard work resulted in a partnership in the company four years later. Things went well until the Civil War, when disruptions to the economy forced the business into bankruptcy. But James persevered, paying off the debts and buying out his other partners. Finally, he was free to run the business as he saw fit. He created a special technique for taste-testing the beans, which resulted in better tasting and smelling coffee. Just before he passed away in 1889 he wrote a letter to his son, urging him to remember that reputation is far more important than profit.⁵

These businesspeople are just a few of the many examples of figures who displayed characteristics discussed in this chapter: the strong drive to succeed, a desire to contribute to something meaningful, and persistence.

The fourth characteristic, acceptance of differences, is also a defining characteristic of the San Francisco Bay area. The region has long welcomed individuals and groups who differ from predominant norms. Many people were attracted to this area during the gold rush because of its openness to those with fewer ties to religion and other traditions.

Along with Greenwich Village in New York City, San Francisco became a hub of the Beatnik movement in the 1940s and 1950s. The Beat era appealed to a group of people in their 20s who didn’t fit into the middle-class, suburban values that were predominant in this country. Lawrence Ferlinghetti was typical of the people drawn to the Beat movement. He wrote a number of popular books, and founded City Lights Booksellers in San Francisco in 1953. City Lights became a haven in that Beat movement, and still thrives today.

San Francisco was again prominent in the societal changes of the 1960s. Because of that spirit of openness, Hippies were drawn to the city in large numbers. In the 1970s San Francisco became the center of the gay and lesbian rights movement. The Castro grew into an urban gay village. The same decade also saw the election of several openly gay politicians.⁶

This history of accepting differences, started with the gold rush and continued with the Beat, Hippie, and LGBT movements. It is woven into the fabric of Silicon Valley. It encourages evaluating others based on their competencies rather than facets that have nothing to do with their skills. That acceptance of differences, though still a “work in progress,” fosters a workplace environment in which people are more accountable for their work and employees are more open to others’ ideas.

BEYOND SILICON VALLEY

Many of these characteristics are part of the hiring and training programs at Silicon Valley companies. They are also integrated into employee performance reviews and promotion processes.

Fortunately, none of these six are restricted to San Francisco or Silicon Valley. None are prevented from blossoming elsewhere. These characteristics are found in individuals and companies throughout the world. These outlooks predispose people to work hard to succeed, and work with others to achieve that success.

Because they are such important precursors to effective collaboration, I recommend that you do what you can to help make these six characteristics part of recruiting, hiring, and reward strategies in your company. How can you do accomplish this? There is not a cookie-cutter approach that requires you to do this in any one way. It needs to be synchronous with company values and practices. (Later in the book I will offer ways you can increase your impact on collaboration in your company.)

CORE BELIEFS

Everyone from Henry Ford to Shakespeare has been credited with saying, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” If you think you can achieve more when you work with others, chances are you will thrive in an environment where collaboration is fostered. If you think you can’t, well . . . then that will be true. In other words, our core beliefs about collaboration determine how effective we will be in working with others.

In conducting my research in Silicon Valley, in addition to the six characteristics I also found that employees consistently demonstrate the following five core beliefs:

1. Some projects need assistance from others. There are many projects for which I don’t have the knowledge to do it all by myself. At times like this, the work benefits from pooling our intelligence. Sometimes I have the expertise but not enough time. At those times it also makes sense to join with others.
2. Group successes are gratifying in a different way than individual work. I get personal satisfaction from being part of a successful group project that’s different than when I accomplish something on my own. It’s incredible to be part of that communal brain.
3. The chance to learn from others is a chief benefit of collaboration. When I work with others I learn so much. It’s worth it, even if it takes slightly longer.
4. The chance to teach is another benefit. I’m happy to share my knowledge with others. It gives me a chance to be in a teaching role.
5. Collaboration = networking. By working with and getting to know others, I’m expanding my social network. That network has been valuable to me in the past, and will continue to be in the future.