This Is Now Your Company: A Culture Carrier's Manifesto

by Mike Rognlien

For fifteen years, Mike Rognlien has learned from some of the best (and some of the . . . not best) people in the corporate world. His tenure at Facebook, as a consultant to Microsoft, and at numerous other companies--from insurance to banking to Silicon Valley--taught him valuable lessons in responsibility, ownership and accountability, and the fine art of T-shirt printing. And now, with a mix of wisdom and rueful humor, he's sharing his accumulated work and life lessons with you. Yes, you. Because if you want your career, and therefore your company, to be the best they can be, that's how you have to start thinking of as yours. You have to fully understand the role you play, the good and the bad impact your behavior has on all of the people around you, and the unconscious biases that can control your thoughts and decisions if left unchecked. You have to be sure that this is what brings you real fulfillment. You have to be prepared to fail spectacularly badly and recover with a flourish. And you have to be ready to control your wrath when you're served duck twice in one week. (Trust us--the story does apply to you.)

Genres: Business

195 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 18, 2018

Reviews

[Drew Dallas Deardorff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This quick-witted book, packed with often hilarious real-life experiences, is the perfect how-to for empowering one’s self, employees, and employers alike to rise to the occasion of understanding, harnessing, and owning their role in the company they work for. How to drive results, get others to work for and with you, and how to effectively flex your talents to influence outcomes and maintain or, better yet, grow the company culture you desire.

In one story, Mike tells of when a senior employee asked him: “Why the fuck did we hire you?...He didn’t intend for us to answer him, though. He intended for us to answer ourselves. Daily. Why were we there, newly oriented, ready to get started? Why us? Out of the hundreds or thousands of people who applied for our jobs, why were we the ones selected?” This book is all about embracing YOU, what YOU bring to the company, and why YOU should/must be the owner of your career.

This book is an empowering read for individual contributors and leaders at any level in an organization. Basically, if you have a job, this book is for YOU!

[M Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

A funny and straightforward playbook for creating a good culture at work. Some lessons learned: (1) Be an Oprah, not a Simon Cowell. People are much more comfortable accepting hard truths from Oprah. (2) Don’t use the word “feedback.” It triggers a fear response. Instead ask to talk about how something went, and don’t wait between saying you want to talk and actually talking. (3) Shift to an internal locus of control, rather than an external one. When you’re late, apologize, find out what you missed, and move on. Don’t waste more time explaining all of the things that happened that caused you to be late. All of these may seem obvious, but they’re often muddled in the workplace, and Rognlien has a witty, crisp way of helping people behave better, and get the best behaviors out of others.

[Vaibhav Puranik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book! In one of the chapters, the author makes a point for employees to initiate a conversation about expectations with managers! I wish more employees did that! There are many scenarios in the book which keep happening at our workplace. I am definitely going to encourage people in my workplace to read the book!

[Megan McKellar · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a really easy and enjoyable read about the role you as the individual play in the formation of culture within your organization. The book is written in an informal and comedic style and I enjoyed the variety of Oprah and Simon Cowell metaphors as listed below. I think this quote sums up the book best, “you get the best results when you become a scientist of your own behaviour.”