For many years, I’ve had a pet theory that you can tell a huge amount about the culture and values of an organisation from what you see and experience in their office reception area.
Some examples:
A large insurance company I visited in the City of London some years ago had toilets available for visitors waiting in the reception area. I have never, before or since, seen so many laminated notices warning users of potential hazards. This was a demonstration of the insurance company’s natural tendency to transfer risk: we warned you about the very hot water or the potential slippery floor, so it’s your fault that you burned your hand or fell over and broke your leg.
The government building in Westminster, where there were famously long queues taking visitors through “airport-style” security checks administered by notoriously grumpy and officious security staff. This was a demonstration of the culture of hostility towards unwelcome visitors that the organisation, under guidance from increasingly xenophobic policy-makers, have built up over many years: go away. You are not welcome here.
Google’s old offices on Buckingham Palace Road, where there was a reception desk, but where humans had been replaced by iPads. This was a demonstration of Google’s approach to the where people are mere data points to be mined: provide us your data, human.
I’ve been reminded of this recently through conversations with clients, where I have observed that software, like the reception area, reveals the culture of the organisation that produces it.
Now, to some extent, this is reflected in Melvin Conway’s 1967 observation:
“[O]rganizations which design systems (in the broad sense used here) are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.“
which is better known as Conway’s Law. But I’d argue that it is much more than merely communication structures that are broadcast through the software.
This is important. The software your organisation produces is a product of and a reflection of how your organisation operates, as well as its beliefs and values. You can’t just make tweaks to the outputs, or even to the “production line”, and expect it to make any substantial difference.
Whilst your company values might claim “Customers are at the heart of everything we do”, your software will tell them if it’s true or not.
Whilst you might tell your staff that “Our employees are our most important asset”, the systems and services you make them use will tell them the real story.
Your employee brand might be aspirational, but your cost-cutting applicant tracking system will signal to potential hires what you really think of them.
Not only that, but when you buy software from other companies, you’re buying the output of their culture and values. Microsoft Teams doesn’t make any sense? Imagine you’re a Microsoftee in the Redmond campus and maybe it will become more intelligible.
Can’t work out why CRM isn’t working? Well, it was designed by people who sell software to other businesses managing sales pipelines, and you’re trying to use it to manage consumer complaints on a service desk.
And when you do buy software or build software, it in turn starts to become part of your organisation, but possibly in ways that you didn’t quite expect. Because organisations and culture are complicated like that.
Just look at any company’s reception area for the evidence.
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