One of the earliest culture-setting activities we did at CFS was writing a list of "ten things we know to be true". This activity was likely suggested by one of our advisors who was an early engineering leader at Google. Google had first written down its ten truths around 2004 and published them online for the world to see. The ten truths are used to capture a company's core beliefs in simple statements.
I found that writing these truths was a more powerful and useful activity than a standard set of company values. The problem with listing company values is they are all too often generic and non-differentiating (e.g., very few companies would not say they do not value integrety or respect). Writing the things you know to be true goes much deeper. It is an exercize in world-building and culture creation. It is the logical next step after writing out your audacious goals, which describe what your company is going to accomplish. Your truths lay out the frameworks and methodology by which your company works to achieve its audacious goals.
A well-formulated set of truths facilitates:
CFS' ten truths have not yet been published publicly, so I cannot examine it in detail here (I will if it ever is made public). But the major themes shouldn't surprise you: recognizing the power of the scientific method, applying innovation where it has the highest leverage, predicting that human creativity and inexepensive energy will drive the future. Instead, I will examine Google's ten truths as an exercise to help you build yours (see the link for Google's explanations of each truth).
This is a great anchor truth to start Google's list. It provides a clear guideline to decision-making: Does the outcome of the decision put the user first? If so, then the decision reinforces more user engagement and therefore benefits the company.
Google's second truth establishes their monomaniacal focus, one that is critical for early-stage startups need to succeed. This was a great guiding truth at the beginning, when Google focused predominantly on internet search. Now, in my opinion, they have not strictly stuck to this truth. While the focus on search has expanded to organizing all information, the company has such an impressive breadth in what they offer, it is a stretch to say that they focus on doing only one thing really well. Nonetheless, this evolution shows that it is okay for your truths to evolve over time, as there is a risk of being disrupted if you stay static.
The third truth is a derivative of the first: delivering what the user wants. A slow product is frustrating and would drive away their user base. This truth is counter to the philosophy of the search industry in the early 2000's, which was to try to capture the user's attention for as long as possible. Instead, users of Google got their results quickly and then came back for more. This is a great example of Peter Thiel's signature question: "What important truth do very few people agree with you on?"
The fourth truth gets at the heart of what makes Google's technology, the PageRank algorithm, work. It was their unique insight that the "voting" of the links between websites was a superior way of identifying quality search results. This is the core conviction behind the differentiation of their principal product. It will be interesting to watch how this evolves in our present age of AI.
The fifth truth was very forward looking. These truths were first penned years before the iPhone, when cell phones were relatively simple devices. This truth is a prime example of a founding team's vision of a bold, new future enabled by the company's product. It is impressive that they already had the foresight of the importance of mobile computing and nearly limitless access to information.
The sixth truth is, like the third, a reaction against outside industry trends. The explanation Google has published about this truth focuses on how Google deploys ads in its products, its primary source of revenue. The advertising industry is often portrayed in a negative context because of its goal to convince a consumer to buy a product that is potentially not needed. Google set out this truth to establish how it ethically earns money through ads. Having an ethical framework is an important part of just about any professional field (e.g., the Hippocratic Oath in medicine or the Obligation of an Engineer).
This truth also provides an important lesson: Google should be lauded for making their truths public. Public truths drive accountability. If you claim to hold yourself to an ethical standard and appear to fall short, people will speak up about it.
The seventh truth is another forward-looking innovation truth. It recognizes that while Google's first major innovation and product was search on internet webpages, its business and technology extended far beyond. Google was not just an internet search engine, its core skill and product for consumers was the aggregation of information and returning the best results for the user based on the user's query.
The eighth truth sets the expanse of who the company serves. Google recognized the relative borderlessness of the internet both geographically and linguistically, the utility of its tools, and the need for information to cross previously impervious barriers.
The ninth truth is a core expression of Google's way of working. While embedded in the broader Silicon Valley culture, this truth was nonetheless important to make explicit. This is a pragmatic expression of their vision of a work environment in which achievement takes priority over appearance and is therefore most conducive to building a productive workforce.
The final truth is a rallying call for continual improvement. In it Google communicates to its team members to always be on the lookout for opportunities to improve, setting an important tone for the culture of how they work. This truth also communicates to Google's users that the company will always be working to deliver a superior product. By adhering to this truth, Google outpaced its competition and kept its users engaged rather than letting users wander astray to other search engines.
Writing your truths should be an enjoyable process. It is codifying into plain-speech the core of what makes your company unique and what will enable it to succeed. Do not feel beholden to come up with exactly 10 truths, 8 or 12 truths are just as good, but try to not expand it much more. Here's how to get started.
From Google's ten truths, I have come up with a series of questions to help you derive your own truths for your company. Feel free to expand beyond this list with your own truth-deriving questions.
If your truths are written well, they should require minimal changes over time. But it is a good exercise to periodically revisit your truths and check to see if they are still serving you as the world changes.
I hope you have a fun time forming your company's truths. If you need help in this exercise, do reach out, I would be glad to facilitate your truth creation.
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