The best company culture I was ever part of was when I worked as a fishmonger during high school and then through college during vacations.

The fish market cut no corners - the best fish flown in daily, careful training of staff in product, hard skills (cutting, cleaning),...

customer service, product knowledge (fish types, flavors, recipes)...all from a landlocked microbusiness in a college town.

And the work was hard. 10-12 hr shifts, starting as early as 4am (hard when you are a teenager), non-stop work on weekends.

The management (including the owner) was kind, generous (free food, take fish home to try new recipes), but fanatical about every dimension of quality. Employees developed real competence and felt like part of a mission-driven team. It was awesome and, given my age, life-shaping

The experience left a deep imprint and I still stop by when I return home and also send a Christmas card (which they display) every year - 25 years after I left.

Ever since, I've worked hard to find or develop this type of culture in workplaces with which I've been involved.

I've never succeeded, which just shows how hard the task is to create a special culture. I hope everyone has a place like that, which brings me to the point of this thread:

A few years ago, I came across an opinion piece by David Brooks in the NYT...

It was called "How to Leave a Mark on People" and it described two types of organizations, thick and thin. My fishmonger job was at a thick organization.

The article goes on to describe many of the elements found in a thick organization. Its not foolproof, but its a start...

Common 'thick organization' ingredients include:
- cramped physical locations w/ face-to-face contact
- collective rituals
- shared tasks
- occasional overnights ("so that everybody can see each other's real self")
- a sacred origin story

- music (played all day long at the fish market)
- a common ideal/motto
- a unique and idiosyncratic culture
- initiation rituals, especially if they are difficult
- their own jargon
- uniforms, emblems

Have you experienced this type of culture?

Next tweet has the article link

Here's a link to the excellent article that was the catalyst for this long thread: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/opinion/how-to-leave-a-mark-on-people.html

I hope you find it as meaningful as I did when I first read it.

Thanks @nytdavidbrooks and thanks @MonahansSeafood