Startups with strong cultures are most likely to succeed, research shows

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For decades, conventional wisdom says that groupthink – the tendency for an organization to think alike at the expense of original ideas – is the result of a cohesive culture.

In other words, as people get friendlier with one another, they voice less dissent, which raises the likelihood of making disastrous decisions.

This wisdom held sway until recently, when researchers began to realize that the opposite is true. In the book Originals: How Non-conformists Move the World, writer Adam Grant cites a study which analyzed strategic decisions by top management at seven Fortune 500 companies.

What researchers found was that cohesive groups, in fact, made better business choices. The same conclusion was reached in another study which looked at the political sphere.

Instead of squashing dissent, group cohesion has been found to improve communication. Because members feel secure in their roles, they’re unafraid to challenge one another.

Success and cohesion

The same correlation between success and cohesion has been found in startups. In the mid-90s, researchers spoke to over two hundred companies in Silicon Valley to figure out what sort of startups tended to succeed.

There were three main blueprints for startups:

1. Professional: These companies prioritized hiring candidates with the specific skills they need, for instance a programming language like Javascript.

2. Star: Rather than hiring just for skills, these startups preferred the smartest folks. So instead of hiring the developer who was already a Javascript expert, they hired a developer who was not so great at Javascript but had the intelligence to pick it up quickly.

3. Commitment: Startups in this category didn’t just look at skills and smarts. Instead, they sought out employees who matched the company’s beliefs and principles.

While firms in the first two categories motivated employees by giving them independence and tough problems to solve, commitment-focused startups sought to build strong bonds between staff. Adam writes:

They often used words like “family” and “love” to describe the companionship in the organization, and employees tended to be intensely passionate about the organization and its mission.

The downside to strong culture

Make dissent a part of company culture