The lunch table

During my first few weeks at Merkle, I found myself in a non-descript conference room with other new hires to hear the CEO speak about culture.

It was a highly engaging part of my introduction to the company, but, truth be told, when I walked out of the room I didn’t think it would have much of an impact on anything I would do or decide in the next 10 years at the place. It felt like a footnote, and in some ways a bizarre one. Here was the brilliant, charismatic leader of this company telling me things like: “we have one goal - to be a great company.”

And there I was - a wiseass upstart just hitting the middle of his career - thinking that I appreciated the sentiment, but that these were elementary points. Isn’t every company’s mission to be great?

What I missed then but came to appreciate soon was actually how unusual and special it was that the CEO of this 2,000-person company would spend time on this every month with every new employee who joined the company.

Culture is felt and lived. You don’t deliver (or receive) it via a speech. At best, that’s just the start of a process of absorption. Some of the words might become chapter-and-verse, but mostly it’s in your bones, on a level that can’t really be articulated.

And that’s a powerful thing - maybe the most powerful thing in business. I know this because I felt Merkle in my bones for a long time, and then watched its culture wither and recede. And I am reminded of it now, a few weeks in to my new role, where I’m immersing myself in a new culture, embracing new language and rituals so I can feel another place just as deeply.

There was no presentation on culture this time around, but it’s there all the same, absorbed on strolls between office buildings and at the lunch tables, where the entire company gathers every day to do something that feels a bit revelatory in this day and age: break bread together.

They say that culture eats strategy for breakfast, and, speaking personally, I am a true believer. It’s the driving force behind why I am where I am professionally. There’s no report you can run that can quantify its power. But if you’ve ever tried to get anything impactful done that required the help of your colleagues, you’ll know just how much easier it can be when you’re all immersed in the same way.