Culture Is What You Do When Things Go Wrong

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Every company I’ve worked at had values written down somewhere. Integrity. Innovation. Collaboration. Respect. They were on the website, in the onboarding deck, sometimes literally on the walls. And in most cases, they told you almost nothing about what it was actually like to work there.

Culture isn’t what you say you value. It’s what you do, especially when things go wrong. Ines Sombra puts it perfectly: “Culture is what happens when what we want to believe about ourselves is challenged. Culture is what we do when we get things wrong, when we witness a violation of trust, or when we stay silent when an inappropriate comment is said in our presence.”

The Brilliant Jerk Problem

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

There’s a conversation that every engineering leader has at some point. It usually starts with something like: “Yeah, they’re difficult, but they’re the only person who understands the billing system.” Or: “I know people find them hard to work with, but their output is incredible.” You nod along, because you’ve probably said something similar yourself. I certainly have.

The brilliant jerk problem is one of those leadership challenges that feels genuinely hard the first time you face it, and blindingly obvious in hindsight. Someone on your team produces exceptional technical work, maybe they’re the fastest coder, the one who understands the gnarliest parts of the system, the person who can debug anything. But they also make people feel small. They dismiss ideas with contempt. They create an atmosphere where others are afraid to speak up, ask questions, or challenge anything.

Culture on guy@secdev.uk

Culture Is What You Do When Things Go Wrong

The Brilliant Jerk Problem