The State of Organizations 2023 - Flipbook - Page 47
lot of companies bring people together,
then lock them in a conference room to
sit through PowerPoint presentations for
a couple of days. That’s a waste of time
and money. They could have watched
those presentations asynchronously.
At GitLab, we spend most of our in-person
time going on excursions, sharing
meals, or holding an “un-conference,”
where small groups discuss topics one
after another. We use our valuable time
together to build connections through the
kind of face-to-face interactions that can
take place only outside of our screens.
What’s one secret of GitLab’s
success?
We’re very thoughtful about how we
use our time. For example, meetings
shouldn’t just be gatherings of people for
a conversation. Unless it’s a coffee chat,
every meeting must have an agenda, and
people are expected to read the agenda
before the meeting. Our meetings end at
the 25- or 50-minute mark to give people
time to prepare for their next meeting. We
also try to make it acceptable for people to
look away during meetings—they manage
their own attention and participation—and
to interrupt politely to ask questions or
share context, just like you would during
in-person conversations. We take notes
during every meeting and, when possible,
record them so people who can’t attend
can still hear the conversation, and we aim
to resolve discussion with clear next steps,
owners, and delivery dates.
How would you describe the culture
at GitLab?
Most important, we maintain a bias for
action. Everyone at GitLab is empowered
to be proactive, creative, and effective.
We all must make decisions with
imperfect information; this mindset helps
us make the small ones more efficiently.
We document them and maintain the
ability to change them if necessary, but
there’s cultural support for everyone
to do what they feel is best, instead of
calling meetings to debate every choice
or action. We have a higher tolerance for
mistakes and an appreciation for which
decisions need discussion. Overall, this
approach helps us to be more effective.
Tell us more about how you’ve developed
and fostered GitLab’s culture.
Culture isn’t preserved. It evolves. You have
to measure what you want to reinforce.
There’s still a lot of presenteeism out there—
where team members are rewarded for
just showing up, responding quickly, and
looking like they are working day and night.
If that’s what you reward, that’s what you’re
going to get. It’s much better to reward
the results. At GitLab, we evaluate team
members using metrics that are relevant
to their roles. For example, in R&D, we
measure how many pieces of code land
in production. What matters is not the
number of hours you work—it’s the work
that gets done.
More about
Sid
Sijbrandij
CEO and co-founder
of GitLab
Before GitLab, Sytse “Sid” Sijbrandij
built recreational submarines
for U-Boat Worx, developed
web applications for the Ministry
of Justice and Security of the
Netherlands, and discovered his
passion for open source. He is
described as the anchor of allremote working and GitLab’s
product visionary. Under Sijbrandij
leadership, GitLab has grown from
seven people in 2011 to more than
2,000 employees across more than
60 countries today, without owning
or leasing dedicated office space
anywhere in the world.
‘Working remotely is easy.
The challenge is working
asynchronously.’
March 2023
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