The Seven Rules to Succeed

As common as it may be to believe that technology is neutral, apolitical, unbiased and decoupled from the people and culture that produced it, we believe differently. We believe that technology is a reflection of who we are as a community, so it’s best to be explicit about what we believe.

1. Psychological safety & mindfulness

(Emotional intelligence; empowering others; conflict resolution)

We believe that long-term success is only achieved when psychological safety is fundamental to our organization.

2. Diverse organizations & inclusive collaboration

(Collaboration; empowering others)

We believe in the power of including diverse experiences, backgrounds, educations and ideas into our daily processes, strongly influencing the development of our products.

3. Proactively communicate & passionately listen

(Team alignment; conflict resolution; collaboration; sharing vision and goals; empowering others; emotional intelligence; listening skills)

We believe communicating early and often is paramount to our collective success. Speaking up and speaking out is always welcome. Think aloud with teammates, share your understanding, reduce ambiguity, properly & critically review your own ideas ... it's all about being proactive about communication early to reduce surprises, conflicts and tech debt in the future.

We also believe that everyone should be passionate about hearing what others have to say.

4. Build with empathy

(Accessibility & usability; advocating for others; community impact)

We believe everything we build needs to be developed with a deep consideration for all users, not just the ones that "reflect" us. Because we build things that hundreds of millions of people use, we have to ensure that we build things that never risk their safety, privacy and security, no matter how valuable or fashionable we believe it may be.

5. Intellectual humility

(Strong opinions, loosely held; accountability; anti-fragility; growth versus fixed mindset)

We believe intelligence has little value without the recognition that it’s fallible.

6. All leaders, no owners

(Leadership; inspire; collaborate)

We believe everyone should be given the opportunity to lead, regardless of their title. We also believe that no one individual owns anything; it’s all shared.

7. Innovate & inspire

(Creativity; autonomy, mastery & purpose)

We believe innovation and inspiration is at the core of true success. For this to happen, we believe the following are vital for each individual:

Autonomy
Mastery
Purpose

… the secret to high performance and satisfaction – at work, at school, and at home – is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

– Drive | Daniel H. Pink

cerebrl/seven-rules-to-succeed.md Secret