Sitting on a hill, sharing a quick cup of tea and chat with Buster, a loyal heading dog, is a world away from my previous place of work in San Francisco.
Swapping the high-rise building equipped with five restaurants, two cafes, a games room and a gym for the allure of green pastures, now tinged with a strong hint of brown, I reflect on the lessons learnt from working in an environment that many would consider “woke”.
Coming in green from New Zealand, I was exposed to many new acronyms, a major one being DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion, which seeks to promote fair treatment and full participation of all people. The cultural fabric of many startup businesses revolves around these fundamental principles.
The culture generated in these young companies is by no means perfect. A natural tension exists between achieving returns for shareholders and personal soul searching. To an outsider, it might look as though people are being paid to explore challenging ideals to drive candid conversation rather than focusing on what would be considered “normal” productive means.
I initially found the conversations around these topics to be sticky and hard to fully participate in for the fear of unknowingly causing offence. I would see them as barriers to productivity.
Yet, some of my biggest personal growth came from finding comfort in these thorny conversations.
In many instances, the elaborate facilities and freedom to champion person causes weren’t bankrolled by surplus profits, but rather by venture capitalists, who, in good times, are happy to take short-term losses for the hope of large future returns.
The looming question is whether these luxuries remain ingrained in culture fabric as financial constraints tighten.
Small shifts are beginning to appear as financial pressure mounts. A “back to basics” focus is starting to make a comeback, an example of this being Elon Musk’s approach to laying off 80% of Twitter’s workforce following his acquisition, including the vast majority, if not all, roles focused on improving DEI.
I maintain that human beings thrive under a certain amount of pressure, remaining grounded and focused. Without pressure, we tend to over-engineer solutions by adding layers of unneeded complexity.
Some of the greatest individual and societal results have been achieved during crisis when a rational approach to decision making is required. We react based on our collective moral compass, rather than stewing all possible alternatives before stalling on reaching a decision.
I view the many things now labelled “woke” as causes individuals champion when afforded the luxury of free time. It is important that we hold on to some of the progressive strides we have taken, but we do need to apply a level of rationality to the conversation.
The current pressures we face might naturally determine what “woke” elements we keep, and what we do away with.
Pausing for a moment to observe sheep grow serves as a reminder of life’s simple pleasures. At running the risk of over-complicating things, I shared the last of my sandwich with Buster and got back to the task at hand – performing in a sector under mounting pressure.
