After vis­it­ing some com­pa­nies with cool cul­ture I decided to write an arti­cle on the sub­ject. Cash­ing in on Cul­ture is an arti­cle about why com­pa­nies should make cul­ture a pri­or­ity and how to improve it. Here is a list of com­pa­nies with great (cool) company culture:

• Zap­pos
• The Lampo Group
• Emma
• Method
• Apple

What com­pany do you know of that has great cul­ture? Does yours? What needs to change?

The solu­tions to our prob­lems are all around us. Just read­ing the paper or lis­ten­ing to good radio can uncover the best approach to a prob­lem. One of my favorite radio shows is Car Talk. These guys take callers from all over the coun­try about every­thing from fix­ing up a junker to dry­ing your hair while dri­ving (you have to lis­ten, they gave safe advice). While lis­ten­ing to them I’ve noticed a pat­tern in their advice. Besides being hilar­i­ous, they start with the sim­plest fix first. I’ve talked about this con­cept before (Occam’s razor) but notic­ing it on this car repair talk show was a great reminder. The Car Talk guys always seek the sim­plest solu­tion first, then they move up the chain of com­plex­ity as they go. This approach extends well beyond zany talk show hosts. Find­ing the sim­plest solu­tion should always be our goal. Why?

Because the sim­plest solu­tion is:

1. the fastest
2. the cheap­est
3. the least frustrating
4. the least risky (usually)
5. the eas­i­est to explain

Why don’t we “do” sim­ple more often? A big rea­son why we go for com­plex is because, even though it seems counter intu­itive, sim­ple solu­tions can require more insight and thought. Insight and thought are heavy lift­ing! Act­ing auto­mat­i­cally is much eas­ier. Nev­er­the­less, the sim­plest solu­tion is the best. Don’t be afraid to go for the sim­ple fix. If it doesn’t work you can always step up from there. Once you engage a com­plex solu­tion it’s much harder to go back.