Building a Culture of Resilience
Conversation with Monish Darda, Co-Founder & CTO of ICERTIS
In a wide-ranging conversation, Monish Darda, co-founder and CTO of Icertis, shares valuable insights on organizational culture, leadership, and innovation - drawing unexpected parallels between the worlds of gaming and business.
As a serial entrepreneur, Monish's experience offers a wealth of lessons for leaders looking to build resilient, values-driven organizations. He shares his journey, pivotal life lessons from the gaming world, the fundamental values that drive Icertis, and the innovative experiments he has woven into the fabric of the organization.
Whether you are a startup founder, an HR professional, or simply a curious reader, this dialogue is packed with valuable insights.
Life Lessons from Gaming
Monish kickstarts the conversation with an intriguing discussion on how gaming has shaped his professional life. He highlights the significant lessons:
Practical skills: One of his earliest games, Typing Tutor, significantly improved his typing speed—an invaluable skill in today’s tech-centric world. Who would have imagined that “gaming” can serve you well professionally? This highlights how seemingly unrelated activities can develop valuable competencies.
Dealing with adversity: Games like Call of Duty taught him ‘resilience’ - the ability to face setbacks, regroup, and come back stronger. This resilience mindset is crucial for entrepreneurs facing inevitable challenges and underscored the importance of bouncing back stronger.
Appreciating the small moments: The immersive environment of games like ‘The Last of Us’, with its pauses amidst chaos, reminded Monish to savor life's small, beautiful moments. Even in tense game scenarios, he learned to pause and savor beautiful moments. He applies this perspective to find joy amidst professional pressures.
Bonding with family: Last & certainly not the least, gaming created opportunities to connect with his children, underscoring the importance of shared interests in relationships.
These reflections demonstrate how leaders can draw unexpected insights from their hobbies and interests to enrich their professional lives and leadership approaches.
Building a Values-Driven Organization
A significant portion of the conversation focused on Icertis' approach to organizational culture and values. Monish shares how he and co-founder Samir Bodas made a conscious decision to build their company on a strong foundation of values from inception (being a serial founder obviously helped).
The FORTE Framework:
Icertis developed the FORTE framework (Fairness, Openness, Respect, Teamwork, Execution) to articulate their core values. This wasn't a hasty decision, but emerged from deep discussions about the kind of company they wanted to build.
Key insights on implementing organization values:
Timing: While articulating values early is beneficial, it becomes crucial as a company grows beyond 50-100 employees. In smaller teams, values are often implicit in founders' behaviors.
Collaborative process: It’s critical to involve key team members in distilling the company values, ensuring buy-in.
Constant reinforcement: Values aren't just wall posters - they need consistent reinforcement. The founders need to weave values into every conversation, even customer presentations.
Storytelling: Using relatable stories and metaphors (like characters from the film Sholay) helps make abstract values concrete for employees.
Learning from mistakes: Sharing instances where the team falls short of their values proves more impactful than only highlighting successes. People need to be transparent and ensure to learn from their mistakes.
Measurable impact: Icertis incorporates a "FORTE bonus" into executive compensation, tying financial incentives to living the company's values.
This comprehensive approach ensures that values aren't just platitudes, but guide real decision-making and behavior throughout the organization.
“Human” in Human Resources
Fostering Resilience through "Chaos Monkeys"
One of Monash’s most intriguing leadership experiments involves deliberately introducing "chaos" into teams by periodically moving key players to different projects. This practice, inspired by chaos engineering in software systems, aims to build organizational resilience. The key aspects of this approach are:
Timing: Changes are introduced when teams are stable, not during critical phases.
Communication: The reasons for changes aren't always explicitly stated, allowing teams to adapt organically.
Growth opportunities: This creates space for new leaders to emerge and for individuals to develop new skills.
Learning from dips: Short-term productivity dips are expected but provide valuable insights into team dynamics and areas for improvement.
While potentially disruptive, this method has consistently yielded positive results for Icertis, fostering adaptability and uncovering hidden talent.
Innovative HR Practices
Monish shares an ongoing experiment in democratizing the promotion process. Instead of relying solely on managerial decisions, team members vote on who they believe deserves promotion. Key elements include:
Fixed promotion slots to maintain scarcity
Multiple voting rounds over 6 months
Criteria focused on whether individuals are already performing at the next level
Anonymous voting to encourage honesty
While still in progress, early results have aligned closely with leadership's assessments, suggesting potential for broader implementation. This approach exemplifies his belief in constant experimentation and willingness to challenge traditional practices. It also demonstrates trust in employees' judgment and a commitment to fairness in career advancement.
The Evolving Role of HR
“While the ideal might be to make HR ‘redundant’, the reality is that HR's role will likely evolve to be more strategic and focused on creating environments where employees can thrive, regardless of physical location.”
Monish envisions a transformation driven by changing work environments and technological capabilities. The key points to keep an eye on:
Shift to remote/hybrid work necessitates new approaches to employee engagement and culture-building.
Increased use of technology (e.g., customized screensavers, mobile apps) to reinforce company messages and support employee well-being.
Focus on designing optimal work environments, both physical and virtual.
Need for HR to become more data-driven and tech-savvy.
Leadership Lessons from Gaming and Sports
The conversation concludes with reflections on the broader lessons that gaming and sports (particularly football/soccer) offer for business leaders:
Resilience: Both domains teach the importance of bouncing back from setbacks.
Adaptability: The ability to navigate changing rules and conditions is crucial.
Team dynamics: Understanding how to build and motivate high-performing teams.
Strategic thinking: Balancing short-term tactics with long-term strategy.
Continuous improvement: The mindset of always striving to enhance performance.
‘Top 10 Takeaways’ for Leaders:
Cultivate diverse interests: Insights from seemingly unrelated domains can provide fresh perspectives on business challenges.
Build a strong cultural foundation: Clearly articulated and consistently reinforced values create resilience and guide decision-making as organizations grow.
Embrace controlled chaos: Deliberately introducing changes can uncover hidden strengths and build adaptability.
Experiment continuously: Be willing to challenge traditional practices and test new ideas, even in core areas like promotions or organizational structure.
Leverage technology thoughtfully: Use digital tools to reinforce culture and support employee well-being, especially in remote/hybrid environments.
Foster resilience: Create systems and cultures that can withstand and learn from setbacks.
Think metaphorically: Develop the ability to see patterns and apply lessons from diverse domains to solve complex problems.
Balance structure and flexibility: While clear values and processes are important, leave room for organic growth and adaptation.
Invest in people: Recognize that an organization's greatest strength lies in its ability to nurture and unleash the potential of its people.
Maintain perspective: Remember to pause and appreciate the journey, even amidst challenges and high-pressure situations.
The conversation underscores that effective leadership isn't about adhering to a fixed playbook, but rather about cultivating a mindset of curiosity, resilience, and continuous learning. As work environments and societal expectations continue to evolve, leaders who can draw insights from unexpected sources and foster cultures of experimentation will be best positioned to thrive.
Mull over this over the weekend & you can also watch the whole conversation on YT:
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