My Journey of Self-Discovery
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This session discusses my early experiences seeing our company values in action during my first two months at Auth0. This ignite session talks about the importance of action in defining company values.
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My Journey of Self-Discovery
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- 15. Our house is on fire... Our house is on fire...
- 20. It’s Us. It’s Now!
Editor's Notes
- Today I want to talk to you about my Auth0 journey as I encountered our values in action. My journey reinforced some things about values that I have always known.
- As a NewB at Auth0, I got to experience our values for the first time. It is one thing to see a written list of values, it is another to see them in action. (No. This is not me. I haven’t been able to touch my toes like that in many years)
- Every culture has a unique set of values. In Ancient Rome gladiators, who were treated as second class citizens and many of whom were actually slaves, often fought to the death in giant coliseums filled with over 50,000 spectators.
- Ancient Mayan and Aztec cultures viewed human sacrifice as a sacred ritual that was an important part of their religious beliefs, but cultures can change. After the Spanish conquest of mesoamerica, ritual sacrifice was eventually ended.
- In the US, the widespread use of slavery in the Antebellum South, shows that written values like “All men are created equal” are not always reflected in the actions of the population, and that sometimes a culture may not have a shared set of values.
- The Library at Alexandria in Ancient Egypt was considered the capital of knowledge and learning for almost 300 years. Some values, like an appreciation of knowledge and learning, transcend a single culture or period.
- Martin Luther King Jr. shows us that a strong leader with a firm belief and commitment to a set of fundamental values can bring about a transformative change within a culture. This change however rarely occurs without a struggle.
- My first experience with Auth0 values began in my interviews. My interview process was very open and even included some healthy constructive criticism. It was a breath of fresh air compared to many of my previous interviews.
- Interviewing with the Extend team showed me that Auth0 believed that experimentation and innovation was more than just buzzwords. Extend shows that Auth0 is willing to make real investments in experiments that show results.
- Early on, I was frustrated with the lack of confluence documentation about how we use Slack at Auth0. Rather than waiting for docs to magically appear, Matias encouraged me to just go for it and make the changes myself.
- During my onboarding at Auth0, we were shown some of the company financials during a discussion about company growth. SLT has repeatedly shared sensitive company financial information with employees. A truly Radical idea.
- On day one, all new employees are introduced to Phenix for requesting access to company resources and applications. This application is truly a testament to the impact that one person with a lot of passion can have in an organization.
- I joined Auth0 at the end of Q1. Imagine finding out I had been assigned a Q2 OKR to draft the Appliance Multi-Cloud strategy. No big deal it only represents one third of the company’s total revenue. They set the bar pretty high on this one.
- Fortunately for me I am surrounded by a great team. German, Chris and Walter White… err, I mean Bob, sat with me for two days at an offsite as we started working through the foundations of the multi-cloud strategy.
- My time at Auth0 has not been without its challenges. Like all startups, Auth0 has had its share of growing pains.
- Fortunately, the Auth0 leadership quickly responded to these latest challenges by making organizational and procedural changes. We were not living up to our own high standards and a significant change was absolutely required.
- Imagine you are visiting company headquarters two weeks after joining Auth0. Now imagine how you would feel if people you had never met or spoken to, greeted you by name when you first walked into the office. Thanks Jenna and Brooklin for making me feel welcome at Auth0.
- I live in a country with documents that describe an amazing set of cultural values, but I know that these are just words on a piece of paper and my country has not always lived up to them. Writing down the cultural values is necessary, but it is not sufficient.
- The real measure of values is the actions that people take. Words alone are not enough. It is not until those words are put into action that you find out the true values of a culture. Having a great culture deck is meaningless without action.
- So Just Fucking Do It! Start putting our values into action. It IS Us. It IS Now!