Recently, during a New Employee Training session, someone brought to my attention that an applicant left a review on Glassdoor in which they described Quantum like a cult. Our cult-like transgressions? Smiling a lot during the interview and asking the applicant to describe the kind of candy bar they would be. Crazy! Get the Kool-Aid!

It’s interesting that I wasn’t totally offended by this. In fact, it made me happy to hear. Ultimately, we didn’t hire someone that clearly would not have been a good fit. Our interviewers embodied our culture so well and so clearly that this person felt like an outsider looking in.

If you have your culture right, people can feel it. They may not be able to articulate it, but they know it clearly. When they walk in, hopefully, they must know themselves well enough to decide whether or not they fit.

When an organization’s culture is strong, an employee needs to feel aligned to the values of the culture to be successful and happy. For some, this is a bridge too far. Others feel right at home. Not all cultures fit all individuals. This is fine. This is normal. This does not speak to a person’s worth or to the organization’s worth.

For me, when creating our organization, it had to start with this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” When I unpacked this, I found the foundations of our philosophy. First, there has to be a high amount of trust. I trust myself and therefore I must trust the people within the organization. Belief in the Individual was born.

If you look at everyone as yourself and love them as yourself, you would do the right thing for them no matter what. Serving and servanthood needed to be at the center of everything we do. Thus, we work and live by our Attitude of Servitude and Virtuous Cycles.

If I am treating everyone as myself, then everyone is valuable and plays a key role. Everyone in the organization has the same responsibility and role in whatever we choose to accomplish. Therefore, we are All in the Same Boat.

We have total transparency within our organization. Everyone knows how we are doing. Everyone knows…well, whatever they care to know. We also work diligently to ensure that everyone knows what we are doing as an organization and what their role within those goals is. We connect people to their purpose. 

We teach all of these things and more when people start with us at Quantum. At the end of the day, we are holding each other accountable to love each other as ourselves. In other words–to treat others as we would want to be treated. You know, the Golden Rule. We teach it and model it and we actually have continuing education courses in each area of our cult. I mean, culture.

The byproduct? A great group of people who truly, deeply care about each other and those we serve. We have created an environment of safety and trust so they can come to work with a community of people aligned in shared values and connect to their purpose every day. This environment isn’t for everyone. Some people just want a job, and that’s fine. Just not at Quantum. We want to do life together and have a blast doing it. Culture–shared values–is the key.