When Truveta was only a few days old, the early Truvetans joined together for a half-day offsite to discuss the company that we wanted to build together, and then played some competitive socially distanced frisbee golf in the middle of a global pandemic.
We discussed strategy, and the culture of the team we wanted to be part of. Although it was so tempting in those early days to focus 100% on product strategy, the wisdom of “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” inspired us to focus on putting as much energy into defining some foundational values for our culture. From this offsite, we iterated and iterated to create our original values.
We are now over 100 people, and we are learning every day about the culture we have, and the culture we aspire to create. Our Chief People Officer, Deb Nielsen, led a great inclusive process to evolve our values. A team of passionate Truvetans reflected on our team, studied others, and shared articles and books on our Truveta Teams channel. We discussed in our weekly Truveta Team meetings.
This work led us to a newly updated set of Truveta Values. We are still forming as a team and understanding what it’s going to take to achieve our mission, so I humbly think of them as still a work in progress – but they are such a step forward on clarity on our cultural values, it’s time to publish. Here they are:
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- Focus on our purpose
We believe truth plus knowledge – the genesis of our name, Truveta – can make a big difference in the world. We obsess over the success of our members and customers who share our vision of Saving Lives with Data. - Earn trust
We have the utmost respect for the responsibility we carry. We challenge ourselves to meet the high expectations of patients, providers, regulators, and scientists on privacy, security, ethics, and data quality. - Contribute for impact
Every team member has the opportunity to make a big impact. It requires working hard and pitching in. No task is beneath any of us and every detail matters. Our diversity gives us each a unique perspective and we respect all opinions. - Freedom with responsibility
We trust our team to innovate towards our shared goals, use great judgment, and make responsibly frugal decisions. We have high standards and reject mediocrity. We embrace work from anywhere. We believe you can accomplish great things from your home or our office home. - Be curious
Progress is born out of questions asked. We are always learning, humble before the complexity of our vision. We learn from failures and do not place blame.
- Focus on our purpose
Building on our last value of “Be curious”, we will continue to evolve these values. Our team will continue to grow. This is who we are today. As we grow, we will be unafraid for our values to grow with us.
The next step: making them real
It is so easy for values to become forgotten words on paper, or platitudes painted on the wall. We know we need to be better than that, so now we are focused on three things to activate these values into our everyday:
Interviewing. The best values help build the team you want to become. Moving forward, all interviews for new Truvetans will be framed by these values, helping ensure we bring people on our team that can embrace these values. Please note one of our values recognizes the importance of diverse perspectives. This does not mean we should all seek to be the same, but that we have foundational shared values that can be embraced.
Training. We are investing in training opportunities for the team. This naturally supports our “Be curious” value, allowing each of us to follow our interests in computer science and health. But it’s also essential to our ability for us to “Earn trust” – we all need to understand what it means to be a leader in privacy, security, and ethics.
Career growth. Beyond training, we are committed to growing the careers of our team members. Part of this will naturally be impact assessments. In addition to impactful work, we will also assess alignment with our values and the “how” of how we work. We believe our best teammates will rise to become exemplary examples of these values.
Culture is important for any company. With Truveta, we have an opportunity to build the culture we want from the ground up. It is fun, exciting, and something very special to be a part of.
Truveta’s ambitious vision requires an incredible team of talented and inspired people that share our values. If these values resonate with you, join us.
–Terry