The Kind of FIT that Truly Matters to Your Culture

I enjoy a challenging puzzle. I also like a great analogy. That probably tells you a lot about me. That said, I don’t particularly enjoy the analogy that compares puzzles to teams and people to pieces. Perhaps you’ve heard this analogy. It can show up in ways like these:

A person interviews for a job in your organization, after the interview a colleague says, “Her resume looked great, but after meeting her, I don’t think she would be a good fit for us.”
An employee leaves the organization and someone remarks, “It’s too bad he didn’t work out. He started strong, but then clearly he wasn’t a good fit and we had to let them go.”

The word fit is loaded. If you say someone doesn’t fit because they don’t share the same values as those that organization proclaims, that’s one thing, but if they don’t fit because they don’t act like us, think like us, or have had the same experiences as us, that’s a real concern.

I’d like to see us drop the phrase fit as we talk about someone fitting into the organization like a puzzle piece and replace it with a different kind of fit that I call a Fully Integrated Team or FIT.

This is a team where everyone’s strengths are brought to the table, individual weaknesses are offset by the strengths of others, differences are celebrated, and everyone has a sense of belonging.

That’s the kind of FIT that truly matters.

Check out this video and share it with your team and colleagues. Also, download this tool to get to work on creating a better FIY in your world.

Make it a great day!
– Patrick