????《財富》雜志一年一度的“最適宜工作的100家公司”榜單，為我們如何從整體上看待公司文化提供了有用的觀察角度。大多數人會草草翻閱雜志或在電腦上不停翻頁，只看那些美食大廚、午休室、瑜伽老師以及其他代表“偉大”工作場所的圖片和夸張的描述。

????盡管如此，真正“最適宜工作的公司”都有正確的公司文化，而且它們不止是“極好的工作場所。”

????《財富》也意識到了這一點，并委派了一名高級作者為這些公司能夠入選“最適宜工作的公司”提供佐證，這些佐證與它們提供的令人瞠目結舌或垂涎三尺（比如谷歌的淡紫色山核桃玉米面包）的員工福利無關。

????《財富》記者杰奧夫?科爾文寫道：“令人印象深刻的福利，并非任何一家公司入選榜單的理由。偉大工作場所的本質在于：一種內在的精髓，一種決定公司特質的不可或缺的品質。”

????從個人角度而言，“最適宜工作的公司”榜單總是讓我非常興奮。《財富》數十年來一直根據“多少”（收入、市值等）來跟蹤公司，同時也在努力衡量工作場所品質中更人性化的優點，這種方式始終令我印象深刻。

????入選《財富》雜志“最適宜工作的公司”榜單意味著，一家公司走在正確的軌道上。這表明，這家公司關心員工，欣賞他們的熱情，希望讓他們在工作場所感到舒適。瑜伽課和美食都是為了更人性化經營進行的投資，是向正確的公司文化邁出的一大步。

????《韋氏詞典》2014年的“年度熱詞”——即在詞典網站上搜索最多的詞匯——便是“文化”。研究文化是目前的一個主流趨勢。原因何在？因為在當今相互聯系日益密切的時代，我們可以更深入地研究一家公司，了解它的過去與現在，討論其行為，甚至敦促其做出改變。

????想想當一家機構出現某種錯誤時我們的反應。人們不再習慣于接受膚淺的解釋。當一名學生在大學校園遭遇性侵，或一名手無寸鐵的平民被警察殺害時，人們會談論“強奸文化”和“警察文化”。我們希望了解啟迪個人思考的更大背景，以及推動個人行為的力量。我們開始明白，態度、行動、心態與信念均源自我們作為集體角色的內心深處。

????我們不再對壞蘋果感興趣，而是對長出蘋果的樹更感興趣。“文化”之所以成為年度熱詞，是因為我們希望得到更深層次的解釋。盡管當事情發展順利的時候，我們不會下意識地問同樣的問題，但事實上，我們應該如此。在某些領域，例如體育運動中，這種改變已經開始。

????圣安東尼奧馬刺隊創造了職業籃球歷史上令人難以置信的、罕見的連勝紀錄。雖然其他球隊希望復制這樣的成功，但聰明的球隊并沒有選擇挖走馬刺隊的明星球員，而是盡最大努力改造整個團隊系統（包括如何招聘，如何物色優秀球員，如何指導球隊，球隊預算，訓練，比賽，招募自由球員等），竭力模仿以無私分享球權著稱的馬刺文化。雖然不可能完全模仿馬刺隊的文化，但通過效仿馬刺隊，亞特蘭大老鷹隊已經成為今年NBA常規賽的領跑者。

????組織文化如同一個人的性格。赫拉克利特曾經說過，性格決定命運。就像一個家庭無法模仿另一個家庭一樣，沒有公司能夠完全模仿其他公司的文化。經商的核心就是通過做別人無法模仿的事情來獲得專屬優勢，不是嗎？而文化可能是一家公司最差異化的資產，因此，公司領導者是否應該更用心、更認真地考慮如何塑造、培養和擴大公司文化？不過，一旦涉及公司文化，我們往往就被困在如何塑造和管理諸如福利、津貼和工作場所等公司文化的表層區域。

????Fortune’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” listprovides useful insights into how we collectively view corporate culture. Most of us flip through the pages or click through the screens hovering over pictures and blurbs highlighting gourmet chefs, nap rooms, yoga instructors and other signifiers of “great” workplaces.

????That said, the true “Best Companies to Work For” have the right culture and aren’t just great workplaces.

????Fortune itself is aware of this, even assigning one of its top writers to argue that being a “Best Company to Work For” has little to do with the jaw-dropping (and mouth-watering – trying biting into Google’s lavender pecan cornbread) employee perks these organizations offer.

????“Knockout perks aren’t the reason any company makes this list,” writes Fortune’s Geoff Colvin. “The essence of a great workplace is just that: an essence, an indispensable quality that determines its character.”

????Personally, I’m always thrilled to see the “Best Companies” list. I never stop being impressed that a publication like Fortune, which for decades has tracked companies based on “how much” (revenue, market capitalization, etc.), also makes such a sustained effort to measure the more human virtues of workplace quality.

????Being the “best” on Fortune’s list (or just aspiring to one day make it) means you’re on the right track. It shows you care about your people, appreciate their passions and want to make them comfortable in the workplace. Every yoga class and gourmet meal is an investment in doing business in a more human way, a big step toward having the right corporate culture.

????Merriam Webster’s 2014 “Word of the Year” – the most searched term on the dictionary’s website – was “culture.” Examining culture is deeply tied to the current moment. Why? In our era of ever-growing interconnection, we can peer deeply into an organization better than ever, learn about its past and present, discuss its behaviors and even advocate for change.

????Think about the way we react when something goes wrong within an organization today. People no longer tend to accept surface-level explanations. When a student is sexually assaulted on a college campus or an unarmed man is killed by police, people now talk about “rape culture” and “police culture.” We want to know about the larger context that’s informing individual thinking and the forces that animate individual behavior. We’ve come to understand that attitudes, actions, mindsets and beliefs come from a deep place in our collective character.

????We’ve grown less interested in bad apples and much more interested in the trees that create them. “Culture” is our word of the year because we want the deepest explanation possible. Although we don’t automatically ask the same questions when something goes spectacularly well, we ought to. In some realms, like sports, this shift has already started.

????The San Antonio Spurs have demonstrated an incredible and rare record of long-term success in professional basketball. Though other franchises want to imitate this, instead of rushing to poach the Spurs’ star players, smart teams are doing their best to reinvent their entire team system (e.g. how they hire, scout, coach, budget, train, play, recruit free agents, etc.) to emulate the Spurs culture, which values unselfish play above all else. While it’s impossible to duplicate the Spurs’ exact culture, learning from the Spurs is already paying off for this year’s regular season leader, the Atlanta Hawks.

????Organizational culture runs just as deep as individual human character. And character, in the words of Heraclitus, determines fate. Just as one family can never duplicate another family, no business can exactly replicate another company’s culture. Business is about gaining proprietary advantage by doing that which you can’t copy, right? Since culture is potentially the most differentiated asset a company owns, shouldn’t leaders get a lot more intentional and deliberate about shaping, nurturing and scaling it? Too often, we get stuck on shaping and managing the things – benefits, perks and workplaces – that exist only on the very surface of culture.