Don’t be Afraid to Boldly Prioritize Loving People
The final part of a four part blog series. Read part one here, part two here and part three here.
When I first started at Facebook, I wondered how any single person could make meaningful impact within such a large organization, or if I would simply be another cog in a large machine. Shortly after starting, those questions were put to rest, because of some simple and intentional practices that Facebook does to prioritize people above all else.
The earliest example of this for me was when a co-worker had an unexpected medical emergency. I had only been at Facebook a few weeks when leadership called an urgent meeting. I could tell by their countenance, something was wrong. We were informed that our peer was suddenly rushed to the hospital for a serious crisis. Collectively grief-stricken, but without hesitation, the team dropped everything and rallied to care and support him, his family, and each other in the wake of this traumatic event. Thankfully he is now recovering. This incident opened my eyes to the incredibly caring and supportive people who make the relationships in our organization a priority.
This kind of care and intentionality doesn’t happen overnight. It is a part of Facebook’s culture that has been cultivated and we continue to work on it. One way we do this is consistent reminders of our priorities. Covering the walls of every Facebook campus, there are inspirational and aspirational posters that reinforce our company values. These are not proclamations sent down from executives above, but instead created by employees as a reflection of the culture that they themselves desire to build.
In this post, I’d like to share a few personal stories that relate to a handful of these posters, and how as a Christian (and not an official spokesperson of Facebook) I feel they resonate with biblical principals that serve as an example for how believers in workplaces everywhere might live out faith through relationships.
People Over Pixels / Ship Love
“My goal for the culture of Facebook is to build a culture of loving the people we serve that is as strong if not stronger than hacking at Facebook”
— Mark Zuckerberg
Goals, deadlines, feature adoption and revenue are all essential measurements for product success, but are hollow without a purposeful focus on the people we impact. Facebook’s corporate mission is to “bring the world closer together” to ensure “every single person has a sense of purpose and community.” This aim isn’t unlike our calling as believers as well; see Ephesians 2:10, and Hebrews 10:24–25. So what might it look like for Christians to build with a focus on serving our community?
I was attending my first Code for the Kingdom hackathon a few years ago and observed someone working on an elaborate mobile application to be used by people living on the streets in unfortunate circumstances. I listened patiently to his conjectures about how they might use this app (thinking most aren’t likely to even have phones). I challenged him to instead draw his concepts on paper and visit the homeless shelter across the street to listen how they would react to the concepts.
A few hours later he returned with a huge appreciative smile on his face and proceeded to tell me the names of the people he interviewed. To my amazement I learned they did in-fact have phones (but no data plans) and had all sorts of interesting features they felt could serve them like offline maps for food banks. His direct connections to these people ultimately made the overall product itself better.
Don’t build to gain users, build to serve people.
Ruthless Prioritization
“We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.” — Sheryl Sandberg
I love being a designer who envisions the possibility of a yet-to-be realized future. But there’s a danger in becoming so fixated with a vision that you may miss other opportunities directly in front of you. I appreciate the mantra; prototype as if you are right, listen as if you are wrong. Or as it says in Romans 12:2, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
In a previous role in another company, I was managing a large faith-based project where we required the technical assistance of a major development agency. I specked the requirements, found the perfect firm in San Francisco and was excited to work with them. However, because they had extremely negative notions about our Christian values, they declined the request for proposal altogether.
In the midst of trying to execute this project, I could have easily brushed the dismissal aside and simply found another agency to work with. However after slowing down, taking a breath and realizing this was an opportunity to speak life into my contacts there (Colossians 4:6), I prioritized taking the time to meet them in person to build a deeper relationship and understanding.
To my surprise and delight, they met with me several times to better understand our faith and ended up becoming colleagues that I still communicate with to this day. As projects go, this one came and went, but those relationships only happened because I took the effort to prioritize them.
Your identity is not found in the unmet vision of the future, but in how you interact with present circumstances as they exist.
As they say, it’s not the destination but the journey that matters. God desperately wants to move through you in His journey. Stay alert and let Him. (Isaiah 43:19)
What Would You Do if You Weren’t Afraid? / Be Bold
“We need to take scriptures back from those who made it a manuscript for conformity and reclaim it as a manifesto for creativity.” — Erwin McManus, Artisan Soul
One of the most treasured traditions at Facebook is the hackathon, which provides space for unencumbered creators to gather together in community and quickly execute their vision of the future with something tangible. This helps to rapidly validate how these ideas might provide impact. When we are gone from this world, what is left are the things that we make and the people we affect.
If we as Christians believe God to be real (Revelation 1:8), that Jesus is a reflection of Him (Hebrews 1:3), and that the actions by those in His name have commensurate power (John 14:12), then what happens when Christian technologists stop thinking of ourselves not just as developers or experience designers, and take up the mantle as creators reflecting the Ultimate Creator Himself? What an awesome role to play.
Every person’s own stories are embedded into the products they make. As more tools we live with every day are reaching unprecedented scale, the opportunity for impact is rapidly multiplying. In your own projects, what could you make, or who could you influence that would nudge the world towards better relationships?
The impact of Christian technologists isn’t found solely within the products we ship, but in the manner in which we interact with the communities God has placed us in. I still pray for my coworker who is recovering from his emergency, and I’m so proud of my fellow coworkers from all over the world involved in the Christians@FB group who boldly meet regularly to pray in community and study God’s Word together.
Make it a priority to boldly love those around you and the products created will reflect this posture.
Jesus instructed, “‘Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples — when they see the love you have for each other.’” John 13:34–35
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