Amazon exec says working at the company is like being on a ‘tightrope’

You’ve got to be able to
pick yourself up after you fall.
SeaRick1/Shutterstock

• Amazon‘s company culture can
  feel a bit like a practicing a high-wire act.
• That’s what VP of worldwide people operations Ardine
  Williams told Business Insider.
• She said that the company values resilient people who
  can fall off the tightrope, pick themselves up, and get back
  on.

Working at Amazon is a bit like walking on a tightrope.

At least, that’s how Amazon VP of worldwide people operations
Ardine Williams puts it. Williams — who’s slated to deliver the
keynote speech at
Glassdoor Recruit on September 27 — has worked at the tech
giant since 2014.

She told Business Insider that when she began working at Amazon,
a colleague gave her some valuable insight about the company’s
work culture.

“When I first got here, one of the folks said, ‘Working here is
like walking on a tightrope. You walk out. You fall off. You pick
yourself up. You dust yourself off. You think about what you
learned, and you hop back on,'” she told Business Insider.
“‘That’s how we innovate on behalf of our customers. It’s wash,
rinse and repeat. Get used to dusting yourself off.'”

“If
you’re worried about always being perfect, it’s problematic
because you don’t innovate,” VP of worldwide people operations
Ardine Williams (pictured) told Business
Insider.
Amazon

Sure, walking on a high-wire might sound intimidating. But
Williams attributed the thinking to Amazon’s culture of “failing smartly.” In other
words, while one of Amazon’s core principles might call for top
leaders to be “right, a lot,” there’s not much
room for perfectionists, either.

“If you’re worried about always being perfect, it’s problematic
because you don’t innovate,” Williams said.

According to Williams, the work culture allows for employees to
feel comfortable enough to take risks.

The concept of the tightrope act also ties into one of Amazon’s
14 leadership principles: earning trust by becoming “vocally self-critical”
and, therefore, learning from past mistakes. When you fall off
the tightrope, you’re not supposed to get defensive or give up.
The idea is that you learn something, and put that toward
improving your act.

“When I got to Amazon, one of the things that was just incredibly
liberating for me was how welcome it was for someone to say, ‘You
know what, I was wrong,'” Williams said.

She added that people who succeed at Amazon are resilient and
comfortable with ambiguity.

“Are you able to shift from task to task and pick yourself up
after you fall off that tightrope?” she said.