LanCul Culture guide

Language and culture are the bridges that bring people together, allowing us to expand our understanding of what it means to be human in a whole new way. LanCul is a community brimming with diversity and richness, ready to provide the world with this unique opportunity for deep, authentic connections between individuals through language and culture.

With diversity as our goal, we dream of contributing to a world in which people of diverse backgrounds and values are able to come together with a common sense of respect for each other’s differences.

This document was written to convey the work culture that we wish to create at LanCul in our effort to deliver the experience of “Language” and “Culture” not just to our customers but to everyone, including our own employees.

We continuously strive to be the best we can possibly be by evaluating our employees based on their demonstrated sense of honesty, excellence, respect, and cooperation.

What makes LanCul stand out from other great companies is how:

1. We encourage independent decision-making.
2. We share all information thoughtfully and transparently.
3. We treat each other with equity over equality.
4. We are strongly committed to our culture and therefore we only hire people who are genuinely passionate about and understand our values.
5. We are always sharing and seeking out ways to improve our culture.

At our core, we are united in our belief that we are independent and can therefore manage ourselves using our own sense of responsibility. By allowing each of our Mates to grow and thrive in a relaxed and free working environment, we will create a more flexible, fun, exciting, creative, and successful organization.

Rather than managing our Mates, we would rather inspire them each to be their own leaders. We trust that our team will do what is best for LanCul. In this way, we entrust each person with all the information they need to exercise the freedom that is necessary to be completely autonomous in their decision-making. By encouraging freedom, we believe that we can foster a strong sense of responsibility and self-management skills in our Mates who in turn will produce the best work in order to benefit the company.

Real Values

Here at LanCul, our values stand for more than just appearance’s sake. We continuously remind ourselves of our core values, using them as the drive and foundation for our actions and as a reference point in our daily decision-making processes. By putting these principles into practice every day, we make our values come to life.

1. Honesty

At LanCul, we believe that being honest and genuine with each other builds trust within our community, allowing us to forgo the need for hierarchy and management. Honesty is essential to maintaining our flexibility and smooth communication. Furthermore, at LanCul we emphasize the difference between looking through the window and looking into the mirror, and knowing when to do which. In the face of failure, rather than finding external factors or people to blame, we should instead “look in the mirror” by reflecting on ourselves and asking what we could have done differently. In times of success, instead of attributing the success only to ourselves, we should instead try to “look through the window” by crediting and thanking others. If we all adopt this mindset, we can appreciate a more relaxed and genuine style of communication that is free of blame and which benefits everyone. We believe in the inherent goodness of every individual and honesty communicates this truth louder than anything else.

• We share our work progress, schedules, and results in a transparent manner so as not to obscure any details.
• We communicate directly and respectfully to our teammates, saying things to their face rather than behind their backs.
• We admit our mistakes freely and transparently.
• We are not afraid to voice our concerns when we notice behavior that is inconsistent with LanCul’s values.
• We steer away from overconfidence by being honest with ourselves and staying down to earth and humble in our interactions.

2. Responsibility

Our free and independent working style is contingent on our ability to be responsible. Our ability to exercise awareness and responsibility is directly tied to our freedom to work remotely at any time, take holidays whenever we need to. By providing this type of freedom and trust to newcomers from the get-go, we believe that we can develop our Mates into even more responsible teammates.

• We are capable of finding our own solutions to problems without needing to be micromanaged.
• We make sure to finish what we started and to clean up our tracks when we make mistakes so others don’t have to.
• We learn from our mistakes and failures and use them as an opportunity for growth.
• We aim to share as much of our work as possible in order to manage tasks more efficiently and for us to take days off freely.
• We do not have a dress code!

3. Pursuit of excellence

For us to deliver the best service to our members, we need to first believe in what we do. We pursue excellence by constantly reminding ourselves of what it means to be LanCul and by that token, never compromising what we stand for. We strive to keep LanCul’s values close to heart and understand the priorities of the company over personal preferences.

• We place equal value on results as well as process.
• We should never settle for less than what we are capable of achieving—we try to put our all into everything we do.
• We prioritize quality over convenience and seek out optimal actions and decisions rather than taking the easiest path.
• We need to be able to sail the ship through stormy seas, making difficult decisions even in the face of uncertainty.
• We speak up about what is best for LanCul, even when it feels awkward or difficult to do so.

4. Open-mindedness

Open-mindedness is at the heart of LanCul. It is the reason why Mates and members alike join us and it is therefore our mission to promote openness and respect at the individual level in order for it to be felt at a company and customer-service level. Seeing as we work with a multicultural team of Mates, we are committed to respecting and adapting to the different cultures we come from. By keeping an open mind, we can persevere through any situation or conflict using our diverse backgrounds to our advantage in coming up with solutions together.

• We welcome different opinions and our main goal is to discuss these constructively during meetings.
• We are open to receiving feedback from our teammates and use it to strengthen our ideas even further and improve our decision-making.
• We try to communicate using simple and direct language with the understanding that we work in a bilingual company with speakers of different language levels.
• We recognize our own prejudices and resolve to actively fight against them.
• We aim to treat ideas equally and objectively according to LanCul’s values rather than how well they fit in with our own personal biases.
• We meet in person as often as we can in order to prioritize face-to-face communication, promoting understanding and open-mindedness.

5. Simplicity

We can appreciate the immense value of simplicity when stopping to consider the increasingly complex world we live in. Keeping things simple helps us avoid unnecessary stress. Complex ideas may make you feel smart and give the impression of that you are to others. However, such ideas often bear the risk of shadowing the problem altogether, making us lose sight of what is really important. This is why at LanCul, we try to get to the core of the problems we are faced with by taking a direct approach.

• We are straightforward in our interactions, making sure to communicate using simple and clear words and expressions.
• We analyze problems deeply rather than superficially.
• We seek out simple solutions to complex problems.
• We re-conceptualize and reframe questions in order to work through difficult problems.
• We make the most of our limited time and resources by spending them wisely and efficiently.
• We automate our operations where necessary in order for us to focus our energy on projects that require creativity and lateral thinking.

6. Inclusivity

At LanCul, we truly value the connection between people. We see inclusivity expressed through kindness, humor, and understanding as the grease that makes all the wheels turn smoothly in our day-to-day operations. This sense of human connection is fundamentally what makes our work feel meaningful. We’d rather have a team made up of friendly and openhearted individuals than those who have no interest in building positive relationships, no matter how talented they may be. Inclusivity between Mates reminds us of the LanCul we want to create at the service-level as well.

• We understand both the quality of the work we do as well as the importance of nurturing relationships within the team.
• We try to lighten the mood during heated discussions.
• We make the effort to be friendly even when we are busy.
• We show our true character in all of our interactions and understand that the more we can be ourselves with each other, the better the team’s cohesion becomes.
• We come to work with a smile, demonstrating a positive and approachable attitude that can inspire others to do the same.

Finally

LanCul is a company that was created to offer a service for the happiness and enjoyment of everyday people and we are equally committed to delivering the same attention and care for the people inside our organization. With every moment shared at LanCul, we aim to create lasting bonds with our customers, expand our minds by sharing ideas across cultures thereby experiencing the joy of the present.

No matter how large we may grow as an organization, at the end of the day the company and its ensuing culture will always be the sum of all of its constituent parts—us.

This is why we at LanCul take our values to heart. With every smile, every minute of conversation shared, every moment of affection felt, we are reminded of the substance and authenticity of these values. In reading this document, we hope that this culture can continue to flourish and grow, starting with you.

“To inspire the human spirit and bring diversity to the community through language and culture.”