In the early days of the task- and project-management software Asana, I had been interested in a number of public statements made by the co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, also a Facebook co-founder, on calmness and deliberation while working, and how that influenced their product decisions. That resonated with me enough to try it out in the business unit I ran in 2011-12.
From then to now the company has mostly flown under the radar. Now it’s getting some press as it files for its IPO. One of those articles once again covered their company culture:
Internally, Moskovitz and Rosenstein took their time crafting their idealized corporate culture. They interviewed experts, brought in executive coaches and tapped a diversity-and-inclusion officer and a “head of people” over the years to get it just right. Moskovitz, who spent years studying Buddhism and leadership strategies, set up a company org chart with himself at the bottom, to represent the trunk of the company tree. Asana eschews traditional executive titles and instead makes people heads of a particular topic or business outcome. Moskovitz says it’s only right that a company focused on better teamwork invest in it as well: “We want to practice what we preach, figure out what’s best and export that.”
Along the way, Moskovitz leveled up as a leader, too. Known for his temper as a twenty-something at Facebook, he says he has learned not to agonize so much over setbacks. He invokes a saying from mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn: “You can’t stop the waves from coming, but you can learn to surf.”