The Culture at Scribe

“We Do Right By People”

At Scribe, we always do right by people because, in the end, we’ll be measured by the difference we make in people’s lives.

We believe that business is about meeting the needs of people. We show up with empathy, caring, and understanding for people—because people are the point of business.

Every goal, be it personal or business, every one of the decisions we make each day, begins and ends with, “who will be impacted by this decision and how?”.

Without relationships—without people—nothing else matters.

“We Get Things Done”

The first tenant of success at Scribe is drive results. We make this as easy as possible by clearly defining mutually agreed-upon role results. That’s it. We don’t tell you when to work. We don’t tell you where to work. We don’t micromanage your process or have pointless meetings.

We’re not motivated to produce results by consequences or the judgment of others. At Scribe, we’re intrinsically motivated to contribute to the success of the company by performing in our roles to the best of our ability.

We place the highest priority on everyone in the Tribe achieving the Results they commit to and achieving them at the highest level possible.

“We Are In Charge Of Our Reality”

At Scribe, you are wholly responsible for how you show up in each moment.

Many toxic work cultures depend on judgment-based systems where people are reactionary, defensive, and pass the blame for mistakes.

That isn’t an accident. If you’re not responsible for yourself, it means someone else is. Which means they are in charge of your reality, not you.

At Scribe, you have absolute control over your reality. That means you are responsible to yourself and no one else. You have full agency over your life, your feelings, and your actions—including your mistakes.

We celebrate those who take responsibility and see it as a learning experience. By taking responsibility for our mistakes, we cement trust and mutual respect for each other.

“We Have Impeccable Attention to Detail”

We strive for excellence, not perfection. Perfectionism is a state of fear, and fear is a mind-killer.

We believe done is better than perfect, and excellent is the best way to be done.

This seems like a big concept, but it boils down to one very simple action: impeccable attention to detail.

We achieve extraordinary results by focusing on small, consistent, intentional actions and maintaining attention to detail. For this reason, we don’t believe there are any “low-level tasks.”

At Scribe, the way we do the little things is the way we do the big things. Excellence is created by the many thousands of millisecond-length decisions that lead to actions that produce results.

“We Act With Generous Intent”

At Scribe, we believe optimism is both a skill and a superpower.

As a skill, optimism can be practiced, coached, learned, and improved. Our level of optimism is always our choice and within our power to control.

As a superpower, optimism enables us to accomplish anything. Belief is the first step to any accomplishment, and optimism is the precursor to belief.

Our optimism is not blind, however. It does not ignore reality or pretend trade-offs don’t exist. It’s never about plastering fake smiles on our faces and ignoring real pain and suffering.

This is the distinction between positivity—a quality of attitude that can be misused to disguise or hide reality—and optimism.

We can create the lives we want as long as we believe we can and put in the work.

“We Decide What’s Best, Not Who’s Right”

Service boils down to a very simple action: meeting someone’s needs. And it’s impossible to meet someone’s needs if you’re in judgment of that need.

A judgment mindset is rooted in finding out who’s right. We don’t care about that.

We care about deciding what’s best and moving in that direction through a service mindset.

We always focus efforts on the greatest impact possible toward results that drive our mission, as well as the mission of those we seek to serve.

This mindset allows us to define everything we do with one simple question:

“Does this action serve the people we work with and support (including us)?”

“We Ask Questions”

We believe there is a time and place to ask questions: always and everywhere. This belief goes against most corporate cultures where people learn curiosity is disobedience.

You won’t find obedience in Scribe culture. We unconditionally embrace curiosity and prioritize learning over knowing.

Our culture is a non-judgmental environment where any question is encouraged. Nothing is off the table. Our Tribe can freely and openly ask questions without fear of shame, judgment, or malice.

A curious mindset also means that we are open to shifting our beliefs. Tribe members are constantly shifting their positions, regardless of how passionately they once felt, when evidence contradicts it.

Asking questions is imperative to creating the results we need.

Curiosity is the means by which we get things done.

“We Are Honest With Ourselves and Others”

At Scribe, we believe deeply in telling the truth, which begins with telling ourselves the truth. True honestly involves careful examination of ourselves and following the same principles of curiosity, accountability, and ownership that we employ in the rest of our actions.

We decided that the best word to describe this concept is integrity.

Integrity is the foundation of everything we do at Scribe. It’s the binding of this culture bible. The only way to live by each of our core principles is to tell ourselves, and each other, the truth.

When individuals are not committed to internal honesty and express this as not telling their Tribe the truth, they’re not helping themselves or everyone else in the Tribe to take accountability, take action, and drive forward a solution.

Without integrity, we’re all stuck.

“We Bring Our Whole Selves to Work”

Work/Life balance is bullshit. It’s just life.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have healthy boundaries around your role. It means work is an integral part of life, and the idea you can’t share every aspect of who you are with all parts of your life is toxic.

We believe work is a harmonious part of life.

We share our goals and achievements, failures, and celebrations because there is no greater bond than building things together. Relationships are necessary to create results.

We support each other in our personal development as much as our professional development because they’re the same to us.

Being a member of the Tribe means being vulnerable and responsible, which takes courage. Courage to know yourself and to share all of you.

Some people take to this like fish to water. Others need a little time to warm up. And that’s OK. You’ll take that courageous next step when you’re ready, and we’ll be there.

“We Embrace Change”

Change and evolution are inevitable. We take responsibility for the reality we choose to create by accepting the truth of what is and what’s changing.

We lean into the impermanence of life. We embrace change.

This doesn’t mean we forgo the present for the future. We do our best in the moment but always expect to find a better way. There will never be anything permanent about the way we operate.

Even this culture bible has undergone change.

When we embrace change, we can be intentional in guiding the direction of it.

Nothing is ever permanent, and that’s great. That means our potential is limitless.

“We All Rise Together”

We are diametrically opposed to the scarcity mindset of “Everyone out for themselves—I’m getting mine.”

At Scribe, we believe and act with abundance.

Success is not a zero-sum game. Good decisions for the Tribe should not take away from good decisions for ourselves as individuals. If they do, then they’re not good decisions for the Tribe.

In practice, this means Tribe members who ignore their self-care boundaries to do more for the Tribe are actually harming the Tribe. Our culture as a whole is tied to each individual’s actions. Having and holding healthy boundaries helps the Tribe.

“We all rise together” doesn’t mean we don’t highlight, celebrate, or reward individual contributions. Each personal achievement is also an achievement for the entire Tribe, and we celebrate as such.

In other words, we all rise together.

“We Enjoy Our Lives, Our Work, and Each Other”

We take each of these values seriously, but this is the most serious of all: Work should be fun.

What we do is fun. We have an amazing and important mission. We’re surrounded by incredibly talented people. We get to hang out and share our whole selves and help each other every day.

This is something that should be enjoyed!

As a creative, people-driven company, our work is better when we have fun.

Fun builds trust. Play leads to creativity, innovation, and greater motivation. It infuses our work and our results with joy. Fun makes it easy to bring our whole selves to work because there’s no need to separate parts of one’s life when all of it feels life-giving. Play is courageous.

This isn’t fun theater—there aren’t foosball tables everywhere. We actually believe our work is fun.

We only have one life. Work will always be part of it. We expect to enjoy our work just as much as the rest of our lives, and we won’t settle for anything less.