They say time is flying when you are having a good time, and I must say I agree.
It has been over two weeks since I joined the latest Talent Crunch event and ever since then I have not been able to take my mind off one topic. Cultural fit, and why we should not be afraid to keep this requirement out in the open if we really want to work in a strategic way.

I was one of the early adopters of the term cultural add and I used it for years. It is important and I still stand by it. But in my view it is not enough unless the fit is also there.

Now that Mercury retrograde is over, and yes, I waited until that passed before writing about a topic that can easily turn into a long comment thread, here we go.

Why cultural fit still matters

There is solid evidence that when people feel aligned with the way an organisation works, they are more engaged and more productive. The Kristof-Brown meta-analysis, which reviewed over 170 studies, found that people who feel at ease with their environment will be more satisfied and potentially perform better. I am saying potentially, because the effect on performance is smaller but still present.
Source: Kristof-Brown, A. L., Zimmerman, R. D., & Johnson, E. C. (2005).

Yet, more recent research from the business school of UC Berkeley shows that culture fit is linked to multiple outcomes, including productivity. While the type of fit that predicts performance is not values alignment – it is the ability to understand and adapt to the organisation’s behavioural norms. In other words, fit matters for productivity, and while it won’t work like magic or on its own, still it matters.
Source: Research from Berkeley Haas conducted by Chatman, Srivastava and Goldberg (2023)

Again: None of this means hiring people who look the same or think in identical ways. It means something much more practical. It means you work in a place where the way you operate day to day does not exhaust you. You feel respected. You feel able to contribute. You feel part of something that moves.

Why cultural add is still essential

Cultural add protects teams from becoming closed systems. It opens the door to ideas that would never appear if everyone agreed on everything. It prevents stagnation and it allows companies to grow into new levels of maturity. I have spent years advocating for it because it matters just as much as the fit.

But here is the thing. If you bring someone in who adds something valuable but does not feel aligned with the values and ways of working around them, the perspective they bring will not land. They will feel exhausted by the constant friction. The team will feel the same. After a while no one benefits.

Diversity and inclusion go far beyond cultural add. Real inclusion means people can show up without masking themselves. Real diversity means you do not only bring people in but create an environment where differences are safe, supported and celebrated. Cultural add is one piece. It is not the whole picture.

A brunch that made everything clear again

And if that was not enough, yesterday I had brunch with a small group of colleagues. I work in a tech company and as I mentioned in a previous article, we hire for competencies and we search for those everywhere we can. So I suddenly found myself surrounded by Product Marketing experts, Engineers, UX Researchers, Product Analysts, RevOps gurus, Leaders, and Product Managers (all women on this occasion). It was a long table filled with people from different countries and very different journeys.

Almost four hours passed and no one wanted it to end. There was laughter. There was bonding. There was food that everyone had prepared with care for everyone’s needs. If you ever want to understand inclusion, look at what happens around a shared table.

What stood out for me was not the skills, even though the room was full of them. It was the shared values. The sense that people were moving in the same direction even if their backgrounds could not be more different. Without that, the day would not have felt the same. And without this foundation that goes beyond our brunch table and into the team itself, I am convinced our growth and the quality of our work would look very different.

Why I am following Hung Lee’s “invitation” to rethink this openly

So yes, this article could have been a short LinkedIn post. But I wanted to explain why I am taking this as a challenge coming from Hung Lee and why I will no longer whisper about this. Cultural add matters. Cultural fit matters. They work together and if either one is missing the team will feel it.

This is not about protecting comfort zones. It is about creating environments where people can do their best work without compromising who they are. It is about hiring people who add to your culture while also being able to thrive inside it.

You can call it strategic. You can call it practical. For me it is simply honest.