Scaling Company Culture to Scale Performance

One of the greatest challenges to scaling your business is talent.

Finding talent, managing talent, developing and engaging talent, and scaling company culture through your talent.

As your head count multiples quickly, your culture spreads like a wildfire, impacting how well your performance scales.

How do you ensure what makes you unique, what attracts and retains the best talent, promotes collaboration and innovation, inclusion and whatever else defines your company, scales with the team?

And, as Jen Atkins, Founder of Ouai, described on a podcast, how do you scale it without it becoming stiff or formal?

What Do You Want to See?

Make your values verbs! Make the unconscious, conscious. Write the unwritten.

Speak the unspoken.

How do you want employees to engage with each other and with their work?

What “respect”, “ambition”, “innovation”, “curiosity” or “one team” means or looks like in practice will reflect an employee’s own interpretation shaped by their own life experiences, cultural norms, etc.  As teams become more geographically dispersed and diverse this common understanding becomes even more important.

For each of your core values, what are 2-3 behaviors that embody each value. This list of behaviors can be observed, learned, and measured, ultimately.

Is “integrity” = taking ownership and accountability; blameless problem-solving; honesty?

Now, a list of “behaviors” might sound a bit stiff. A code of conduct, a set of policies and procedures, or boring onboarding videos, does not exactly sound like action. 

Maintaining a strong culture means educating new employees, inspiring adherence and ownership, and reminding and reinforcing.  These more formal mechanisms are only one piece of the pie.

You inspire and reinforce through the stories you tell. It’s in the rituals – those Friday lunches, birthday celebrations, or group fitness classes (maybe a little competitive at home Peloton!!).

Reinforce and Recognize

Studies show that highly personalized recognition is a powerful way to reinforce the behaviors and values you want to see.

You may call out positive actions in a one-on-one, a team meeting, an email, or a team slack channel. Maybe you have some custom emojis for different values.

Shivani Siroya, Founder and CEO of Tala, a smartphone lending app for the underserved, mentioned that she gives employees $10,000 for peer bonuses, providing an opportunity for teammates to recognize one another. She has them shout out the winners and hashtag the value being recognized.

Culture Ambassadors

At a Forbes 30 Under 3O Conference, I remember a founder saying that when he is considering hiring someone he thinks ok for this person, I will have 10 more just like them.

He appreciated the fact that culture multiples. I am not saying you hiring the people with the same perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds but their values and beliefs, their way of interacting with others and integrity in how they do their work, their ambition or entrepreneurial spirit – whatever your values are as a company, do align.

Think of this in magnified terms as you enter hypergrowth mode. Your last 100 employees will determine your next 100. The last 100 will be the ones interviewing and helping hire the next 100. They will be showing the new team members the ropes.  

Make sure from the very beginning you are hiring for a culture fit. One study found that 46% of new employees fail in the first 18 months despite 89% having the necessary skills, they just were just not aligned with company culture.

Getting it right and scaling your culture is a long game. It’s a game of telephone. So, get in the game early and make sure everyone knows the rules.

Wondering if your game is tight? Set up a 30-min, no obligation, strategy call.