The Culture Code

When a company experiences rapid growth, growing pains are inevitable. Original employees find themselves in a sea of new employees. The way things are done shifts. The culture evolves.So what can a company do to ease its growing pains? One of the more creative approaches I’ve heard is at Neo4j where employees adopted a company-wide mentality of radical candor.Two key  highlights from this interview with Kristin Thornby the CPO of Neo4j, include: 1. 3 key ways Kristin and her team decode culture at Neo4j- Practicing radical candor in weekly conversations- Team feedback sessions- Town halls that begin with the caveat "Anything you ask, we will answer." 2. The 3 key characteristics that create a culture of "Sweet Swedish roots and Silicon Valley growth." - a strong sense of alignment around building- being highly people focused- giving leeway to take risksHope you enjoy... 

A tricky challenge many companies face as they grow: The high-touch, personalized approach to culture is tough to scale.At Seismic, the company’s founder-led culture revolves around caring.So much so that many employees were former customers.Despite rapid growth to 1600 employees, Seismic has managed to hold onto its culture of caring.CPO Linda Ho has played a big role in that success.Linda covered all things people & culture at Seismic, but here are a few highlights:1. What a CEO-led culture of caring looks like in action.The CEO handwrites anniversary cards to every employee with tidbits about his interactions with them.2. 2 creative initiatives to scale and sustain a culture of caring.-Push pins: When Seismic closes a deal, they celebrate everyone who came together to make it happen.-Why we win Slack channel: Employees share big wins and tag company values that contributed to their win.3. How going hybrid helped bring in top talentLinda: We saw greater access to talent pools that we didn’t have access to before, and we saw improvement in our DEI, specifically in representation.As always, the beauty is in the details, so press play and enjoy!

It’s not so often you get to hear from a CPO who was a company’s first hire.CPO at Denali Therapeutics, Cindy Dunkle, is exactly that.She’s done a stunning job of scaling culture on the company’s growth path to 450 employees.The biotech company injects science into its culture at every turn.Here are a few highlights from our conversation:1. Culture as the result of “inputs” and “outputs.”Dunkle: What are those things to add, such as connection, opportunity, and growth? What are those things to subtract, like silos and uncertainty? What multiplies?2. A patient connection team helps the company engage directly with patients.Dunkle: This is about how we invest in our communities, disease awareness, and raising money. It’s also about sharing our own experiences with being impacted by the diseases we're treating.3. Flattened hierarchy + learning on the floor.Denali’s CEO Ryan Watts was a successful early-career neurobiologist. Stemming from his roots, the company established an environment where new ideas from anyone at any level were energizing.Dunkle: Even our physical space is an open space concept. There are no offices regardless of level because learning takes place on the floor via informal exposure.---The originality at Denali is off the charts! 📈 And the science runs deep. 👩‍🔬Enjoy.

Josh Bersin wrote in the Harvard Business Review that “the single main driver of business impact is the strength of an organization’s learning culture.”But how do you go about creating one?At Alto Pharmacy, the initiatives to scale a culture of learning are uniquely creative, action-oriented, and practical. To learn more about Alto’s approach, I met with CPO Shannon Wilson.We covered:1. Two key cultural initiatives at AltoVoice of the employee: employees submit questions, concerns, and feedback on a board. Leadership responds publicly.Alto Spotlight: A system to ensure leaders communicate consistently with senior leaders.2. How Shannon and her team leverage “teaching at scale” to create a culture of learning.This is done in two main ways:They conduct limited amounts of formal training and focus mainly on follow-up interventions and on-the-job practice.Finding teachable moments (mistakes and challenges) and diving deep into them.Shannon was full of creative ideas and approaches to impact culture at scale. Hope you enjoy.

Research shows that recognition is the eighth-strongest driver of employee engagement. But how can a company go about fostering recognition at scale without being disingenuous or forced?One great example is at the company Collectors, where recognition ranges from Slack shout-outs to custom-made, collectible-style cards of the person being awarded.To learn about how Collectors put together such a unique culture of recognition, I met with their VP of Talent and Organizational Development, Dr. Eliza Wicher.In this interview, we covered: 1. What it looks and feels like to have a "40-year start-up culture"Company culture revolves around:deep passion for the collectible itemstrade nights and game nightsemployees who are best friends and family members2. Why she honed in on recognition and howHer team's engagement survey unveiled the needThen they rolled out a system of authentic, relevant awards to make recognition flow with the culture (i.e. collectible cards made of the person being recognized)3. How behavior-based leadership development sets leaders up for successWicher honed in on six critical behaviors for managersNow, she's rolling out modular training for each behaviorLong-term, she plans to make manager effectiveness a part of performance evaluation. We covered all of the above in greater detail, and much more. Enjoy! 

NEW data from McKinsey: 90% of CEOs don’t believe their people development efforts have a clear business impact. More often than not, this is because learning professionals aren’t using, measuring, or communicating their impact in a useful way.One of the simplest and most effective examples of data-informed people development that I’ve seen recently is at HackerOne, where they follow a simple, data-informed process:Measure engagement.Determine the largest leverage point (pain point in this case).Train for that leverage point.Remeasure (+14 improvement).To learn more about this HackerOne and their overall approach to company culture, I met with Chief People Officer (CPO) of HackerOne, Dawn Mitchell.In addition to the above, we covered: 1. how Dawn and her team solved for low trust in their senior leadership team. - they unearthed the problem through their employee engagement survey- they rolled out an org health and communication program- results: 14-point increase in trust2. 3 initiatives Dawn and her team employ to foster cultureThis includes "Hack Week" where employees set their work aside and focus on something they believe will push the needle the most. 3. why Dawn collapsed HR business partners and L&D into one role It creates a virtuous cycle: Most HR business partner questions had been L&D-related, and the context as an HR business partner improves L&D's approach. We covered all of the above and much more! Give it a listen.  

This episode is a LEAKED event from our private, members-only Community of Practice for Leadership Development Professionals. The agenda for the October session of the Leadership Development Community of Practice included:1. Author: Mike West on his book People Analytics For Dummies2. Case: How Penske Paves The Way To A Legendary Culture Of Learning with the VP of Talent Development Laura Heaton.

Considering that 70% of employee engagement can be traced to an employee’s relationship with their manager, you might expect companies to get intentional about leadership development and company culture early on.BUT, most companies don’t do so until it’s nearly too late.Despite having just 115 employees, Syapse boasts more robust and effective leadership development offerings and cultural initiatives than many large organizations.It’s an enviable model for companies that aim to launch leadership development efforts early on.To learn more, I met with Chief People Officer (CPO) of Syapse, Michelle Kemling.Michelle broke down:1. Her robust approach to leadership development.It includes:A months-long leadership development program.Coaching for ALL leadersMentoringInformal opportunities to lead groupsA “neighborhoods” program where employees lead regions2. 3 cultural initiatives she uses to foster and sustain culture“Innovation staycations” - Employees devote time on the job to innovation.“Neighborhoods” - Regional groups of remote employees.“Recharge days” - Employees all get off at the same time two Fridays every month.3. How they decode culture at SyapseThe key is a blend of:Q&A with upvotesCEO meetingsEngagement surveys that they take clear and quick action onWe covered all of the above and much more in the full interview! Hope you enjoy.By the way, curious to hear what you all think of this leadership development program. How does it stack up to yours?

One of the most effective strategies to scale and sustain culture through a time of rapid growth is to establish a values system.But, it’s a strategy to approach with caution.A weak values system is arguably worse than no system at all.To dive deep into an example of a rapid-growth startup that built out a highly effective valuessystem, I met with the Chief People Officer of National Resilience, Mara Strandlund.Mara broke down her and her company’s approach at National Resilience:1. The 7 “Phenotypes” of Resilience CultureResilience refers to their values as “Phenotypes.” Examples include: velocity, service orientation, and the builder mentality.2. A “Freedom in a Framework” Approach to Performance ReviewsEmployees and managers co-own the performance process within a provided framework of prompts.3. Leadership Development that Focuses on On-the-Job ApplicationThe approach is simple: 30-minute sessions with no more than 3 takeaways followed by:1-hour manager sessions to talk and learn from each otherTools to apply learning on the jobeLearningTune in for more detail on all of the above and much more! 

Discover how Twilio, a 15-year-old tech giant, has managed to uphold its founder-led culture through its years of expansion. If the startup spark is what you seek to retain or reignite in your organization, this episode is your blueprint!Christy Lake, the Chief People Officer at Twilio, takes us behind the scenes, revealing how Twilio has doubled in size without losing its entrepreneurial spirit, thanks in no small part to her insightful leadership.Key Topics Covered:Founder-Led Culture at Scale:- Understand the unique vibe of a growing, aging startup that retains its founder-led culture.- Unpack the four core values and how the company came up with them: We're builders, We're owners, We're curious, We're positrons.The “Positrons” Value:- The origin and impact of Twilio’s unique value of being “positrons.”Track Jacket Program:- The symbolism of the coveted Twilio track jacket and a deep dive into this unique ritual that reinforces Twilio’s developer-centric origins.Leadership Development:- The systematic approach to measuring and enhancing manager effectiveness.- Scaling coaching and learning to boost leadership quality.