Arthur Yamamoto
Chief People Officer
Medely
Episode 96
Culture isn't a feeling. It's a meticulously designed framework for success.
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJuly 22, 2025 · 14:19
Thesis
“Culture is not merely a 'feeling' or superficial perks, but a meticulously designed, intentional framework that guides behavior, simplifies decision-making, and drives organizational success and efficiency.”
Show notes
Transforming Company Culture with Arthur Yamamoto: Implementing the Medley Operating SystemIn this episode of the Built by People Podcast, Arthur, Chief People Officer, shares his journey from finance to HR leadership and his experience at Medley. He discusses the challenges faced by Medley due to a lack of unified company culture and how they developed the Medley operating system by narrowing down core values and establishing strategic anchors. Arthur elaborates on the implementation process, the obstacles encountered, and the measurable impacts of the new framework. He emphasizes the importance of intentional culture-building and offers practical advice for aligning teams and improving efficiency.00:00 Introduction to the Built by People Podcast01:01 Meet Arthur: From Finance to HR Leadership01:41 Challenges of Defining Company Culture at Medley02:37 Developing the Medley Operating System04:09 Implementing Core Values and Strategic Anchors08:11 Overcoming Obstacles in Adoption10:33 Measurable Impacts and Decision-Making Shifts14:00 Arthur's Advice to HR Leaders14:54 Conclusion and Farewell
What you'll take away
- 1Culture must be an intentional framework for success, not just social events or abstract feelings, starting with leadership defining what's most important to the business.
- 2Streamline core values to 3-5 non-negotiable principles that are actively practiced and measurable, rather than a long list of aspirational traits.
- 3Implement new cultural frameworks through consistent repetition, visible recognition (e.g., awards, swag), and modeling desired behaviors from top leadership down to individual contributors.
- 4Establish clear 'strategic anchors' (e.g., product innovation, customer-centricity, value-driven) to serve as guiding principles for all decision-making and business case development.
- 5A well-defined operating system can significantly boost employee engagement, improve business efficiency, and enhance the perception of manageable workload, even with reduced headcount.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Culture is more than just parties or happy hours; it's an intentional framework to set people up for success and make decision-making easier, pushing back on the common, superficial understanding of workplace culture.
In Arthur's words
“Eventually found my way to agency recruiting, did that for close to a decade before finding my way out west in tech. And since then, I have been kind of straddling the line between recruiting and people and eventually took on chief people officer responsibilities that I've been doing for the last few years.”
This quote outlines Arthur's career progression, highlighting his journey from finance to a Chief People Officer role, emphasizing his diverse experience in recruiting and people operations.
“Part of that was tied to lack shared language, just understanding of our values. And I think the problems that creates is just the lack of cohesion. You have subcultures that develop within each department, and then that leads to a lack of overall communication.”
This explains the specific challenges a distributed company faces without a clear culture, leading to organizational fragmentation and communication breakdowns.
“The biggest thing was making sure that you drive— when you have a meeting, you need to come out of there with a decision. Meeting for meeting's sake and saying, we'll meet again to talk about it more is really just a waste of time, right?”
This quote emphasizes a critical aspect of purposeful communication, advocating for action-oriented meetings that lead to concrete decisions rather than endless discussions.
“I think our engagement score went up by roughly 150%, just under, probably 146 or 147 if you're doing the exact math. But that's a pretty big jump in our eNPS score.”
This provides a measurable impact of the new operating system, showing a significant increase in employee engagement and eNPS scores after implementation.
“culture is more than just like this feeling or having parties or happy hours, right? It's really setting up an intentional framework to set people up for success and make decision-making easier.”
This is the guest's core thesis, reframing culture from superficial activities to a foundational framework that enables success and efficient decision-making.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Lack of clear company culture in distributed environments leads to subcultures, communication silos, and inefficiencies.
- •Overly numerous or vague core values result in lack of internalization and difficulty in driving desired behaviors.
- •Resistance to adopting new philosophical frameworks in established companies (6+ years old) requires sustained effort and repetition for adoption.
- •Low employee engagement and morale, especially after significant events like macroeconomic downturns or reductions in force, necessitating a 'North Star' for alignment.
- •Inefficient decision-making processes without clear strategic anchors or guiding principles for evaluating business cases.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
When you arrived at Medley, you discovered a lack of company culture
The Need for a Clear Company Culture
Medley developed what it calls the Medley Operating System based on core values
Medley Healthcare's Operating System
Arthur: Anything new philosophically is very hard for people to adopt
The New Company's Core Values
Arthur, what measurable impacts have you seen since establishing your company's operating system
Medley Technology's Operating System
Arthur, what parting advice would you like to share with our community
In the Elevator With Arthur Blank
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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