Donovan Mattole
Chief HR Officer
Langan
Episode 194
Beyond the Handbook: How Lived Values Drive Culture & Engage Gen Z
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleMay 13, 2025 · 9:45
Thesis
“Authentic and actively lived company values are the foundation of a positive culture, crucial for engaging a diverse, multi-generational workforce, especially Gen Z, and leaders must also understand their personal values for self-awareness and effective decision-making.”
Show notes
Donovan Mattole studied Middle Eastern studies in Jerusalem before landing in HR leadership at global companies. It's the kind of non-linear career path that tends to produce sharper cultural instincts — and that's exactly what he brings to his work at Langan, where 80% of employees are millennials and Gen Z, and 50% of every new hire cohort comes from Gen Z alone.
Now Chief HR Officer, Donovan's core conviction is that culture has to be lived, not stated. "If it's on the poster and not truly lived, then there's going to be a big disconnect." You can't out-market an inauthentic culture to people who have extensive peer networks and review platforms to compare notes. The organizations that retain Gen Z are the ones where the values show up in actual decisions — in how policies get designed, how leaders respond to conflict, how flexibility gets operationalized rather than vaguely promised.
His approach to the multigenerational challenge is grounded and honest: most senior leaders at Langan are boomers or Gen X. Most employees are not. Rather than forcing the younger generation to adapt upward, Donovan's team has built deliberate dialogue mechanisms — conversations where both groups can surface their assumptions about work ethic, work-life balance, and purpose without escalating into resentment. His parting exercise is something any leader can do today: take an inventory of your personal values, write them down, and notice where they conflict with your organization's stated values. That gap is where leadership frustration lives — and naming it is the beginning of resolving it.
- Values as lived experience, not marketing — why authenticity is the only culture strategy that works with a Gen Z majority workforce
- 50% Gen Z hiring at Langan — what that demographic reality requires from HR policy, leadership style, and communication design
- Flexibility and agency as Gen Z non-negotiables — how Donovan's team has operationalized these beyond talking points
- Multigenerational workforce dialogue — creating structured space for boomers/Gen X and Gen Z to surface assumptions without conflict escalating
- Personal values inventory — the leadership practice of mapping your own values to understand where organizational friction is likely to emerge
- Culture emerges from purpose and mission — why the sequence matters: define who you are before you try to design how people behave
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What you'll take away
- 1Company culture must be genuinely aligned with, and actively driven by, clearly defined core values, not merely stated ones, to ensure authenticity.
- 2Leaders should consistently communicate, discuss, and apply company values in decision-making to ensure they are truly lived and maintained throughout the organization.
- 3To effectively engage and retain a predominantly Gen Z workforce, organizations must understand and cater to their values, such as a desire for purpose, flexibility, and agency in policy-making.
- 4Fostering a cohesive intergenerational workforce requires open dialogue and mutual understanding between older and younger generations, acknowledging and respecting their differing work ethics and work-life balance priorities.
- 5Leaders should undertake an inventory of their personal values to enhance self-awareness, which helps in identifying conflicts and managing responses when personal values are challenged.
What most organizations get wrong
In Donovan's words
“I think it's really important that the company understands who they are, what their purpose is, what their mission is. And then culture really comes out of the values piece of that.”
This quote highlights the fundamental connection between a company's identity and its culture, rooted in values.
“If it's on the poster and not truly lived, then there's gonna be a big disconnect. You can put a lot of marketing in place, but you can't not be authentic with your culture to your employees.”
Donovan emphasizes the critical importance of authenticity in culture, warning against merely performative value statements.
“80% of our employees are millennials and Gen Z. 50% of everyone we hire is Gen Z. And I would say most of our senior leaders are boomers or Gen X, right? So you have these different generations with different values.”
This quote sets up the generational challenge, illustrating the significant demographic shift in Langan's workforce.
“things like flexibility is really big with Gen Z. They want agency in decision-making, and so we try to be deliberate on rolling out policies where they have a decision”
He pinpoints specific characteristics and desires of Gen Z, offering concrete examples of how to adapt policies.
“personal values I think is extremely important. And as a leader, a number of years ago, I did an exercise where I said, Donovan, what are your personal values?”
Donovan shifts focus to the individual leader, advocating for self-awareness through an understanding of personal values.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Companies struggle to translate core values from abstract statements into tangible, lived behaviors that drive authentic company culture, leading to employee cynicism and disconnect.
- •Organizations face challenges in recruiting and retaining a predominantly Gen Z workforce, as this generation prioritizes purpose, flexibility, and agency, which older leadership and traditional policies may not adequately address.
- •There is difficulty in fostering understanding and cohesion between different generations in the workplace (e.g., Gen X/Boomer leaders and Gen Z employees) who often have divergent expectations regarding work ethic, work-life balance, and decision-making.
- •Leaders often lack a clear understanding of their own personal values, which can lead to unconscious conflicts and an inability to effectively navigate challenging situations or make aligned decisions.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
Dave has been in HR for 25 years and loves training and development
How Did You Start Your Career?
Company culture is extremely important to you and you've worked for great companies
What Makes a Positive Company Culture?
Langen has fostered a unique company culture that engages and retains Gen Z workforce
How Langen Recruit and Retain Gen Z Talent
How can organizations integrate Gen Z employees with leadership from older generations
How to Integrate Gen Z and Gen X Employees
Dave: Donovan, what are your personal values? Donovan: Positivity
Donovan On Personal
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
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