Heather Krentler
Chief People Officer
Thomas Cuisine
Episode 77
Your Company's Culture Won't Build Itself: Leaders Must Intentionally Engineer It.
Current chapter: Heather is a Gallup Strengths Coach who started out in advertising
Built By PeopleAugust 13, 2025 · 8:21
Thesis
“A lasting and scalable company culture, especially in fast-growing or dispersed organizations, requires intentional planning, embedding values into every aspect of the business, and empowering values-aligned leadership, rather than expecting it to perpetuate organically.”
Show notes
Heather Krentler came to HR from advertising — which turns out to be excellent preparation. Both fields require you to understand what people actually want rather than what they say they want, to build messages that change behavior rather than just inform it, and to work in environments where the gap between intention and outcome is constantly visible. As CPO at Thomas Cuisine, she's applied that lens to one of the harder problems in organizational management: keeping culture coherent and intentional as a company grows and disperses.
Her core argument about culture is deceptively simple: founders provide the nature, but leadership must provide the nurture. The values that define a company when it's small and founder-led don't perpetuate themselves through growth. They require active, deliberate cultivation — leaders who are hired specifically for their alignment with those values, onboarding programs that embed the culture from day one, and annual gatherings that reconnect a dispersed workforce to the mission they signed up for. Without that infrastructure, cultural dilution is inevitable, not a risk.
She's also done something unusual in change management: she treats naysayers as a gift. The people who are most resistant to a change are often the ones who can see its weaknesses most clearly, and their objections — when engaged rather than dismissed — tend to make the final implementation stronger. It's a counterintuitive discipline, and one that's changed how she approaches every significant organizational transition.
- "Founders provide the nature; leadership provides the nurture" — the framework for understanding why culture requires active cultivation, not passive preservation
- Values-based hiring as a cultural defense — why leadership alignment with founder values is the most important cultural investment a growing company makes
- Immersive manager onboarding — the specific program elements (home visits, peer networks, hands-on guidance) that drive retention and cultural consistency in dispersed teams
- Annual meetings as cultural reinforcement — how Heather uses in-person gatherings to rebuild the connection that geography erodes
- Naysayers as a strategic resource — treating early resistance as intelligence that strengthens change initiatives before rollout
- Strength-based leadership development — what Heather learned from becoming a Gallup Strengths Coach and how it deepened her impact
Previ is an employer network that provides private pricing for employees — saving the average employee $2,200/year on essentials like cell phone service and insurance, at no cost to the company.
What you'll take away
- 1Align leadership with founder's vision: While founders provide the initial 'nature' of a culture, leadership must actively 'nurture' it, ensuring alignment with core values, especially during rapid growth.
- 2Implement intentional onboarding for managers: Immersive programs, including home office visits, peer networking, and hands-on guidance, significantly boost manager retention and cultural consistency in dispersed organizations.
- 3Embrace naysayers in change management: Treat initial resistance and criticism as a 'gift' during organizational change, using stakeholder questions and concerns to enrich decision-making and communication strategies.
- 4Foster direct leadership connection with the frontline: Regular 'roadshows' where leadership directly engages with hourly team members are invaluable for pressure-testing assumptions and building genuine connection and cultural understanding.
- 5Recognize culture is not self-scaling: A lasting culture never scales automatically; it demands intentional planning, continuous evaluation, and accountable leaders who actively embody and reinforce its principles.
What most organizations get wrong
- •You can teach skills, but teaching values is significantly harder and definitely not where I'd advise your time and money be spent. (Focuses on hiring for values, rather than training)
- •Remember that your naysayers are a gift. Listen to them, ask questions, allow them to enrich your decision-making and your approach. (Advocates embracing resistance in change management)
- •Whatever you do, don't just trust your assumptions or what you heard worked for another company. (Warns against blindly adopting external best practices without internal validation)
In Heather's words
“That pivot taught me the power of understanding your unique wiring and aligning it with your work. It also laid the foundation for me to become a Gallup Strengths Coach, which has greatly deepened the impact I've had on the organizations I've served.”
Highlights the importance of self-awareness and aligning personal strengths with career for greater impact.
“My answer is that while founders provide the nature, leadership must provide the nurture. So if they're not aligned, it will fail.”
This quote encapsulates her core argument about leadership's crucial role in perpetuating culture beyond the founder.
“You can teach skills, but teaching values is significantly harder and definitely not where I'd advise your time and money be spent.”
Offers a direct and contrarian view on prioritizing values in hiring over attempting to instill them later.
“We see greater retention with our managers, and I believe that these programs are a huge part of that engagement and retention factor.”
Directly links immersive onboarding and development programs to measurable business outcomes like manager retention.
“Remember that your naysayers are a gift. That has been a big lesson for me. Listen to them, ask questions, allow them to enrich your decision-making and your approach.”
Provides a powerful perspective on leveraging internal resistance to improve the effectiveness of organizational change.
“Never assume your culture will scale on its own, even with consistent leadership. A lasting culture requires intentional planning, ongoing evaluation, and leaders who are accountable for actively bringing it to life.”
Her parting advice, summarizing the proactive and deliberate effort required for successful culture management.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Cultural Dilution during Growth: Fast-growing founder-led companies risk their original culture becoming diluted if not intentionally nurtured by leadership.
- •Disconnect between Leadership and Frontline: In dispersed organizations, direct connections between leadership and frontline team members diminish, leading to filtered information and potential missteps in decision-making.
- •Manager Retention Challenges: Ensuring managers, especially in remote roles, feel supported, connected, and engaged to prevent turnover.
- •Resistance to Organizational Change: Operators often resist new processes or changes, making buy-in difficult and risking failed implementations.
- •Ineffective Values Communication: Values exist but aren't consistently embedded or understood across a large, distributed workforce, leading to a disconnect between stated values and daily operations.
In this episode
Heather is a Gallup Strengths Coach who started out in advertising
Born by People: Heather on the Built by People Podcast
Thomas Cuisine has grown significantly over the past 40 years
Thomas Cuisine: How to Scale Culture
Heather says immersive onboarding programs help maintain cultural consistency across 100+ locations
How Real Foods Onboarding Program Supports New Managers
Heather: Start every change with a root cause analysis and follow it up
How To Get Stakeholder Buy-in for a Change
Heather organized roadshows to connect leadership with hourly team members
Employee Experience Roadshows
Never assume your culture will scale on its own with consistent leadership
A Taste of the Built by People
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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