Katie Burke
Chief People Officer
Harvey
Episode 119
AI-Driven World: Building Authentic Culture Requires Courage to Define Values
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJuly 3, 2025 · 8:02
Thesis
“Building an authentic and resilient company culture, particularly in a fast-evolving, AI-driven landscape, demands humility, continuous self-reflection, and the courage to define and embody values that normalize change and foster experimentation rather than fear.”
Show notes
Building and Transforming Company Culture with Katie from HarveyIn this episode of the Built by People Podcast, the host welcomes Katie, the Chief People Officer at Harvey, an AI company focused on legal and professional services. Katie shares her career journey from HubSpot to Harvey and her experiences in shaping company culture. She discusses the strategies she used at HubSpot to foster transparency and alignment, and how she's now defining Harvey's culture from the ground up. Katie highlights key moments and challenges in this process, including balancing decisiveness with necessary process during rapid company growth. She also emphasizes the importance of humility and adaptability in leadership. Katie provides advice on embracing AI in the workforce and preparing teams for change, ending with the importance of normalizing change in a rapidly evolving business environment.00:00 Introduction to the Built by People Podcast00:37 Meet Katie: Career Journey and Current Role01:17 Defining and Building Company Culture04:07 Navigating Cultural Tensions in a Startup05:20 Making Company Values Tangible06:38 Parting Advice on AI and Workforce Transformation07:57 Conclusion and Farewell
What you'll take away
- 1When defining core company values, prioritize authenticity to founders and leadership over speed or adhering to arbitrary numbers (e.g., 5 values); fewer, impactful values are often better.
- 2Leaders should navigate the tension between cultural ideals and growth realities with humility, actively listening to employees and customers, and being open to adjusting their approach.
- 3Make company values tangible by leading through personal example; leaders should share their own areas for improvement to demonstrate values like 'job's not finished.'
- 4In the context of AI's impact on the workforce, HR leaders should encourage experimentation, actively work to reduce fear, and normalize change rather than providing false certainty.
- 5Shift the organizational mindset from fearing AI to embracing it as an opportunity for transformation, rewarding early adoption and continuous learning.
What most organizations get wrong
- •Challenges the conventional idea of needing a specific number (e.g., 5) of company values, advocating for starting with fewer, more authentic values and evolving them over time.
- •Suggests that instead of reassuring employees with false certainty during periods of significant change (like AI transformation), it's more effective and helpful to normalize and prepare them for choppiness.
- •Contends that in moments of tension between culture and growth, the best approach for leaders is to pause, reflect, and consider where they might be wrong or not listening closely enough, rather than just pushing forward.
In Katie's words
“the default setting was to share everything. And that was not just from a culture and HR perspective, that was also from a marketing perspective.”
This highlights HubSpot's unique and foundational commitment to transparency across all functions.
“Is there some magic rule that means you have to have 5? Because most people seem to have 5. And my feedback was, I don't think it should be more than 5... But it's okay if we start with 3 and add as we grow”
This quote challenges conventional wisdom on the number of company values, emphasizing authenticity and flexibility.
“One of our values at Harvey is decisiveness, but as you might imagine, as a company that is doubling in size at any given time, we have to add some level of process and rigor.”
Illustrates the inherent tension between core cultural values and the practical necessities of rapid startup growth and scaling.
“job's not finished is one of my favorite of our values, and the context behind it, because it's a little bit funky, is after a playoff game, Kobe Bryant was asked... And he basically said, job's not finished.”
Explains the unique origin and deep meaning behind a key company value, linking it to a mindset of continuous improvement.
“if you're not using AI, find ways to experiment with AI. Number 2 is reduce fear.”
Provides clear, actionable advice for HR professionals on how to approach the integration of AI into their work.
“what I actually find is helpful is to normalize change... And I think setting that expectation, given the market we're in... is much more realistic than trying to say, oh, smoother seas are ahead.”
Offers a pragmatic and empathetic approach to leading employees through uncertainty, preferring realism over false assurances.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Traditional corporate lack of transparency often leads to misaligned incentives and a defensive posture regarding information sharing.
- •Defining and codifying an authentic company culture from the ground up can be a humbling and challenging experience, requiring time and alignment among founders and leadership.
- •Rapid startup growth creates tension between core values like 'decisiveness' and the increasing need for process and rigor, potentially slowing down operations.
- •Employee fear and resistance to AI adoption due to concerns about job displacement, hindering organizational transformation.
- •The tendency of leaders to provide false certainty during times of market choppiness, which can be less effective than normalizing and embracing change.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
I'm the Chief People Officer at Herbie, a AI company
Top Executives: My Career Journey
Katie says HubSpot started with a well-defined culture
The 'Culture' of HubSpot
Katie is working on defining Harvey's culture from the ground up
Katie on Harpy's Culture
Katie, when was a time you faced a tension between culture and scaling
Have We Reached a Culture Tension?
Katie Harvey says she thinks AI will transform the workforce
Harvey's Final Words
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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