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
Katie Burke spent 11.5 years at HubSpot before joining Harvey, an AI-native legal tech company, as CPO. The contrast she walked into couldn't be sharper: HubSpot was a scaled, highly codified culture — transparency was the default, the culture code was famous, and everyone had a shared frame. Harvey is two years old. There's no culture code. There are no traditions to inherit. There's just founders with strong opinions and a team that's doubling constantly.
Her approach to building from scratch is deliberately patient. When the founders asked about values, she pushed back on the assumption that you need exactly five. Start with three authentic ones and add as you grow. One of the values they landed on — "job's not finished" — comes from a Kobe Bryant press conference after a playoff game. She makes it tangible by having leaders share in performance reviews what specifically they're working on to live that value. Not what they've achieved. What they're still working on. The vulnerability models the value.
Her hardest insight is about the tension between the value of decisiveness and the reality of rapid growth: as a company doubles, process becomes necessary, which slows down decisions. The leaders who navigate this best, she says, approach each tension moment with humility — asking first where they might be wrong, or where they're not listening closely enough. And on AI: her advice is to stop providing false certainty ("smoother seas ahead") and start normalizing change instead. The organizations that win won't be the ones that avoided disruption — they'll be the ones that rewarded early experimentation.
- What building culture from scratch at an AI company looks like — and how it differs from inheriting HubSpot's famous culture code
- Why you don't need exactly five values — and how Katie approached Harvey's culture definition process
- The "job's not finished" value: its Kobe Bryant origin and how it's made tangible through leadership vulnerability
- The startup tension between decisiveness and process — and the humility-first approach to navigating it
- Why normalizing change is more effective than offering false certainty during AI workforce transformation
This episode is brought to you by Previ — an employer network that saves employees thousands on the necessities they already pay for, at no cost to the company.
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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