Culture Scaling

“Previous versions of our articulation had great words in it, but a lot of words, right? It almost had like a buffet style in terms of culture, whereas this is like, no, these are the 6 things that matter most.”

“You shouldn't have to say these things out loud. You should through our behaviors really demonstrate these things.”

“And I think through that work, I'm hoping that it outlasts me, you know, so I move on from Autodesk, but the work remains and people still feel moved by it to do their best their life's best work.”

“My answer is that while founders provide the nature, leadership must provide the nurture. So if they're not aligned, it will fail.”

“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.”

“Culture and operations are not two distinct things. The way people feel at work and the way that work gets done are two sides of the same coin.”

“But sometimes in my experience, the most powerful solutions are the simple ones that still find a way to have impact on culture in kind of a profound way.”

“So we proceeded really on building all the operating functions of a larger scale business and codifying things. And from a cultural perspective, codifying how we get work done through our values, put people first, keep i...”

“Culture requires a combination of leadership, values, and daily practices that align with the organization's mission.”

“Generosity first, always... we actually live it in all the programs we create. The way we communicate with each other, our recognition programs are really designed around our values.”

“So I am a big proponent of knowing what the temperature in the room is, how the team is operating. Are they synchronized? Are we focused on the right things? So I spend a lot of my time, often say, as the chief evangelis...”

“So one of the things we do is every week we get all our key leaders together on a 30-minute phone call. And at the end of that phone call, I always ask in with one question: who's got some gratitude for me?”

“operationalizing and scaling organizations is probably one of the most difficult challenges that any company is facing.”

“If we are consistently upholding our expectations of what a great culture is and what G2's culture is, I think over time that strengthens what it means to work here.”

“I love employee benefits because it is as HR as HR gets. It's the, in my opinion, it's the one thing HR has complete control over to build a culture within the organization.”

“This is the first time where a conversation about benefits is turning from a purely financial conversation to a cultural conversation. It's not just the ROI from a financial standpoint. It's the ROI from the culture stan...”

“I hope the legacy is using benefits to build culture... I think having a culture within work is so crucial. And as a benefits broker, I think I am at the point where I can help HR people achieve their goals in culture th...”

“We're not selling coffee cups, we're not selling real estate, we're not selling property of any kind. We're selling business advisors that understand your business, see it to us. And so when we are doing, when we're look...”

“Space shapes behavior, and behavior over time is culture.”

“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...”

“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.”

“Oftentimes values are associated with leadership. And in 2020, we had a transition in our senior leadership of the church. And so while the core values were there, like in most institutions, core values tend to become, I...”

“The values are single words that sometimes are used to dictate a particular behavior. But with the ways of being, this is how we want people to be all of the time, regardless of whether or not they're in the workplace or...”

“It was at the end a balance between, I will say, global consistency and local relevance, which was of course very hard, but that was really the difference to make all this transformation stick in the organization.”

“it was deep, intentional culture work grounded not just in transparency, but accountability.”

“The one thing that we're stewards of that is important is culture. And the way I define culture... is it's kind of how we get stuff done around here.”

“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”

“And our mission includes reversing disease and disability. It's a very profound and highly ambitious mission. So with that, how do we set the culture to make sure that we achieve that in all sorts of ways? Like, how do w...”

“Culture is behavior. And so each culture, each company culture should have a very specific DNA.”

“I often describe it as a drumbeat that over time becomes a symphony. Especially when all the people are aligned, which is a beautiful thing.”

“One that I really love is called Hub Week, and it is one week a quarter where Vertons all over the US can decide to come together in their local communities and create something for that community. And typically a lot of...”

“Culture's led from the top. And so looking at almost taking it as a consulting project, looking at what the CEO is like, how they run a company, what the rules of the game are, and trying to translate that across the com...”

“Culture isn't a one-and-done thing. It's a long-term commitment and plan that has to remain sustainable and scalable.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Believe it or not, I actually started my career fresh out of school in commercial, part of a leadership development program with Dow Chemical. And I quickly realized that in order to win in the marketplace, it actually c...”

“And one of the things that was very important to us in this process was really trying to create our new identity and something that was really inspiring and compelling that we could all hang on to.”

“That is a great question because in this process, we were also very deliberate and very intentional to change the name of the function from HR Human Resources to People. And that was because we feel that people is really...”

“I was actually more interested in how did I make a work environment that was really fulfilling and stimulating, in particular that just had a lot of freedom to it.”

“We talk about an idea of a regenerative culture. And so this is an idea borrowed from agriculture where folks are trying to have an environment where you're not depleting the soil, but you're actually putting things like...”

“In our own words, we called this maintaining the best parts of our culture. So we actually had as part of our transition plan and part of our talent strategy this year, maintaining the best parts of our culture. So putti...”

“Scaling well is really hard. This is really for all of the HR folks who are in a small organization and their organizations are growing, and you're really trying to balance the needs of the short-term while building for...”

“The first responsibility is to take account of saving lives.. And then if things transpire, that doesn't work out, inshallah.”

“I firmly believe in empowering people. To leverage their strengths and accomplish those objectives. And if you have that right culture and the, and the people can, can do that, you end up being very successful in achievi...”

“every organization has a culture. If you haven't implemented a very intentional culture, one exists that may or may not match your intended vision and mission.”

“what I underestimated was particularly with a CEO transition, what that meant in terms of intentional thought-out, planned, sustained cultural change.”

“culture is built by everyone within it. And so, you can't sort of mandate or impose a culture, but what you can do is listen, you can iterate, and you can coalesce around principles of a culture, processes, artifacts tha...”

“as a global organization, one of the things that's very important to us is making sure that culture and our employee offerings resonate in all of the markets that we do business in. We're officially in 11 countries right...”

“If the MVVs and are merely a document that are handed down from top with no engagement or involvement from employees, there's really a risk that they will not connect meaningfully with the team.”

“if leaders do not actively live and embody the MVVs, all the communication in the world will, would not make a difference.”

“I think of culture being defined as how work gets done, and it's measured through collective behavior. So it's what people do, right?”

“I think the most important thing is values are often like these broad brush statements... but what brings values to life in my mind are the underlying behaviors underneath them.”

“the most effective teams and organizations are the ones that prioritize clarity. Clarity of purpose, clarity of expectations, clarity in your values.”

“it was developed by our people for our people. It wasn't something that was developed at the top and pushed down upon the people.”

“We needed to put a lot more fire into how we handle people. The benefit that I've really carried through my journey here is that we have built this business through people. We truly have.”

“culture eats strategy for breakfast.”

“the only secret sauce that any company has is its culture and its people.”

“culture is not just what you tell people it is, but also how it is felt and how it is perceived in terms of the rhythm of a company, how work gets done, how people interact with each other. It's incredibly organic.”

“Bias for action on the healthcare frontline could be very dangerous. We actually wanna bias for conservatism. And so we're going to most likely create that umbrella set of cultural tenets.”

“What I've learned along the way is that total rewards isn't just about numbers. If rewards were just numbers, they would fail. And if they are signals of what we value, then they sure have the propensity to transform. An...”

“I built a cultural statement that was really truly rooted in evidence ideas about people and not just business jargon or catchy phrases.”

“If you grow your culture and you grow your people, you'll grow your business.”

“I don't think HR owns culture. I think everybody does.”

“And the mission of the company was to help people make financial progress. And so the idea of doing layoffs outside of my own distaste for layoffs was just horrendous, right?”

“It's really just important for us to humanize the work... everyone's got their camera on... I'm not hiding behind email or, or a gray screen.”

“The foundational element in the workplace to me is trust. And so I think that's the piece of the culture where you have to start.”

“During my time there, I really became known for growing and scaling organizations across a number of different spaces and across the globe.”

“We are the artists formerly known as human resources, like Prince was. One of the things that I did shortly after joining the organization is I introduced my 3 A's—able, accessible, and accountable—and then changed the n...”

“culture change is incredibly hard, and it cannot really be achieved without the senior leaders in the organization having buy-in.”

“The biggest thing with autonomy is ensuring that people understand the system that they're operating in and that they understand how it interlinks and how it connects. And if they have that level of system understanding...”

“And so a lot of the focus has been on how do we incorporate them into this phrase that I use, our ways of working.”

“I always say head of people and culture is a funny title because no one person is responsible for people and culture at an organization. And I think the biggest thing that you can do, whether you're an HR leader or not.....”

“in my mind, when the leader changes the structure and the people and the rewards to fit them, that's the transformation versus when you look at what's already there, you adapt, you strengthen, you build, that's the renov...”

“We implemented a what and how framework to performance management so that it didn't just matter what you accomplished, but how you modeled our values while doing so mattered just as much.”

“My career journey has been, as I describe it, a bit unorthodox. I spent a good part of my early career, a few different rounds working for founders, helping them scale how to scale a concept, a product, an idea, a servic...”

“My HR team is punching way above its weight. We deliver value with fewer people than you might expect ratio-wise to our workforce, but really scaling our services and our experiences for people.”

“the thing that helped me most was approaching it or thinking about it a little bit more like a marketer. Than a typical HR person. So starting with what is the employee experience that we're trying to create”

“I think the strategies that are most effective is when you bring everyone along with you and have input from your leadership teams into your strategies... letting them have buy-in and input into whatever you're creating.”

“For us, culture is about living those values, behaving in ways that, that exemplify those values with our clients, our employees, everybody.”

“when you think you're hot, you're not.”

“culture is what you tolerate. If you think about that for a second, culture is what you tolerate. You can tolerate high performance and delivery, which is a good thing. You can tolerate the lack of performance and delive...”

“I think for me, and all of the people roles, I talk about the 4 Cs. It's about compliance... building capability... driving change... And then the final one, and probably most importantly, is culture.”

“The tone we give to our company is one of trust by default. It's one of ask anything. It's one of everybody collaborates.”

“The last thing you wanna do is take all the magic that helps you get to the place where you now are a public company and stripping that out because we're public now and we have to do things differently.”

“We really bring failures to the forefront because we want to know what people have learned from those failures and how we can have growth. As we know here, like some of the best ideas and innovation have come out of a fa...”

“AI is not a replacement for your culture. It's an amplifier.”

“One of my favorite things to do is I just shoot a Slack to the market that I'm going to saying, I'm going to be there on Wednesday. First 10 people who want to come to lunch, let's go. So that I can try and understand an...”

“I have a lot of gratitude and value for is that our people feel demonstrably comfortable approaching HR for a number of different concerns, both at the employee and the manager level, which, you know, I think as we know...”

“Your actual job at a hypergrowth company is going to change really quickly, but the culture is going to evolve a lot more slowly. So, don't take the role just for the title...the role itself almost doesn't matter. In 6 m...”

“You must build a community that is very comfortable with disagreeing and challenging each other's ideas to make sure that the best product and the best ideas come to life.”

“one great person equals three good people.”

“it can't be leadership sitting in a room saying, we support ERGs coming together, but it's got to be something that employees feel strongly about because they're going to have to sustain it.”

“most of my career I bought into a pretty common myth that relationships should be one way at work and a different way away from work... what we've really embraced is performance is about deeply connected relationships, a...”

“The biggest piece is meeting anybody in a global atmosphere where they are. And in part, that is identifying their culture. Identifying their laws, their labor laws are not necessarily going to be the same as we have on...”

“I personally believe that the more, from an HR perspective, we encourage leaders to, to allow safety in their environments so that associates are asking questions, so they're thinking out of the box, they're being bold a...”

“I think you have to start with what works. Oftentimes I, or what's already working. Oftentimes I see senior leaders put out values or a mission statement that is aspirational... I think you have to start with what's alre...”

“Culture, creating culture is a balance of heart and science. And so there are key things, and you can find definite models and programs of how to build culture within your organization. Just make sure that you, as cultur...”

“I believe that if everyone, everyone buys into that culture, buys into the values and why we are here and why we do what we do, that makes for a more unified employee culture.”

“I want to provide that space for other leaders where they can grow and have that ability to say, hey, let's celebrate you both personally and professionally. You don't have to be just one side and be totally focused in t...”

“When we went and unionized the minor leaguers about 3 years ago... it was also taking our union size from about 1,300 to 1,500 people all the way up to 5,500-plus people. So that's a gigantic movement in union. So as you...”

“I encompass or package all that into building a culture of no surprises.”

“I walked in the room and there were, like, 200 people there, and it hit me that I was really responsible for bringing so many of them into the company.”

“I always say we're not like Diary of the Wimpy Kid with the cheese touch, right? We're not people to be avoided and feared. We're actually people that we want others to run to because genuinely most of us want to help.”

“I think the biggest outcome has been watching people shift from hustle and scrappiness to wellness at the center of what they do and really taking care of not just themselves, but each other.”

“And that exercise seems simple, But it can have a very powerful and transformative impact on the business.”

“Our motto is really take care of the employee, they're going to take care of the company.”

“Our remote work playbook... To our knowledge, this is the first of its type that's in existence, at least in our industry.”

“So really what I have learned being an international leader is go on site, visit people, understand also their background and culture, and it will help you to engage them in a common project that is the project that you...”

“As you walk through the office, if people are friendly, that's a good sign that people actually like where they're working as well.”

“Code alone doesn't drive change. It's culture.”

“What I think is really needed now is this idea of aspiration to action. And action is actually true behaviors. What are the 5 or 6 things that we can all do as an organization, as, as an individual contributor, as a lead...”

“Know your values. Be really clear about your values... when you know who you are and you know your values, then you are able to figure out where you want to lead the way and where you want to differentiate versus where y...”

“My life has been shaped by a ton of change and just constant movement... my upbringing gave me those experiences of just deep appreciation for human connection and belonging.”

“The soul is like a wild animal. It's tough, it's resilient, it's savvy, self-sufficient, and exceedingly shy. And so if we wanted to show up, we can't go crashing through the woods shouting for the creature to come out....”

“The best and most sustainable workplace relationships are built on trust, transparency, and follow-through always. A genuine interest in the person, in their teams, in their business. When it comes down to it, those soft...”

“If there's too much autonomy and not enough accountability, it's like chaos and poor performance... On the flip side, if there's too much accountability, but employees have no autonomy, it's that command and control kind...”

“The number one core belief at LVMH is that people make the difference. So the organization is really centered around people.”

“Everyone wants to be heard and seen. I always say people come from different parts of the city and then they converge in the workplace, and they're all coming in with their different perspectives, backgrounds, mindsets....”

“Most mergers that are very painful is cultural. It's not the product, it's not the operations that fall apart, it's the cultures that fall apart.”

“Professionally, I like to think of myself as an HR architect. I build cultures, scale teams, and sometimes torn down old ways of thinking to make room for something better.”

“There's never going to be a universally consistent solution in anything because you always have to make accommodation for, you know, diversity and different cultural perspectives.”

“psychological safety could be one of those key phrases that so many organizations during COVID post-COVID have tapped into, but I think it's one that is still under-talked about. It definitely doesn't get as much attenti...”

“To us at Symphonic, treating employees with dignity and respect has always been part of the foundation of our culture.”

“Creating a high-performance culture, one in which people are equipped with the tools, the resources, and the training they need to deliver high performance. I think you have to cultivate that culture first.”

“And then the other thing I've really honed in on is anytime we have an initiative, there are 3 areas we have to focus on. The mindset, the skillset, and the toolset.”

“Have a voice. We have a voice. Really believe, especially in the space of learning, we do a lot of the training, the onboarding, the new hire training, the reinforcement. I fully believe we are culture builders at an org...”

“So if you think about the fitness industry, you know, that's just such a massive and important purpose. You're helping people get healthy... And then when you think about community... And then when it comes to growth, I...”

“You can't have innovation without vulnerability. If you don't assume you are going to fail, you'll not innovate.”

“You can reinvent when people are married to the mission of the organization, not the product. If they're married to the mission, everyone gets excited to nurture reinvention. If not, if they're really centered around the...”

“The biggest thing I think is tying the benefits as much as possible to the company's mission, the culture, their ESG and impact initiatives, because that's where you're going to create the most value. You're going to cre...”

“It's one thing to be a US-based person saying I support an international team, but until you like live and work every day in that environment and really understand that, like, the big world picture view outside of Americ...”

“I just found that I was looking for an environment culturally that was more progressive than a law firm is able to offer.”

“Failure is actually a magnificent and fabulous part of the experience, especially if you're supported, especially if you have a space where you have leaders that understand that things don't always go the way they need t...”

“But uniquely, when it comes to HR, the military taught me not to avoid conflict and how to tackle it in a way that is tactful and conducive to a mutual agreement or amicable solution.”

“Currently, we have 5 generations in our workforce, and our workforce is very quickly becoming majority Gen Z. And of the 5 generations, their priorities are very different.”