Zappos, Google, and Apple<\/a> know the truth about company culture: you can\u2019t do more than one or two big things at a time. That\u2019s why we weren\u2019t surprised by our expert\u2019s second lesson for scaling culture: you need to focus on one thing at a time and grow buy-in among your team members by moving from one small victory to another.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIntroducing one new idea at a time allowed everyone to experience the benefits,\u201d writes Dada Nabhaniilananda, Head Instructor at The Monk Dude, LLC. \u201cThe group adopted some new ideas so completely that now they think it was their idea!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nFocusing on one or two big changes also has the benefit of limiting the amount of confusion your <\/span>employees experience, leading to better implementation. Or, as another contributor mentioned, \u201cOnce you have a structure to follow for meetings or a roadmap that you\u2019ve communicated effectively, people just \u2018get it\u2019 better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nLesson #3: Scale company culture with the three Cs<\/h2>\n
Our contributing Culture Champs were very clear that the key to achieving successful culture change at scale lies in three important words: clarity, commitment, and communication:<\/span><\/p>\nClarity<\/h3>\n
Successfully scaling company culture requires that you know what you\u2019re changing and why before you bring it to your leadership or employees. If you don\u2019t have complete clarity <\/span>around where you\u2019re going and <\/span>why, your efforts won\u2019t get you very far.<\/span><\/p>\nOne human resources professional shared the steps he took to make sure there was clarity <\/span>around the culture:<\/span><\/p>\nWe created a company playbook so everyone knows who we are, how we work, how we will succeed as a company, our core values, etc.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
We also aligned all core values and job-specific key goals to a new performance management process and created a company interdepartmental operations manual so everyone knows the rules to follow for certain internal procedures.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
This improved clarity and communication across the organization lead to shorter weekly stand-ups for the entire company that were more effective and fun.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt will also help you gain consensus around what\u2019s changing and what\u2019s not. For example, Justyna Krzych, current Change Manager at Zalando who scaled in her previous role as Head of People & Culture at Mindvalley writes <\/span>that, \u201cwe revisited our values to ensure we’re inclusive of all perspectives and realized that our values remain the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nThrough this communication exercise, she discovered something very helpful: \u201cThere were new points to incorporate, but fundamentally, in all our diversity, we were still unified by the values that were there since the beginning. We’re diverse, but fundamentals unite us.”<\/span><\/p>\nCommitment<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s also critical to gain the support of the higher-ups. Without an official pledge from senior leadership, your efforts won\u2019t have the gravitas they need.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cGet commitment from C-level players to support the change,\u201d writes Ron Branch, HR Director at Kellogg. \u201cA lack of buy-in from management and employees can lead to negative surprises.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nNabhaniilananda adds to the importance of commitment: \u201cSpend time, especially with the leaders, explaining the benefits to them of scaling the culture and inviting their input and listening to them,\u201d she writes. \u201cDon’t be too hasty to move forward without getting buy-in from anyone who might feel threatened by growth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nCommunication<\/h3>\n
The final piece of the puzzle in successfully scaling culture is to make communication a priority. Even with a clear mission and committed support from leadership, your employees can\u2019t move forward with your plans if they don\u2019t know what they\u2019re supposed to do.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cListen with an open mind and don’t assume that “everyone knows,\u2019\u201d writes Krzych. \u201cOnce you engage in the conversation, you can really understand and incorporate different perspectives to make your company more than just a workplace.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nPart of that communication process for Nabhaniilananda was introducing a specific process for encouraging communication between veteran employees and new employees:<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cSome long-term employees seemed to be threatened by the idea of our organization growing and engaged in unconscious sabotage to try to prevent that growth,\u201d she writes. \u201cWe introduced a system of mentorship so that the older, more experienced leaders coached the rising younger leaders, got to know and trust them, and felt that their knowledge and experience was appreciated.”<\/span><\/p>\nWe\u2019re so impressed with the extensive knowledge our contributors brought to this discussion on scaling culture. So, we have to ask:<\/span><\/p>\nWhat can you add on these thoughts on scaling culture?<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the first article in this series, \u201cWhat Your Company Culture Needs at 10, 100 and 1,000 Employees,\u201d we took a practical look at the components that need to be in place as your company grows and reaches those milestones. But what does it take to actually make the move from 10 to 100 employees? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[39,57,22],"yoast_head":"\n
What We\u2019ve Learned About Scaling Culture to 100 Employees - Culture Summit<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n