Fast growth is the big dream for every startup, but hypergrowth companies face many obstacles, the primary one being how to scale & maintain culture. Jordana Valencia offers some tips:
1st, define culture in terms of clear, observable behaviors.
Employees learn by observing others, not by abstract values, which can mean different things to different people!
So a critical step to scaling culture is to define each of your company’s values or beliefs into 2 or 3 BEHAVIORS that people can actually observe.
Example: ‘“respect” can be defined as being a great listener OR giving equal consideration to different ideas.’
Your goal: a clear list of the top 10-15 observable behaviors that define your culture
The purpose: to ensure everyone is working from the same cultural definitions, and that abstract values can be seen in concrete ways, so employees can more easily learn, measure, and reinforce values.
For the rest, see “Scaling Culture in Fast Growing Companies,” HBR.org 6/11/19.
