Greg Dolan, CEO, Keen Decision Systems.
In today’s startup landscape, culture often gets reduced to surface-level perks: remote work options, wellness stipends and quarterly offsites. While those things have their place, they’re not culture. They’re benefits. And when the pressure’s on, those perks won’t protect your company from internal dysfunction or a surge of people leaving for greener pastures. When everyone is offering the same thing, how can you differentiate yourself?
We believe real culture isn’t what happens on the surface. Rather, it’s the system under the surface. It’s the logic, behaviors, rituals and decisions that persist, especially when things get hard. Culture is how your company responds to tension, change, conflict and opportunity. And it’s either intentional or accidental. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, did your team band together and rally around a set of shared values or did your organization splinter and grow apart?
Most companies don’t consciously design culture. They inherit it, or worse, they drift into it. When we founded Keen in 2010, we decided that culture would not be an afterthought. Instead, it would be the operating system, informing everything we do. Smart organizations make culture a bedrock principle from the start.
Start creating your culture on day one.
We codified our values from day one and tied them to how we hire, promote, give feedback and reward. In addition, we implemented a four-day workweek before it was cool. The goal was not to be trendy, but because we believe performance and rest are partners, not opposites. Startups are notoriously tough on people, so by valuing your employees, you can ensure that they’re able to thrive while also building a strong organization.
Build a performance development system.
Additionally, we built a performance development system rooted in coaching, feedback and quarterly OKRs, instead of annual reviews that no one uses and where feedback is unclear. We separated accountability from fear, clarity from micromanagement and growth from burnout. We didn’t add culture. We architected it and we’re better as an organization because of it.
Make culture part of your infrastructure.
The lie corporate America has told for too long is that culture is soft. Or secondary. Or HR’s job. But we believe that culture is strategy, infrastructure and compounding value. If you want to build something that lasts, culture has to scale with your business model. You can’t scale trust, performance and autonomy if your systems are still managing appearances instead of outcomes.
Experience the rewards of a strong culture.
As a result of our culture focus, we’ve experienced faster onboarding because people know who we are. Additionally, there’s a greater alignment among teams because decisions are values-aligned and we’ve experienced lower churn because the workplace actually works for people. We’ve also created more resilient teams because they’ve been built in truth, not theater.
In a world where startups are pressured to grow at all costs, the companies that build with intention and humanity on a strong cultural spine will likely outperform in the long term. They’ll also attract the best people, retain their customers and scale sustainably. By putting culture at the forefront, you can create an organization that people want to work for. Beyond that, by practicing a culture rooted in self-awareness, trust and individual accountability, people can thrive both personally and professionally.
Founders have an unfair advantage. You don’t have 100 years of dysfunction to undo. You can design your operating system from day one. The question is: will you?
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