Operating Culture, Values and Behaviours

“Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times. It’s living the core values when you hire; when you write an email; when you are working on a project; when you are walking in the hall.” 

- Brian Chesky, CEO, Airbnb (4)

We can’t talk about our company’s heartbeat without talking about culture. Culture is the lived behaviour of the organisation, the intangible result of everything we do, from how we celebrate wins, to how we manage setbacks, to how we switch off at the end of the day. 

In chasing our company’s heartbeat, we encounter culture at every turn, it’s present in every cell of the company’s makeup. Simply put, there is no company heartbeat unless our culture is working hard and working for us.

In every startup and scaleup, the culture is shaped by the founders. As a member of the founding team, you’re a role model for the behaviours and principles that will become default. The best founders are incredibly thoughtful and intentional about culture early on. They see this as a Day One activity, and rightly so. 

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Questions to Reflect On:

Gather your team to reflect on these questions - and be honest with your answers!

• What kind of company do we want to be? 
• What do we stand for?
• What kind of people and behaviours do we want to attract?
• Are there certain types of behaviours we just won’t tolerate? 
• How important is diversity early on, and why do we think this?
• What is our ambition for growth, and how will that impact our culture?

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When we begin to answer these questions, we start documenting our behaviours, principles and values. We become more aware of what good looks like but equally what is not acceptable. We have an established way to communicate this, starting with the founders, other leaders and all team members as we scale.

Doing the above exercise early as a founding team ensures that your early hires have a strong foundation and a common understanding on which to build. The founders' influence on the culture diminishes as you add new hires, reinforcing the importance of this exercise.

Leadership teams that are clear on what they stand for tend to have a strong mission statement and a vision to match. But these are no good if they’re written on a piece of paper, pinned to a notice board and forgotten about. 

Founders must work hard to operationalise their culture, weaving values and behaviours into every aspect of hiring, promoting, rewarding and developing their people. 

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Things to Consider when Operationalising Culture 

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Mission and Vision

Your company’s core values, mission and vision should be clear and memorable, so use simple language and ask for feedback on them regularly. 

It’s important that your vision and mission statements are communicated at every All Hands meeting, so don’t leave this to chance - add them to your rolling agenda or make them a permanent slide in your presentation.

Look for ways to weave your core values into your everyday activities. Pin them to a channel in Slack. Hang framed versions in a physical office. Get creative.

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Praise and Recognition

Your people's great deeds should be celebrated publicly, and always tied to the core values these great things instil. 

Referencing core values when giving positive feedback is easier than it sounds - “Your work on this project exemplified our core values of simplicity and ingenuity.”

We talk about this more in Chapter 5. 

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Documenting Culture

Defining culture is challenging, but a culture playbook or culture statement can really help crystallise it for people.

Document your core principles and behaviour early on, so you have something to draw on when drafting your culture statement or playbook. 

Ensure these principles form the basis for onboarding and training every new hire. 

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Bringing Culture to Life

As founders and leaders, we need to walk the walk on values and behaviours, as well as talk the talk. 

Consider the things that are important to you and do them consistently.

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Remember, for these ideas to take effect, they must be lived and demonstrated by the founders and leadership team. Consistent, everyday actions reinforce what we stand for as a business. As Brian Chesky said, “Culture is a thousand things, a thousand times.”

We need a framework for thinking about culture, thinking about people and thinking about new talent. And it’s never too early to start.

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Action Points:

Immediate Action Points: 

• Reflect on the questions in this chapter with your team. 
• Review your vision and mission statements to ensure they’re clear, memorable and in line with company values. 

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30-Day Action Points:

• Make a plan for how you’ll communicate your vision and mission to your people. Aim for 2-3 methods at least.
• Create a shared document where you can note the principles and behaviours that define you as a company.
• Establish a channel for sharing praise and celebrating small wins. Frankli’s Feedback tool is perfect for this.

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90-Day Action Points:

• Use the information in your shared document to create a culture statement or playbook. 
• Share the statement or playbook with employees at All Hands and ask for feedback.
• Support managers to hold a dedicated session on the playbook with any new hires.

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