Building Your Company Culture
Building the culture of your company starts even before day one. Be intentional about the values of your organization. The minute you have two people working together, you develop an organizational culture and identity. If you’re not out in front of that and steering it, one might develop that you may not like.
Suggested Readings
Founders School || Startup CEO || Building Your Company Culture || Impact Guide (PDF).
Blumberg, Matt and Hanny Hindi. “Chapter Nine: Crafting Your Company’s Culture.” Startup CEO: A Field Guide to Scaling up Your Business. Wiley, 2013. 77-86. Print.
Feld, Brad. “Building Long Term Companies.” Feld Thoughts. Blog Post, 27 Mar. 2016.
Huhman, Heather. “Radical Transparency Can Re-Energize a Company’s Culture and Deliver Results” Entrepreneur. Blog Post, 16 April 2014.
“Building a Company that Everyone Loves” HBR Idea Cast. Podcast, 2016. Minutes 0:00-4:11 and 6:52-9:15.
Altman, Sam. “How to Start a Startup.” Podcast. Lecture 11 – Hiring and Culture, Part 2. 28 October 2011. Web. 8 June 2016.
“Your Team’s Culture”- Scaling Your Company with Scale Venture Partners Rory O’Driscoll and Kate Mitchell.
“Three Leadership Adjustments Your Employees Will Thank You For” – Kauffman Founders School blog. April 6, 2016.
Questions for You
What were the reasons I wanted to start this company?
What were the values I wanted this company to have? Are they evident today? If not, how do I instill the missing values in my organization?
How do I collect reflection on the direction and culture of the business?
What processes do I have in place to turn values into our daily culture?
Tools and exercises
Brazen, Teresa. “Designing Culture Workshop.” January 31, 2013.
Hellriegel, Don and John W. Slocum, Jr. “Chapter 15: Cultivating Organizational Culture”. Organizational Behavior, 10th Edition.