Building Culture That Scales: A Practical Guide for Founders
Welcome to Part 2 of our mini-series on scaling smart.
In Part 1, we discussed why culture is the backbone of a successful scaling strategy. Today, we're diving deeper, providing a practical blueprint for founders to maintain and strengthen their culture as their company grows.
We’ll look at quick wins, short-term solutions, and long-term strategies to help your startup scale and thrive. Look, we get it—not all of these will be applicable to your business. In fact, you may not agree with many of them, and that's totally fine.
The goal isn't to have you do all of these (which would defeat the purpose of making things easier for you), but to spark meaningful discussions within your leadership team about aligning workplace culture with your growth objectives. And here's one last secret: Many of these solutions don’t cost a single dime, just a geniune committment to bringing these principles to life.
Let's jump right in:
1. Quick Wins for Culture Alignment
Scaling can feel overwhelming, but taking small steps early on can make a big difference. These 9 quick wins are designed to build alignment and maintain cohesion:
Define Core Values with the Team: Hold a session to review or update your core values with team input. When employees help define these values, they feel more ownership and are better aligned.
Implement Rituals for Connection: Use simple practices, like weekly shoutouts or "Friday Wins," to help team members recognize each other's achievements. This boosts morale, fosters belonging, and strengthens relationships, making everyone feel valued and increasing engagement and productivity.
"Culture Code" Workshop: Organize a workshop where team members share their interpretations of the company values. Use these insights to create a “Culture Code” that makes the values more relatable.
Virtual Coffee/Juice Roulette: Use an app or automated tool to pair team members randomly for a 15-minute chat each week. This builds rapport across teams and fosters spontaneous connections, even in remote settings.
Cultural Pulse Checks: Send out a weekly one-question survey (e.g., “Which company value did you see in action this week?”) to get real-time feedback on how culture is resonating and to reinforce the relevance of values.
“Value of the Week” Slack Channel: Use a dedicated Slack channel to highlight one core value each week, inviting employees to share quick stories or give shoutouts when they see the value in action. It’s an easy, low-cost way to keep values top of mind.
15-Minute “Pulse Check” Huddles: Set up a weekly 15-minute team huddle where everyone shares a recent success that aligns with a company value. This reinforces culture while celebrating small wins and can be done over Zoom for remote teams.
Shared Learning Day: Encourage leadership and team members to dedicate one day each month to learning something new that aligns with the company mission, then share their insights in a casual team meeting. This builds a culture of continuous improvement with minimal cost.
Values-Driven “Thank You” Notes: Give each employee a set of physical or digital “thank you” notes to recognize their peers for exemplifying core values. It’s simple, meaningful, and creates a culture of gratitude and recognition without any formal program cost.
2. Short-Term Solutions for Sustainable Growth
In the short term, focus on creating systems that will support the culture as you scale. These 11 solutions keep teams aligned and provide a safety net against the chaos that growth can bring.
Streamline Communication with Digital Tools: As the team expands, open communication can become challenging. Use simple project management tools like Slack or Asana to keep everyone informed and connected without overwhelming them.
Culture “Stay Interviews” with Tenured Employees: Hold regular “stay interviews” with long-term employees to learn what keeps them engaged and what might be changing as the company grows. Their insights can help maintain your culture over time.
Standardize Onboarding with a Culture Focus: Create an onboarding process that highlights your company’s mission and values. Use storytelling and invite early employees to share their experiences, helping new hires feel connected and aligned from the start.
Establish Regular Check-Ins for Team Alignment: Regular one-on-ones and team huddles help ensure clear communication and address any culture-related challenges as they come up.
Set Up Project Pods: Create small, temporary teams for specific projects with members from different departments. This helps employees understand other functions, fostering empathy and breaking down silos.
Create a “Decision-Making Playbook”: Provide clear guidelines for making decisions that reflect the company’s values, enabling employees to act independently while remaining aligned with the culture.
Establish Peer Recognition Programs: Create an informal recognition system where employees can give each other small shoutouts when they see someone embodying the company’s values. Platforms like Slack make it easy to implement a “kudos” channel for these recognitions.
Monthly “Ask Me Anything” (AMA) Sessions with Leadership: Host monthly sessions where founders or team leaders answer questions about values, mission, and vision. AMAs foster transparency and alignment and require only a small time commitment.
“Culture Crafters” Rotation: Rotate a “Culture Crafter” role each month among team members who take turns organizing small, low-cost events like virtual trivia or themed days that embody company values. This keeps culture-building fresh and spreads responsibility.
Low-Cost Digital Library: Create a shared Google Drive or Slack channel with resources (articles, podcasts, videos) on topics like innovation, teamwork, or customer-centricity for employees to access anytime.
Monthly Recognition Email: Send a monthly email celebrating employees who embody core values. Encourage team nominations to keep it fresh and promote a culture of recognition without needing a big budget.
3. Long-Term Strategies for a Resilient Culture
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Scaling isn’t just about getting bigger—it’s about getting stronger. These 10 long-term strategies will support your team’s well-being and ensure that your culture remains resilient as you grow:
Cultivate Leaders Who Embody the Culture: Foster leaders who exemplify your company’s values. When managers model these values, they highlight their importance and show that culture is vital to the company’s success.
Build a Feedback-Driven Culture: Encourage regular feedback among teams using tools like anonymous surveys. This helps maintain transparency and quickly address areas for improvement, keeping the culture strong and adaptable.
Invest in Well-being Initiatives: Prevent burnout by incorporating well-being initiatives into your company culture. Provide flexible work hours, mental health support, and policies that encourage a healthy work-life balance. This shows a commitment to your team's health and happiness, benefiting your company in the long run.
Annual Culture Refresh Retreat: Organize an offsite (or virtual) retreat to reflect on the year’s successes and challenges. Have teams discuss how values guided decisions, and brainstorm how to adapt the culture for the next phase of growth.
Launch a Continuous Learning Platform: Invest in an internal platform that offers courses, workshops, and resources tied to both technical skills and cultural competencies, reinforcing that growth isn’t just operational but personal and cultural. The key here is to make sure that the platform is updated regulary and applicable to current workplace challenges.
Develop a Future-of-Work Task Force: Establish a small, cross-departmental team responsible for keeping the company updated on trends in workplace culture, well-being, and leadership. This group can bring innovative ideas forward, ensuring your culture evolves with the changing work landscape.
Quarterly Culture Reflection Survey: Use a free or low-cost survey tool to conduct quarterly culture surveys with a few targeted questions. Use this feedback to make incremental changes, and share results transparently to show employees their voices are heard.
Founders’ “Culture Vision” Podcast: Record a casual monthly audio or video message from the founder(s) discussing the culture vision and sharing personal stories or reflections. This humanizes leadership, reinforces values, and is easy to record and share.
Mentorship Circles for Skills Development: Pair employees in mentorship circles based on skills they want to develop. This promotes a learning culture and cross-functional relationships without needing a formal mentorship program.
“Innovation Challenge” Days: Host quarterly “innovation challenge” days where teams work on small projects that align with company goals. Encourage creative solutions, award symbolic prizes, and share results. This instills a culture of innovation without requiring extra resources.
Why Culture Should Be at the Core of Your Scaling Strategy
When scaling, it’s tempting to prioritize growth at any cost, but overlooking culture can be a costly mistake. By putting culture at the center of your strategy, you can ensure that growth doesn’t dilute what makes your company unique. A strong culture isn’t just a “nice-to-have”—it’s the foundation that will enable you to attract top talent, maintain agility, and build a resilient organization capable of adapting to whatever the future holds.
Questions to consider:
How do your current culture-building initiatives scale with headcount? Which practices will break at 50, 100, or 500 employees?
What measurable indicators show that your company's culture is actually driving business outcomes, not just creating a nice workplace?
In your last three critical hires or promotions, how did you evaluate their cultural impact alongside their technical capabilities?
Article was written by John-Miguel Mitchell who is the Founder and Lead Consultant at Ekipo LLC. If you’d like to learn more about how to design and build out the ideal workplace culture for your business, email him at jmitchell@joinekipo.com.
