ENGINEERING
Growing the Team
Scaling Team Culture
As the team grows, actively maintain and evolve the company’s culture to foster collaboration, innovation, and alignment with the mission. A strong culture scales trust and engagement across a larger organization.
Why it's Important
Maintains cohesion and morale as the team expands.
Attracts and retains top talent who align with company values.
Encourages open communication and collaboration.
How to Implement
Define and document core values that resonate with the team and mission.
Develop rituals or practices that reinforce the culture, like retrospectives or hackathons.
Recognize and celebrate contributions regularly.
Provide training on communication, feedback, and leadership to all levels of the team.
Use surveys and AI tools to monitor team sentiment and engagement.
Available Workshops
Core Values Alignment Workshop: Engage the team in defining and refining company values.
Feedback Culture Training: Teach team members how to give and receive constructive feedback.
Cultural Onboarding Workshop: Introduce new hires to the company’s mission and values.
Hackathons or Innovation Days: Foster creativity and collaboration across teams.
Recognition Planning Session: Create a framework for acknowledging and rewarding team contributions.
Deliverables
Documented core values and cultural practices.
Training programs for leadership and communication.
Regularly scheduled events or rituals that reinforce culture.
How to Measure
Employee engagement scores from surveys.
Retention rates and satisfaction of team members.
Feedback from retrospectives on cultural alignment.
Real-World Examples
Zappos
Emphasized its core values in hiring, onboarding, and daily work.
Netflix
Maintained a culture of "freedom and responsibility" as it scaled.
Atlassian
Embedded values like "play as a team" in all team interactions.
Get It Right
Be intentional about documenting and communicating values.
Involve the team in shaping cultural practices.
Regularly review and adapt culture to fit a growing organization.
Foster psychological safety to encourage open dialogue.
Recognize and reward behaviors that align with the culture.
Don't Make These Mistakes
Letting culture evolve passively without intentional guidance.
Ignoring feedback about cultural pain points.
Failing to adapt culture for a larger or more diverse team.
Assuming that early-stage culture will scale without changes.
Overloading new hires with cultural expectations without proper onboarding.
Provided courtesy of Tricia Ballad, Tech Leader
Disentangled Tech