11 Jun The Culture Corner | Can You Scale Without Losing Your Culture? Yes, If You do This.
Here in the Culture Corner, Shaara gives her expert advice on real-life workplace culture issues. Have a story worth sharing? Submit your situation with this form for a chance to get a response in the culture corner.
Issue:
My team is growing fast, which is exciting, but also a bit nerve-wracking. One of the things I’ve noticed as we grow quickly is that we’re starting to lose the feel of our original culture. How do I maintain it while scaling?
Growth is thrilling—until your culture starts slipping through the cracks.
If you’re asking how to hold onto your culture while scaling, you’re ahead of the game. Most leaders only notice the shift once it’s already in motion.
Culture isn’t your mission statement—it’s how people behave under pressure, in ambiguity, or when no one’s watching.
To maintain culture at scale, you need to turn values into visible behaviors—ones your leaders model, your systems reinforce, and your people can replicate. And that doesn’t happen by chance. It happens through deliberate development—of your leaders and your teams, creating psychological safety, continuously reinforcing what matters – especially in the day to day.
Key Takeaways for Managers: be Culture Carriers, Not Task Masters
1. Invest in Coaching:
Your managers are culture in motion. Equip them with leadership coaching that builds clarity, consistency, and emotional intelligence—especially when the pace is fast and the stakes are high.
2. Model What Matters:
Don’t just talk values. Be the values—especially in high-stakes moments.
3. Build Feedback Loops:
Regular pulse checks, 1:1s, and open forums help you spot cultural drift before it becomes dysfunctional.
Key Takeaways for Organizations:
1. Clarify the Intangible:
Document your core principles. Not just values, but what they look like in action. Share stories that illustrate these to help people connect more authentically.
2. Onboard with Intention:
Make culture a pillar of your onboarding process—not just an HR module, but a living breathing thing.
3. Design for Scale:
From performance reviews to rituals, every structure should reflect the culture you want to scale.
4. Team Coaching = Culture Alignment at Scale:
High-performing teams don’t just happen. They’re built through intentional alignment, trust, and shared accountability. That’s where team coaching plays a pivotal role.
Key Takeaways for Employees:
1. You Are the Culture:
Culture isn’t “set by leadership”— it’s shaped by everyone. Speak up when things feel off, and consider culture from the get-go when interviewing for a new organization.
2. Ask, Don’t Assume:
As new people join, default to curiosity over judgment. Help each other learn “how we do things here,” without shutting down diverse schools of thought or behavior.
3. Keep the Bar High:
Protect what’s working. If someone undermines your team’s norms, it’s okay to say so respectfully.
Bottom line:
Scaling doesn’t break culture. Neglect does. The smartest companies treat culture as a living system—and invest in leaders and teams who know how to steward it.
That’s all for now in the Culture Corner, but stay tuned for more advice to riveting real-life inquiries! If you have a story or question of your own, I’d love to hear from you (anonymously or not) — just fill out this short form!
Image Credit: The Silverene Group