To foster transparency and continuous improvement, founder Mitchell Green conducts one-on-one meetings with every employee each year. He asks what they love/hate, what they would change, and what would make their job easier, using the feedback to enact real change.

Address cultural issues by applying product management principles. Use surveys to gather data and identify pain points, then empower the team to propose solutions. Test these ideas like product features and iterate based on what works, making culture-building a shared, active process.

Create a public document detailing your company's operating principles—from Slack usage to coding standards. This "operating system" makes cultural norms explicit, prevents recurring debates, and allows potential hires to self-select based on alignment, saving time and reducing friction as you scale.

Contrary to common belief, WCM's culture became stronger as it grew to 100 employees. This was achieved by having leaders and a Chief Culture Officer who constantly model key behaviors. This creates a self-replicating effect that scales more effectively than top-down systems or processes.

To make culture tangible, it must be a core component of performance management. Plaid evaluates who gets promoted, raises, or more equity based not only on results but also on their contribution to and enhancement of the company culture.

Culture isn't created by top-down declarations. It emerges from the informal stories employees share with each other before meetings or at lunch. These narratives establish community norms and create "shared wisdom" that dictates behavior far more effectively than any official communication from leadership.

'Culture add' is insufficient if new hires with different perspectives remain siloed. The goal should be 'culture multiply,' fostering intentional interaction and mutual influence between new hires and the existing culture. This creates a dynamic tension that fosters growth, rather than just filling a gap.

Instead of vague values, define culture as a concrete set of "if-then" statements that govern reinforcement (e.g., "IF you are on time, THEN you are respected"). This turns an abstract concept into an operational system that can be explicitly taught, managed, and improved across the organization.

For valuable strategic input, convene a large group of the company's highest performers, regardless of their level or title. Including top individual contributors in vision-setting often yields better insights than a meeting of only top executives.