Culture Summit 2017 Workshop: The Secret to Scaling Great Culture – Focus on Principles and Not Rules Workshop Facilitator: Clynton Taylor, founder of Clynton Taylor Consulting Learn more at http://www.culturesummit.co

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BSIDE© 2017 BSIDE
Culture Summit SF 2017
Clynton Taylor
SCALING CULTURE
BY DESIGN

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GAME TIME

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BS!

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HOW TO PLAY BS!
Objective: Be the first to get rid of all your cards in order from Aces to Kings.
1. Sit in a circle and deal out an entire
deck of cards evenly to each player.
2. Person who arrived to the workshop
first begins by placing Aces in the
middle of the table face down, stating
the number of cards (i.e. two Aces)
even if they had no Aces.
3. Moving clockwise, the second player
places 2's in the center even if they
have no 2's. Then 3's, 4's, and so on.
4. Any player can call “BS" if they think
the person is bluffing. If the player is
bluffing, that placer picks up the stack
of cards in the middle. If they aren't
bluffing, the accuser takes the cards.

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LET’S TRY A DIFFERENT APPROACH
Objective: Be the first to get rid of all your cards in order from Aces to Kings.
• Work collaboratively with one another, not competitively.
• Put aside previous notions of the right way to do things.
• Listen to everyone’s ideas as it’s often the seemingly crazy one that’s most
helpful.
• Use a visual method to scan and select from the whole.
• Encourage people to play to their strengths as not everyone needs to do the
same thing.
• Focus on just good enough as seeking perfection can waste precious time.

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NOTICE ANY DIFFERENCE IN THE
PROCESS AND OUTCOME?

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PRINCIPLES VS. RULES

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RULE
Latin Origin
Regula: a straight stick
Regere: to keep straight, to govern

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PRINCIPLE
Latin Origin
Principium: beginning
Principia: foundations

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RULE: A DESCRIPTION OF WHAT CAN
AND CAN’T BE DONE

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PRINCIPLE: GUIDANCE FOR GETTING
OFF TO A GREAT START

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A TALE OF TWO CO.S

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THE PROBLEM IS “CHATTY CLERKS”

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“We were no longer allowed to
talk with customers as if they
were human beings. We had to
follow a script.”
– Former Blockbuster Clerk

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THEIR WHOLE BUSINESS
MODEL WAS BASED ON
ADHERENCE TO A RULE!

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GOING ROGUE
ON THE JOB

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“The goal is to increase employee
freedom, not decrease it.”
– Reed Hastings

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ALLOW SUPPORT AGENTS
TO BE THEMSELVES

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HAVE AT LEAST ONE MOMENT IN A
PHONE CALL WHERE YOU RELATE TO
A CUSTOMER

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RULES VS. PRINCIPLES
INSTRUCTIONS
CONTROL
BUILT TO AVOID CHANGE
ENFORCEMENT
EVERYONE FOR THEMSELVES
SECRECY
LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR
GUIDELINES
EMPOWERMENT
BUILT TO EMBRACE CHANGE
SUPPORT
ALL IN IT TOGETHER
TRUST
FOCUS ON BEST SCENARIO

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THE WORLD TODAY

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Out of toilet paper? Send a tweet.

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Hong Kong has always been part of China.
9/11 has always been in the textbooks.
Napster has always been legal.
Y2K is a meaningless term.
Netflix has always existed.
The weird sounds from dial-up? What?
THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GEN Z

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IT’S A VUCA WORLD OUT THERE
VOLATILITY
UNCERTAINTY
COMPLEXITY
AMBIGUITY

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IN A CHANGING WORLD,
PRINCIPLES SCALE,
RULES DON’T

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IN A VUCA WORLD WE CAN’T EXPECT
TO KNOW ALL THE ANSWERS.
WE OFTEN DON’T EVEN KNOW THE
RIGHT QUESTIONS

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WE NEED EVERYONE IN THE
ORGANIZATION SWITCHED ON

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BUSINESS AS USUAL JUST
WON’T CUT IT
WE NEED A DIFFERENT KIND OF
ORGANIZATION

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ORG EVOLUTION

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REINVENTING ORGANIZATIONSA GUIDE TO CREATING ORGANIZATIONS INSPIRED BY THE NEXT STAGE OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
“It is a challenge for any
organization to create an
environment where people feel
safe to show up whole.”
– Frederic Laloux

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ORGANIZATIONS MUST CONTINUE TO EVOLVE
IMPULSIVE
Street Gangs
CONFORMIST
Catholic Church
ACHIEVEMENT
Most Companies
PLURALISTIC
Co.s Known for Ideals
EVOLUTIONARY
A Few Pioneering Cos
WHOLE LIVING
ORGANISM
FAMILY
MACHINE
ARMY
WOLF PACK

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TODAY’S ORGS NEED TO BE PRINCIPLES–BASED
IMPULSIVE
Street Gangs
CONFORMIST
Catholic Church
ACHIEVEMENT
Most Companies
PLURALISTIC
Co.s Known for Ideals
EVOLUTIONARY
A Few Pioneering Cos
WHOLE LIVING
ORGANISM
FAMILY
MACHINE
ARMY
WOLF PACK
PRINCIPLES–BASED
RULES–BASED

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CREATING AN EVOLVED CULTURE IS
ONE THING.
HANGING ONTO IT WHEN
YOU SCALE IS ANOTHER

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SO HOW CAN WE SCALE
OUR CULTURE WITHOUT
SCREWING IT UP?

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CULTURE DESIGN

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WE’VE BECOME QUITE GOOD AT
USING DESIGN TOOLS TO CREATE
BETTER CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

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BUT NOT YET AT USING THESE
TOOLS TO DESIGN KICKASS
CULTURES (THAT LAST)

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EMPATHY TECHNOLOGY
STRATEGY
Is it viable?
Is it feasible?
USER-CENTERED DESIGN /
DESIGN THINKING
Is it desirable?

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EMPATHY
Social Sciences

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TECHNOLOGY
Design and Engineering

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STRATEGY
Business Analysis and Planning

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SCALING CONUNDRUM

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STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS
ONE BEFORE…

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THE OPPOSITE OF TOP-DOWN
HIERARCHY ISN’T CHAOS. IT’S
CLEAR PRINCIPLES AND PURPOSE

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IN THE ABSENCE OF PRINCIPLES,
RULES TAKE HOLD

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WHEN YOU UNCONSCIOUSLY
SCALE THE GOOD, YOU ALSO
SCALE THE BAD

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ASK NOT IF YOUR BUSINESS CAN SCALE,
ASK IF YOUR CULTURE CAN SCALE

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KEY STAGES IN STARTUP GROWTH
The Startup J Curve by Howard Love
Sketch courtesy of Book Video Club
5
Employees 1-3
10
25
50
100
500+

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“It’s your job to understand the career path
for at least your first 50 employees. Know it.
Do whatever you can to help them achieve it.
There’s nothing worse in the pre-scale days
than losing a rockstar employee that you
could have kept. It just kills you.”
– Jason Lemkin, VC and former CEO of EchoSign

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STARTUP TIME

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YOU’RE STARTING A COMPANY
A company providing gluten-free food.
There will be winners. But no losers.

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STEP ONE : DEFINE THE CO.
With your team:
1. Choose a product and target customer.
2. Decide how you are going to sell your product (channel).
3. Name your company.

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PURPOSE & VALUES

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“We have certain values that map to
how we think we should act, but how
we do things changes over time.”
– Mark Zuckerberg

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NO AMOUNT OF PERKS WILL
MAKE UP FOR A CULTURE THAT
HAS NO SENSE OF PURPOSE

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“TO ORGANIZE THE WORLD’S
INFORMATION AND MAKE IT
UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE
AND USEFUL”

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“CONNECT PEOPLE TO WHAT'S
IMPORTANT IN THEIR LIVES”

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“INSPIRE AND NURTURE THE
HUMAN SPIRIT”

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“INSPIRE AND IMPLEMENT
SOLUTIONS TO THE
ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS”

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VALUES ARE NOT THE POSTERS
YOU HANG ON THE WALL.
THEY ARE IN WHAT PEOPLE DO
EVERY DAY

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AT THE CORE IS A STRONG PURPOSE AND SET OF VALUES
COMPANY

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STEP TWO : PURPOSE STATEMENT
With your team:
• Create a Purpose Statement.
- Ask why at least three times to get to something really compelling.

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES

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PRINCIPLES OF
DESIGN
BALANCE
EMPHASIS
MOVEMENT
PATTERN
REPETITION
PROPORTION
RHYTHM
VARIETY
UNITY

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GETTY CENTER
ARCHITECT: RICHARD MEIER
LOS ANGELES
REPETITION

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DESIGN PRINCIPLES ARE A GENERAL
RULE OF THUMB FOR SOLVING A
SPECIFIC CHALLENGE

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Leave out key ingredients from prepared foods to give
folks the sense that they’re really cooking.
THE PANCAKE PRINCIPLE

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THERE ARE EIGHT ELEMENTS TO CULTURE
Each must be aligned with the purpose and values for change to stick.
SPACE
RESOURCES
COMMUNICATION
CAPABILITIES
REWARDS
STRUCTURE
PROCESSES
COMPANY
HIRING/EXITING

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SPACE
RESOURCES
COMMUNICATION
CAPABILITIES
REWARDS
STRUCTURE
PROCESSES
COMPANY
HIRING/EXITING
DESIGN PRINCIPLES HELP ALIGN THEM

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SPACE
RESOURCES
COMMUNICATION
CAPABILITIES
REWARDS
STRUCTURE
PROCESSES
COMPANY
HIRING/EXITING
SPACE
The physical environment and everything
that encompasses, both on- and off-site,
such as home office and in cars.
RESOURCES
Capital, head-count, equipment, and
other assets used to do the job.
CAPABILITIES
The individual and collective abilities of the
organization including proprietary processes
and skills, and the training that supports them.
COMMUNICATION
All internal messaging including casual and formal
conversation content and medium, such as video,
speeches, emails, posters, and forms.
STRUCTURE
The decision-making process and
power distribution among employees,
both formal and loose.
PROCESSES
The sequence of activities outlined or
generally understood to get things done
to specification.
HIRING/EXITING
Recruitment, onboarding, termination, exit
interview, and alumnae programs.
REWARDS
Salary, bonuses, benefits, job promotions, and
other perks, both explicit and implied.
THE EIGHT ELEMENTS OF CULTUREEach must be aligned with the purpose and values for change to stick. Design principles help do that.

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THE GOOD, BAD, AND BLAH
1. Good
Explain the “why” and give just enough “how” to guide
without being overly prescriptive.
2. Bad
Are not inline with purpose and values, are rules
masquerading as principles, or are so idealistic they
aren’t reasonable.
3. Blah
Ambiguous statements that provide no direction or worse,
are confusing.

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PRINCIPLES FOR GOOD PRINCIPLES
Make the implicit explicit.
Create ways to remind people of them visually and verbally as often as possible.
Reverse engineer successes.
Investigate the details around why something succeeded to find the underlying reasons.
Prototype with full transparency.
Involve everyone in the process of creating and testing, not just applying, the principles.
Bake the why in.
Make sure the reason for the principle is obvious even to someone just joining the company.
Get executives to repeat then repeat some more.
The CEO and his team can make or break the whole effort so get them reinforcing principles in every interaction.
Align with purpose and values.
Principles should be examples of how to live the purpose and values daily, so make sure they’re also solid.
1
2
3
4
5
6

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GOOD PRINCIPLES BRING VALUES
TO LIFE, REDUCE AMBIGUITY, AND
PROMOTE PROBLEM-SOLVING

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STEP THREE: IDEATION
With your team:
• Brainstorm a bunch of specific ideas for how to apply the Purpose to each
of the Eight Elements of Culture
- Go for quantity before quality
- Everyone participates
- Discuss as you go
- Capture everything on post-its
- If you have trouble, think of the worst possible idea.

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STEP FOUR : DESIGN PRINCIPLES
With your team:
1. Ask why an idea is a great way to live the Purpose statement. That’s a
design principle. Write it down on a post-it note.
- Do this for as many of the Eight Cultural Elements as possible.

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THANK YOU!
CLYNTON TAYLOR
clynton@bsidegroup.co
@clynton