Playbook / Lessons / The system runs: operating cadence
StartupsKeep the intent of your culture when its practices stop scaling
Levine says culture forms in a company's early days and can get in the way of growth, so leaders must steer change by asking why a practice exists and what outcome it was meant to produce. His example is a founding team interviewing every applicant, which does not scale. He suggests empowering key employee ambassadors or having just one founder meet candidates, backed by a scalable interview and onboarding system.
“Preserving the intended outcome should trump the practice.”— Peter Levine, Building a Culture That Works, Apr 2013
Do this
Pick one founder-run practice that no longer scales, write down the outcome it was meant to protect, and name who will carry it instead.