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I was fortunate enough to attend SXSWi in Austin for 5 inspiring days with a number of my colleagues. Out of the many engaging panels I attended I really enjoyed the core conversation session: How to Create a Great Company Culture. Sam Decker (BazaarVoice) and Jason Black (Boundless Network) were the presenters and shared their opinions and advice around their own company cultural experiences.

Jason Black at SXSW from Diverge Communications on Vimeo.

It is one thing to preach culture and another to resonate it. I believe that these two are the real deal and truly do take the time to understand and value the importance of their own company culture. One of the first things Black said that rang true is that investors look at spreadsheets, while he looks at the lines around the numbers. The lines are the culture and you need them in place to make the numbers work. I could not agree more with this analogy. Here are a few other key pieces to creating a great company culture that Decker and Black shared with us:

#1: Hire Right-
Decker’s advice is to create what he calls your “5 Stars of Culture.” For his company they are “Passion, Teamwork, Excellence, Openness, Execution.” He recommends that you take those and hire against them by asking the interviewee about their experiences around each one. He suggests having at least 3 executives involved in the hire of each employee since they should have the strongest grasp of the 5 stars. The 5 stars can be applied to your company post hiring as well. Tying quarterly reviews to each of the 5 stars can encourage your employees to continually embrace them. Biggest lesson, hire slowly and fire quickly. If someone in your company is not resonating with your 5 cultural stars get them out of there. If your smartest employee does not meet your cultural requirements then, yes, even they need to go.

Culture is a family system-
Black shared another analogy with regards to the structure of your culture. You can think of your culture as a family. The ‘Parents’ are the investors. You do not have to have them but they got you to where you are. Your ‘Best Friend’ would be your co-founder. They exist with you but it is often a love hate relationship. What is important is that they are aligned with your core values. Your ‘Good Friends’ are your management team. They are an extension of yourself and you need to be able to rely on them and trust that they will run through a wall for you if needs be. They also need to be aligned with your visions and core values. The last piece, and in my opinion the more important piece of the family, are the ‘kids.’ These are your employees and they need both ‘spankings and hugs’ from time to time. Spankings in regard to very candid and open reviews and hugs in the form of praise and rewards. It is very important that the kids are also given a voice and opportunity to contribute to the company.

I think every company could benefit from taking a step back and looking at their company from this viewpoint. Identify those holes (maybe the bratty brother or the disloyal friend) and make an effort to fix it. Black says it best “if you can get that family system right it is a beautiful thing” which brings us back to why the hiring process is so important in the first place.

Inspire your people –
You want to align your tribe. You have to keep your team inspired to your end vision and help them embrace how they are part of that. You need to always tie things back to what Black refers to as your “crusade.” You need to have your employees feel like they are part of something much bigger than just a pay check and as the employer you need to identify those intangibles to inspire.

Decker discussed the importance of celebrating team and company successes. They bang a gong with a new hire, client, or project launches. They also hand out fun awards to recognize hard workers. Black also shared the importance of recognizing time-based events, such as employee anniversaries with the company instead of just performance-based events. Since this is not one of his strong points he found someone in his company who is really on top of tracking dates and they help to remind him of the little things that are just as important and that person helps him to acknowledge each one.

I feel privileged to work for eROI, a company that also recognizes the necessity of a strong culture. Based on the questions and feedback from the crowd this was not the case for everyone attending. My biggest take away from this session is to be conscience about your culture and don’t just live in it. Also -Hire right, eliminate silos and conflicts in your ‘family’, over communicate and be 100% candid, celebrate and inspire, and above all stick to your core values. After all, your company is only as good as the people that work there.