Organic Culture Attraction
Model the workplace you want and let consistent behavior attract talent
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 94%
Perkins distinguishes culture that is written for a company from culture that employees experience through everyday behavior. He recalls a mortgage company hiring consultants to create a culture blueprint that failed because it was not authentic to why people had joined. His alternative begins with founders: how they treat one another, what they prioritize, how they balance urgency with life, and whether employees feel respected and cared for. Repeated conduct creates the environment, and that environment attracts people who value it. The mechanism is signaling and consistency rather than slogans. This does not eliminate the need for policies; it says policies cannot manufacture trust when leaders behave differently. Leaders first model the culture, then use explicit standards to support rather than substitute for it.
Origin
Perkins contrasted a failed consultant-written culture blueprint with Bonzo and his brother's naturally attractive workplace. Extracted from Coffeez for Closers.
Core principles
- 01Culture emerges from repeated behavior
- 02Founder interactions signal the real workplace
- 03Care and respect attract people
- 04Written values cannot rescue contradictory conduct
- 05Urgency and a relaxed atmosphere can coexist
How to run it
- 1
Audit lived behavior
Observe how founders and leaders actually interact under ordinary and stressful conditions. Treat this conduct as the current culture, regardless of written values.
Pro tip Ask employees what behavior they see rewarded.
- 2
Choose the experience
Clarify how people should feel and be treated at work, including expectations around respect, care, innovation, urgency, and balance.
Watch out Do not confuse a family metaphor with unlimited access to employees' time.
- 3
Model it first
Have founders demonstrate the desired behavior with each other before asking employees to adopt it. Make the standard visible in daily decisions.
Pro tip Pay particular attention to disagreements between co-founders.
- 4
Attract through evidence
Let candidates and employees experience the environment rather than selling them an invented blueprint. Use their response as evidence of alignment.
Watch out A pleasant atmosphere does not replace fair compensation or sound management.
- 5
Reinforce consistency
Address actions that contradict the intended environment and preserve the behaviors that attract strong people. Add written standards where they clarify and protect the lived culture.
In the wild
At a mortgage company, Perkins watched an expensive consultancy produce a written culture blueprint. Employees did not adopt it because it did not reflect the authentic reasons loan officers were attracted to the company.
→ The experience convinced him that culture cannot be forced into existence through a document.
Perkins says barbers want to work for his brother because his brother genuinely cares about employees and clients and helps barbers develop into masters.
→ Good people are attracted to an organically caring atmosphere.
Common mistakes
Outsourcing authenticity
A consultancy can document values, but it cannot make employees believe conduct that leaders do not demonstrate.
Ignoring founder interactions
How co-founders treat one another is a visible indicator of what working at the company will feel like.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for founder-led teams whose daily leadership behavior is highly visible.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal as an excuse to leave harmful norms unnamed or avoid explicit employment policies.
From the transcript
“culture can't be forced but culture breing a very a a positive or negative work environment”
“naturally when you're when you build natural interactions and culture you start to attract amazing people”
From the episode
Conversations at Scale ft. Jason Perkins
Jason Perkins