I’m proud of what we’ve built at InRhythm. The company I founded in 2002 has grown explosively, from small beginnings to an ever-expanding team of expert engineers and practice leads at the forefront of their fields. We’ve been named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing companies in the United States for an incredible six consecutive years. Throughout our company history, I’ve been laser-focused on success, and growing the business has always been top of mind. While this approach sounds intuitive, I realize now that we could have accelerated our growth even further had we taken a “culture-first” approach.
All companies — without fail — have their own culture; whether you actively participate in shaping yours is a matter of choice. It’s a topic of discussion for many business leaders, but talking about it and “walking the walk” are two separate concepts. Speeches and companywide emails about the importance of culture are a dime a dozen; real, substantial, positive cultures are rare. I fell into the same trap: I talked about culture a lot before I realized what an authentic culture actually meant. Your company’s best (and worst) values trickle down into every aspect of business and shape employee behavior. This is where authentic culture makes itself known.
Culture also affects employee retention. Good culture makes employees happier and more productive. Make your employees feel like part of a family and they’re more likely to be invested in their work and the team of people around them. Make your employees feel expendable, or unheard, or disrespected, and your staff will be strangers with one foot out the door, constantly looking for a better offer or more leverage.
We’ve always held learning and growth as our core values, both in the work we do and in our company culture. Many of our engineers have their own passion projects and are on their own journeys of learning the latest technology and building their skills. It’s become apparent over time, however, that it’s very difficult to grow rapidly while also encouraging our engineers to learn. It’s also become apparent that building our culture needed to be a collaborative experience, not top-down edicts that go nowhere. I’ve identified three core principles which, when properly implemented, work to embed the culture you want into your company’s DNA.
Focus on making the highest impact with the greatest urgency. As part of my career, I’ve coached many teams on how to transform their processes. What I often find is an inability to execute projects with the highest sense of urgency. It’s easy to fall into the drudgery of looking busy and ticking through mundane tasks. It’s challenging (and far more rewarding) to focus on things that will immediately make a big splash. This isn’t a call to neglect your smaller responsibilities; rather, by focusing on the big items and making critical changes immediately, you’ll find a lot of needless tasks disappear, and those that remain are much easier to deal with.
Encourage positive, trusting relationships. This is our main focus now. One of the biggest learning experiences of my entire career has been the importance of personal relationships. Running a company and building a positive culture is a group effort, and strong relationships are the best way to drive an authentic culture that people are proud to be a part of. Essential to these relationships is the freedom for people to have an open dialogue, and to speak their minds freely. Trusting people to be stewards of your culture means allowing them to disagree openly and candidly when things aren’t right. Conflict — earnest, well-meaning, respectful conflict — makes teams and companies better, and drives us all forward.
Provide clarity in everything you do.While this could easily be included in the idea of positive, trusting relationships, clarity at all levels of your business is essential to removing the roadblocks to your success. Much of the conflict and pain points I’ve observed in my career and my time as CEO have been rooted in unclear communication or misunderstandings between two or more people. Clarity levels expectations and feeds itself, keeping the people around you honest and open. As a leader, I know there are people at all levels that are eager to learn about and be invested in the company they work for. That’s why we’ve been ramping up our communications through internal newsletters, personal updates, regular dinners, and rolling out programs like Culture Amp and 15Five to keep that dialogue and clarity consistent for all our employees. Driving and starting these conversations — and coming from a position of sincerity — is the hallmark of good leadership.
In every company, people are the greatest asset. One of the pitfalls of business success is losing individual connections to your staff as it grows. If an increase in your bottom line drives less interaction and a loss of cultural identity, a course correction is necessary. InRhythm’s team of consultants is now more than 100 people strong, but I’m still committed to finding the time to make sure they’re all individually appreciated. That’s why a core part of our internal efforts include recognizing individual achievements — in newsletters and on our Slack channels — and keeping everyone up to date on the latest developments at InRhythm so all our employees know they are valued stakeholders in our success.
As we continue on this cultural journey, I know the process won’t be perfect. We are a company that doesn’t have the expansive resources enterprises have, and while I have high expectations, I also want to allow people to be people. Things are going to fall; the important thing is to recognize when things fall and continue to focus on our high-impact projects. I want this company to succeed; 100% of my life is invested in InRhythm doing well. What I’ve learned, however, is that the shape of that success can change, and doesn’t always need to be boiled down to a better bottom line. Whatever form our successes take, I’m confident in our teams, and I know the end result will be fantastic.
Conventional wisdom in business teaches us that successful companies are those addressing a critical market need. Innovation often comes from finding a previously unaddressed market and meeting customers where they are. As an entrepreneur and business owner, I find the reality is a little more complicated and organic. I started InRhythm not with the academic precision of addressing the need for Agile transformations, but to provide a force for rapid learning and growth. In light of our continued success, I am pausing to ask myself: are our employees learning and growing? Do they feel like they’re in an environment where they are supported and empowered? Those are the less quantifiable measures, but they lead to quantifiable results. I’m ready to continue investing in them.
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