Find the Sacred Pie
Some quick thoughts on nurturing culture while honoring a company's nature
I don’t know about you, but nothing makes me think harder about company-building than pie.
When I was young – in fact, throughout my entire childhood – I followed my Dad to the office.
In the Valley, we’d call him a serial entrepreneur. He started in construction, expanded vertically into building products, and now runs one of the largest window, door and building component manufacturing operations in the region.
At 8, 17, 26, I’d tag along with my Dad and my Uncle (his co-founder) for lunch. These lunches were always the same – we’d go to Coco’s, and I’d sit there quietly while my Dad and Uncle ramble-discussed something ad nauseum.
“Should we sell this building?”
“How do we price that job?”
“Is our factory manager working out?”
Some topics would get resolved between bites with a simple nod of the head, while others would stretch on for days.
From the outside, this looked both natural and grueling. But it’s been the method for most of their company decisions for the last 40 years.
While this may sound like “family business stuff” – it’s not.
Every. Single. One. of the startups that I've worked with have some co-founder (or early team) dynamic that implicitly shapes their lasting culture.
These practices may be well-known and honored, or they may be hard-coded yet unspoken (like the pie in my story above). Either way, they are a part of the company’s DNA — its nature.
As an Ops Leader, sometimes you’re there on Day 1 and can directly shape the company DNA.
But many times, you are brought in later to help solve problems — and in that scenario, you may need to help nudge the culture forward.
But, before you can effectively do that, some simple advice:
Find the pie.
Hello, friends!
As you can see, I’ve taken a little writing hiatus. Life happened.
But also: hello perfectionism, my old friend….
In order to get back into the groove, I’m going to write shorter and sporadically, with hopes of getting some momentum again. The next few posts will be about values.
Overall, my topic area will continue to be company-building, especially from the POV of an Ops Leader — if that is relevant to you: please stay tuned!
By far: my favorite part about writing is hearing from you.
Do you have any hot topics that you’d like an outside view on? Just reply here and share your question / anecdote / mess. I’m here for it all.
With ❤️,
Amanda
