Part 5: Cultural Evolution
Keeping culture strong as we scale
Culture Is What You Tolerate
You can say whatever you want about culture. What matters is what you accept.
Culture isn't what you preach. It's what you permit.
Every time you overlook a violation of values, you redefine them. Every time you accept mediocrity, you lower the bar. Every time you allow politics over performance, you change the game.
Story: The Star Performer Who Had to Go
He was brilliant. Top performer. Customers loved him. He also consistently undermined colleagues, hoarded information, and played politics. Classic brilliant jerk.
Leadership agonized. Losing him would hurt short-term. But keeping him would poison long-term culture. After warnings and coaching failed, we made the call.
The team's reaction? Relief. Then acceleration. Turns out his brilliance had been blocking others' growth. Within months, three team members stepped up to fill the gap. Overall performance improved.
The message was clear: no one is above the culture. Not even stars.
Guard culture by:
1. Acting on violations immediately: Speed matters more than severity
2. Making examples transparent: Not to shame, but to teach
3. Choosing culture over comfort: The hard decisions define you
4. Rewarding culture champions: Especially when it costs them
5. Checking your own behavior: Leaders are watched most closely
Culture isn't what you preach. It's what you permit.
Every time you overlook a violation of values, you redefine them. Every time you accept mediocrity, you lower the bar. Every time you allow politics over performance, you change the game.
Story: The Star Performer Who Had to Go
He was brilliant. Top performer. Customers loved him. He also consistently undermined colleagues, hoarded information, and played politics. Classic brilliant jerk.
Leadership agonized. Losing him would hurt short-term. But keeping him would poison long-term culture. After warnings and coaching failed, we made the call.
The team's reaction? Relief. Then acceleration. Turns out his brilliance had been blocking others' growth. Within months, three team members stepped up to fill the gap. Overall performance improved.
The message was clear: no one is above the culture. Not even stars.
Guard culture by:
1. Acting on violations immediately: Speed matters more than severity
2. Making examples transparent: Not to shame, but to teach
3. Choosing culture over comfort: The hard decisions define you
4. Rewarding culture champions: Especially when it costs them
5. Checking your own behavior: Leaders are watched most closely
Evolution, Not Revolution
Cultures must adapt or die. But they must adapt without losing their soul.
Change everything except your core values. Then change how you express those values.
What got us here won't get us there. But who we are must remain constant even as how we operate evolves.
Evolution at Atlan means:
• Values remain constant, practices evolve
• We add complexity only when scale demands it
• We question traditions but respect foundations
• We learn from others but remain ourselves
• We grow up without growing old
Story: The Process That Almost Killed Us
As we scaled, we added process. Approval chains. Review committees. Status meetings. We were becoming what we'd always mocked: a slow, bureaucratic company.
A new engineer's comment woke us up: "I joined Atlan to escape this. Now you're becoming them." Harsh. True. Necessary.
We killed 80% of processes overnight. Returned to first principles: Does this help customers? Does this increase velocity? Does this improve quality? If no to all three, it died.
We learned to scale through principles, not processes. Through trust, not controls. Through context, not constraints.
Evolve thoughtfully by:
1. Questioning every addition: "Do we really need this?"
2. Sunset aggressively: Kill two things for every one you add
3. Preserving the core: Some things are sacred
4. Learning from failures: Both ours and others'
5. Staying humble: Success is the enemy of evolution
Change everything except your core values. Then change how you express those values.
What got us here won't get us there. But who we are must remain constant even as how we operate evolves.
Evolution at Atlan means:
• Values remain constant, practices evolve
• We add complexity only when scale demands it
• We question traditions but respect foundations
• We learn from others but remain ourselves
• We grow up without growing old
Story: The Process That Almost Killed Us
As we scaled, we added process. Approval chains. Review committees. Status meetings. We were becoming what we'd always mocked: a slow, bureaucratic company.
A new engineer's comment woke us up: "I joined Atlan to escape this. Now you're becoming them." Harsh. True. Necessary.
We killed 80% of processes overnight. Returned to first principles: Does this help customers? Does this increase velocity? Does this improve quality? If no to all three, it died.
We learned to scale through principles, not processes. Through trust, not controls. Through context, not constraints.
Evolve thoughtfully by:
1. Questioning every addition: "Do we really need this?"
2. Sunset aggressively: Kill two things for every one you add
3. Preserving the core: Some things are sacred
4. Learning from failures: Both ours and others'
5. Staying humble: Success is the enemy of evolution