Scaling Culture During Growth and Transformation

Welcome to the Vantage Influencers podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Vantage Circle, the simple and effective recognition platform for employee engagement. Growth is often seen as a sign that things are going right for an organization. Bigger teams, new markets, rapid expansion.

All of it sounds exciting from the outside, but internally growth can also bring a lot of pressure, uncertainty, and those cultural shifts that companies may not always be fully prepared for. Because somewhere I think we now understand the reality is scaling a business and scaling a culture are two very different challenges. So today we are exploring what it really takes to preserve culture during periods of growth and transformation. And joining us for this conversation is Smita Yadav, a seasoned HR leader with extensive experience in driving people and culture initiatives across global organizations.

Hi, Smita. It's a pleasure to have you on the show. Thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Sanjeevani, for the warm welcome and having me on the podcast.

It's wonderful to be part of the conversation. It's our pleasure. before we begin our conversation on the topic i as well as our viewers i'm sure would love to hear about your professional journey so far what really brought you to where you are today could you kindly walk us through your journey sure sure so sanjeev over the years my journey has been shaped by the unique opportunity to influence both the business outcomes as well as the employee experiences at the same time right and every role brought in new challenges new perspectives and valuable insights and lessons, all of which has shaped me of how I think today of people, business and leadership.

So what has especially been rewarding is partnering with exceptional talented leaders and teams to build strong cultures, strengthen leadership capability and improve the organizational capability and effectiveness. So throughout this journey, one commitment that I always chose was continuous learning and passion for people, which has always remained at the center of everything that I have focused upon. Wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us, Vitha.

With your permission, can we delve into today's topic? Sure, please go ahead. You know, I think when organizations, you know, start scaling rapidly, we have always seen priorities begin shifting very quickly. You know, teams expand, structures change and naturally the, you know, employee experience also starts changing.

And during all of this, companies are trying, you know, often trying to protect multiple things at once. But usually one of them becomes harder to maintain than the others. There's always a fight in between those aspects. So what becomes most critical to nurture as organizations scale?

Is it culture, trust or clarity? What do you have to say? Very relevant question, I must say, Sanjeevani. In today's fast-paced world, right, there's a lot that needs to get absorbed, right?

And that is, again, in a very faster mode. So, you know, I actually think that all three, culture, trust and clarity, right, become extremely important as organization scale. And but if I were to prioritize one I would definitely say clarity becomes the anchor during growth and transformation Because as organizations scale right new teams new leaders new geographies right new reporting structures get added And the organization starts to evolve faster than how employees can actually absorb the change.

Right. And that's usually the point where the alignment becomes fragile. right and so employees come back and ask very practical questions that you know what's changing why is it changing right how does the new success look like and does that impact me as you know the employee and if organizations and leadership are not intentional about communication uh decision transparency people start filling those gaps with assumptions and that's where you know clarity becomes foundational because it creates alignment during you know this change now having said that trust is really what determines how resilient the organization gets right and remains during the transformation and in most of the global organizations that we see today change is almost constant like whether it is this operating model evolution digital transformation ai integration capability shifts right and workforce restructuring so employees don't you know necessarily expect complete information or certainty but they do expect the authenticity coming from the leaders right and trust gets built when leaders communicate consistently and staying visible is again a very important you know thing that needs to be demonstrated by the the leaders and the actions need to align with the values of the organization.

So I have personally seen that employees are far more accepting of, you know, the high-stakes decisions that, you know, that support business. And when they feel that the leadership is transparent and respectful during this journey, that's when, you know, throughout this process, that's when culture in many ways becomes a cumulative experience or outcome of all, you know, the journeys. So as you have rightly set the significance of clarity you know according to you that is the first priority so when we say clarity in terms you know in terms of leadership what do you really what does it really imply what does it really signify clarity as a whole in leadership during time of crisis yes i tried it's being highly visible right and being transparent about why the decision is taken what is the impact that it is going to make right and what is changing for the employees and what does new success look like i can that is the conviction that employees look for in the leaders now building on that growth often demands constant adaptation you know new leadership structures come in teams evolve processes we see it changing and sometimes even the way people collaborate starts feeling very different from before but at the same time employees still they still want a sense of consistency and belonging within the organization like These two factors are consistent, you know, consistency and belonging.

So I think this creates a real challenge for companies trying to grow without making culture feel unstable or disconnected. So Smita, how do you preserve a strong culture when rapid growth demands constant change and restructuring? Right So from what I have seen across the organizations and transformations right I mean the answer is not binary There are There are a lot more nuances you know if I can say that it carries with it right And one thing that stays right is that today's conversation is, you know, less about preserving culture in the original form, right?

It is more about evolving it intentionally as the organization grows. Because during, I mean, every organization is going through rapid risk you know scale and restructuring but change is something which is again at the center and constant and as i said teams evolve leadership structure shift right priorities get recalibrated and the ways of working continue to adapt right to the business needs so expecting the culture to remain completely unchanged is also probably you know unrealistic to be honest right and what organizations really need is to preserve you know the core cultural anchors, the values, the behaviors, leadership principles.

And also that defines how the organizations operate, regardless of the scale and the structure. And in my experience, culture remains strong during transformation, when there is consistency across three, you know, factors, which is like leadership behavior, communication, and employee experience. I think that, you know, that's where growth becomes really interesting. Because some organizations seem to scale without losing what made them special in the first place while you know there are several companies who which struggle to maintain that same sense of identity and connection so what separates organizations that successfully scale their culture from those that lose their identity during the process or the transformation phrase so again Sanjeev this is a very important question right and again for this right the answer lies in how multiple elements come together rather than you know one in isolation right organizations that navigate growth successfully are usually the ones that you know balance between stability and agility right and i remember reading an article from mackenzie which showed a good balance of stability and agility and coined a new term called stability right so it's how you know the the business will continue to evolve and the employees will still experience you know a sense of trust fairness and connection when the right leadership behaviors and right role model of leaders is being demonstrated and it's very important for leaders to ensure that while you know there is stability in the work and the work culture but there needs to be an agility angle you know associated with it to take it to make the growth successful basically you know moving on smitha you know as organizations evolve i really want to understand your perspective on how can leaders and hr ensure employees continue to see their place in the company's journey because they you know when change happens leadership themselves can view it very differently so what do you have to say about that so again you know I look at this through a broader organization lens beyond just people practices and more in terms of how the interplay of business and employee you know aspirations scale the business sustainably The role of leadership and HR is to drive strategic alignment, of course, right, strengthen the trust and sustain the employee connect with a larger business vision.

And this definitely requires transparent communication leadership visibility and a strong focus on change enablement So employees continue to see purpose and direction despite this business dynamism coming at play And so ultimately HR and leadership act as culture you know stewards and confidence builders during this period of transformation Listening to this conversation, it almost feels like culture sits at the intersection of strategy and behavior. We understand organizations can define values and they can build frameworks.

but culture is ultimately you know as you have mentioned it already lived by people so what plays the bigger role in scaling culture successfully is formal policies and processes or leadership behavior what do you think so yeah i mean again a very important question right we are at the inflection point where we see a lot of businesses scale right and then are they really taking the culture along right at the growth pace and culture doesn't scale through policies and processes alone let me say that right coming with it goes to nearly two records of experience and seeing organizations and teams transform leadership behaviors evolving right processes and you know policies are important they do create clarity and consistency but culture truly scales when leaders role model and what employee experience day by day right and as I said right policies can define the intent but culture is shaped how leaders show up right how decisions are made how the everyday decisions are impacting the people and how the people experience the organization every day so in reality like processes can enable culture but leaders and the employees together bring it to life so smitha we have almost reached the end of today's episode but before you leave I want to know how does the future of culture looks like you know what is like really trending and how do you see the culture shaping in your future a little bit of prediction I would I would request you to give you know so Sanjeevni you know I mean as I said being associated with the industry right and global multinational organizations we definitely see that inclusion is the mantra right taking the teams along right making sure that the voice of every one employee is heard in the organization and there's a great leadership approachability which is demonstrated right and employees engage well with the organization so this will take the organization miles forward so well said thank you so much for joining us today smitha uh before you leave is there any final message for our listeners anything that you'd like to say for our viewers as well as our listeners sure so uh i carry uh uh this with me from i mean from even the days that you know i just was started i started starting probably but it stayed with me that we definitely need to keep uh continue you know to reskill ourselves upskill reinvent our own uh you know a way of work and we need to evolve our thought process We need to make sure that we are present, visible, right?

And make sure that we also generate a lot of impact to the organization that we are working with. Thank you so much, Smita, for joining us. It's been a pleasure to have you on the show. Thanks a lot.

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