A VC in Vacationland

Culture is the unofficial set of rules by which your company runs. It exists whether or not you consciously establish and work on it. It's there…everyday…staring founders in the face. And many do not have any idea what culture actually is in their company.

So lets start with the basics:

• Find out what your people think–use Survey Monkey to get team involved. Don't run the process yourself. get a committee from across all levels to do it and let them be responsible for organizing and reporting the results. You may be shocked, or pleasantly surprised, but at least you will know.

• Recognize the best as well as the contributors— Men, especially men, are willing to die for the baubles of war–ribbons. So said Napoleon. And he was correct. What do you do to honor top achievers in your company?

• Hold ceremonies for recognition–establish traditions to reinforce culture. For example, Kiva Robotics had thier staff take pictures o a small Kiva robot all over the world when they were on vacation. Everyone vied for the neatest or coolest pictures. That's culture

•  Finally, be paranoid about your culture–it's the only one you got.

For more insights, visit the corprate culture pros…