Table of contents
The first time I experienced Hubspot's culture teacher database package back in 2016 I was in awe. Impulse was just starting out, but I knew that at some point we had to create a culture code for ourselves.
But it wasn't until early 2018 that we decided to create a first draft of our culture code, which we continued to refine throughout the year until we came up with one that truly represented what Impulse is today, and what we want to become in the coming years.
Before I tell you about our process, I think it’s important to cover why a company should have a culture code.
Why should my company have a culture code?
I asked myself this question, so trust me, you are not alone. Knowing the purpose of creating this code is essential to defining what you want to include. Here are some of the reasons that prompted us to create our culture code:
Attract talent
Like any growing company, you need to attract top talent. I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t want to work at Hubspot , Google, or Amazon, and that’s because these companies have taken it upon themselves to promote their culture outside of their company walls. Plus, culture is starting to become the most important aspect that job applicants look for in a company. Why not create content that describes exactly what your company culture is like?
Set clear expectations for your employees
Employees need to know what is expected of them in an organization. Creating a document that clearly outlines expectations is a great way to keep everyone aligned, and to know when people are doing the right thing.
Help educate customers
Many clients have told us that organizational culture weighs heavily in the decision to work with other companies. At Impulse we do the same when we choose to work with a company, so it became important for us to share with them who we are and why we do what we do.
culture-impulse-agency-4
The beginning of our journey
As I mentioned at the beginning, it wasn't until early 2018 that we sat down to reflect deeply on: What had made us go from 1 to 25 collaborators in 2 years? What makes us different from the thousands of other agencies out there? What did we have in common? Who should we hire and who should we let go? What should guide our growth in the coming years?
We needed a guide on how to solve problems and create solutions. Something to guide us when making decisions about how to work with others and how to grow as people and professionals.
After consulting with other agency CEOs who had been through the same thing and with our partners at Hubspot, I learned that culture is the answer to almost all of a company's problems, and that, if it is well formed and nurtured, it becomes the solid foundation on which to support any group of people who want to achieve extraordinary things.
If you find yourself on this journey, I hope our experience inspires you to keep going. If you want to know more about how we work, here you will find all the ingredients that make up our Impulse Culture and how we managed to define it.
Step 1: Define the mission
The first thing we did was find our purpose: Why do we get out of bed in the morning to go to the office? What outcome do we want our customers and teammates to have after interacting with us? How do we want them to feel?
This purpose is the fuel that drives our mission statement. When done well, the mission defines what is at stake and the solution it offers.
Once we defined it, we decided to share it with others for feedback. After listening to what others had to say, we released it. Today our mission statement reads:
mission_impulse_agency
The good news is that your mission statement can be as adaptable as your company.
Step 2: Get everyone involved
We wanted everyone working at Impulse to help us understand how they felt during all the phases the company went through, good and bad.
Sometimes people can have very different views on past events, so we felt it was important to rely on a consultancy to help us gather and process all the different perspectives.
Continuum, our partner in this adventure , helped us draw up a plan to gather all these perspectives through surveys and in-depth interviews. Like good doctors, they helped us measure our organizational health and from there understand:
What moves us?
How are we making decisions?
Are we being transparent about important decisions?
Do people have autonomy to decide on changes to their projects?
Does everyone feel involved in important decisions?
Does everyone understand how the changes affect their work?
Are we communicating properly? How often? In what ways?
How much are we developing people's capabilities to continue growing?
New call to action
Step 3: Finding What We Believe In
After long conversations and back and forth, we discovered five beliefs that support us and that we now recognize as the best way to be an organization that learns and transforms itself every day into a better version of itself.
We believe in the talent and commitment of our people
We embrace what makes them unique: curiosity, ingenuity, kindness, a strong work ethic and a sense of community. We are committed to making Impulse a place where they will learn, grow and succeed.
We believe in the power of content to inspire, educate and transform
We firmly believe that good content can win over people and make them fall in love with your brand in an almost natural way. Thinking about people, getting to know them, knowing their ailments, what really captivates them, is the basis of the content we produce at Impulse.
We believe in the impact of technology to bring people together.
We use technology every day to maximize the value we deliver to our clients, because we are convinced that this allows them to be much more competitive, improve their processes and strengthen their digital culture.
We believe in continuous learning to maintain excellence
We are committed to always learning to ensure that we acquire the skills that will help us stand out as people and professionals.
We believe in transforming the shopping experience
We are passionate about solving problems and designing projects with a specific interest to delight customers. We like to work with companies that have a commitment to implementing solutions that meet unmet needs and use this knowledge as a strategic weapon to quickly adapt to the changing market.
Step 4: Define the principles
The previous step helped us lay a great foundation. From there, we dove into defining core values. For us, these principles outline what an Impulse employee does and doesn’t do , guide us in hiring talent, and are a requirement to keep us all on the same page.
When defining your company's core values, here are some things you should cover:
What do these values mean for each of them?
Why they are important in your company.
Examples of how to put these values into practice.
impulse-agency-culture-code
We found 6 principles that guide us today
People first
We leave our egos at the door and demand mutual respect within and between teams. Kindness, positive attitude and empathy prevail, because we all want to be surrounded by people who make us feel better.
Genuinely involved
When we say we care about our customers, it's not just a cliché. We love our customers and we prove it every day by experimenting, co-creating, learning and pushing ourselves to deliver real value in everything we do.
We challenge challenges
Work should be rewarding and we look forward to coming home excited to solve new problems every day. We listen and rely on data to propose new ideas, actions and make incremental improvements always.
We play as a team
We have chosen collaborative and agile work between us and with the client to go further, as well as transparent, honest and fast communication to facilitate correct decision-making.
We act as owners
We value “rolling up our sleeves” and taking action. We are all willing to wash a dish, turn off the air conditioning, mentor, take responsibility for solving a problem and make sure everything turns out right until the end.
