Taming Rapid Startup Growth with Dave Gray

"If [a unicorn's] employee count starts to drop, very rarely does it come back around and start to grow again." Danielle Morrill of Mattermark says. She considers employee count to be the top indicator of startup

In the context of high employee growth, company culture becomes critical to scaling. It's one thing to recruit a team of co-founders. Another to run a team of 30 freshers. And yet another when you have 300 strong looking up to you.

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Each time you ramp up an order of magnitude, you shock the system. Yet at a unicorn, you go from zero to thousands of employees in two or three years. Facebook, Groupon, Uber anyone? It's a big change regardless.

In that context, consider that 60–70 percent of change initiatives fail to meet their stated objectives. The primary source of that failure, according to a Deloitte study, is resistance to change.

Culture is execution. Or learning. Because you need a vibrant culture to recruit and retain the top talent you need to scale!

Culture Mapping is like sending in a team with a fast, motorized rubber raft. You scope out the harbor. You plant big red flags to mark the rocks under the surface. You find the deep water and favorable currents. You scope out hostile and friendly forces. You map the territory, so you can navigate the safer waters. Give your larger mission the best possible chances for success.

Dave Gray is the author of Gamestorming and the co-creator of the Culture Map. He's joined by Dave King, strategist and trainer. Together, they will be running a workshop for us on April 14. On the Culture Map co-created with Alex Osterwalder.

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Some of the feedback on the culture map to date:

• “I was amazed at how quickly people opened up and started talking about things they don’t usually talk about. Within five minutes they were sharing insights and ideas with each other.”

• “Very clear picture of the actual corporate culture – with huge coincidences across all units and high evidence.”

• “High impact on the senior management (real eye opener).”

• “Strong basis for following interventions.”

They're going into why this tool is critical for high growth startups.

Come to our meetup to learn more.

Pizza, beer, and refreshments included.

About Dave Gray

Dave Gray is a leader and manager with a background in design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies, as well as mid-sized businesses, startups, executives and individuals.

He is the founder of XPLANE (http://xplane.com/), a strategic design consultancy, and co-founder of Boardthing (http://boardthing.com/), a collaboration platform for distributed teams.

He is the author of two books on design, change and innovation: Gamestorming: A playbook for innovators, rule-breakers and changemakers; and The Connected Company.

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His area of focus is the human side of change and innovation, specifically: How can you get people to adopt new ideas? How can you win their hearts and minds? How can you get people, including yourself, to change deeply embedded habits and behaviors? How can you transform a business strategy from a good idea to a living fact in the real world?