In this episode of Wired to Work, Jess Chapman sits down with organizational design and culture change expert Erin Stadler to challenge some of the assumptions we’ve built around workplace culture, growth and change.

Because organizations are always changing. People join. People leave. Teams grow. Products evolve. Markets shift. And every one of those changes affects how an organization actually works.

So instead of asking how we can better manage change, Erin asks a different question: how do we build organizations that are designed for it?

Jess and Erin get into why company culture is about much more than a set of values, what happens to culture as organizations scale, why onboarding should be treated as a year-long experience, and how founders can unintentionally lose the very ways of working that made their company successful in the first place.

They also explore change fatigue, the pressure to protect what’s already working, and why the ability to continually adapt may be one of the most important things a leader can build.

As Erin puts it, business strategy tends to focus on markets, customers and financials. But there’s another strategic question we often leave out:

How do we work?

Because the thing you’re building isn’t just the product.

It’s the organization capable of building what comes next.

keywords

culture change, organizational design, systems thinking, change management, leadership, onboarding, organizational behavior, culture shift, founder insights, adaptive organizations

key topics

The distinction between values, behaviors, and principles in culture
How to start building culture at the founder level
The importance of behaviors and principles in organizational change
Redesigning onboarding as a year-long experience
Managing expectations and energy during change
The role of systems thinking in organizational adaptability

sound bites

"Workplaces that meet my preferences aren't always safe"
"Behavior is the principle we make decisions on"
"Managing change is like managing risk, not opportunity"

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Erin Stadler and the episode's focus
02:14 The importance of starting culture from scratch at the founder level
05:53 Key advice for founders on establishing culture early
07:19 The distinction between values and behaviors in culture design
11:30 The role of mindset and principles in organizational behaviors
16:46 Using psychoanalysis as a tool to understand organizational entity
20:20 The risk of scaling culture without clear principles
23:17 Redesigning onboarding as a year-long, co-created experience
30:32 The difference between managing change and creating opportunities
35:49 Shifting from change management to embracing uncertainty
41:32 The importance of framing and collective responsibility in change
47:27 Building a culture resilient to pivots and pivots as opportunities
52:09 Erin’s upcoming book on creating conditions for change