# company culture
44 moments across 34 episodes. Click any moment to jump straight to that part of the episode.
12:49Round 2 — The office dog on the org chart (with their own email address)Al Elliott: Number 15. Okay, here we go. You discover in a new job that not only is the office dog on the org chart, but— Leanne Elliott: Oh my God, I've seen an org chart like that Al Elliott: But they have their own emEP 324 · 4 Aug 2026·interview· 12:49–16:5942:00Round 9 — "We're like a family here"Al Elliott: Exactly. Drives a Mercedes S-Class. Okay, right, so quickfire. So we've probably got about 5 minutes left. Quickfire. So we'll go to Leanne first. Leanne, the HR director tells you, we're like a family here LEP 324 · 4 Aug 2026·interview· 42:00–44:2823:13Why people join StriveX (it's not the salary)Rachel Harris: Oh, absolutely not. No, I'd say, yeah, you know, specifically if I was recruiting a trainee accountant, for example, the likelihood is, unless I had a career changer or return to work, I actually am probabEP 299 · 7 May 2026·interview· 23:13–26:4519:07Jensen Huang's radical rules at NVIDIAAl Elliott: Go and find out more about her, about Momo mid-late career. Okay. So I want to talk about something I've seen, which also includes a huge, huge company. So let me tell you what's happened. So this CEO pays hiEP 296 · 28 Apr 2026·news roundup· 19:07–25:3251:02Workplace Surgery — Small business culture vs. £15k pay riseLeanne Elliott: Oh, now that is the title of a great Oh, there's, there's so many little clues in this, isn't there? Al Elliott: Yes. Lee, unpack like, like it's Christmas morning Leanne Elliott: I wanna, I wanna just taEP 296 · 28 Apr 2026·workplace surgery· 51:02–58:1211:29Building culture when forging three businesses togetherSteve Kemish: Well, you need to spend time with them first. So when we, as I mentioned earlier, we forged 3 businesses together. About 5 years ago. Now, the collective sum of that company, new company, was only about 15 EP 275 · 12 Feb 2026·interview· 11:29–14:0910:09Building a great place to work from the gutAl Elliott: Can you tell us a bit more about how you've set up your agency for, to make it a great place to work? Xavier Shariff: Well, it's interesting actually, because we, again, Gemma and I have never worked anywhereEP 271 · 29 Jan 2026·panel interview· 10:09–15:4819:44Purpose vs. product — the toaster storyAl Elliott: I've got a note here saying that, and I'm going to read it. It says WD-40 wasn't in the lubrication business, but the memories business. That seems like an odd thing for essentially a commodity or a CEO of a EP 251 · 20 Nov 2025·interview· 19:44–25:1722:10Truth or Lie — 'Your vibe attracts your tribe'Al Elliott: Keep that in. Welcome back. It is time for Truth or Lie. This is our weekly myth-busting segment. We're gonna take those psychological claims you've seen everyone ask, does the evidence actually back this up?EP 242 · 21 Oct 2025·truth or lie· 22:10–31:430:00The 50-employee breaking pointLeanne Elliott: Picture this. You've built something special. Your team of 15 feels like family. Everyone knows everyone. The culture just works. But now you're staring down growth, maybe to 50, maybe to 100 employees, aEP 239 · 9 Oct 2025·interview· 0:00–3:4916:20Building culture when money is tight — the 'Yes, And' approachAl Elliott: So let's get down to the businesses where, you know, it's really tough to keep in business. Maybe they've got 25 people. They go, I'd love to give out all these perks like flexible working, work from home, yoEP 233 · 18 Sept 2025·interview· 16:20–20:4939:45Workplace Surgery: Do Investors Care About Culture?Al Elliott: Fabulous. It's time for my favourite time of the week, which is the world-famous Weekly Workplace Surgery, where I put your questions to Leanne. Leanne is a chartered occupational psychologist who's an expertEP 212 · 8 Jul 2025·workplace surgery· 39:45–45:3144:55Workplace Surgery — am I building a great place to work?Al Elliott: Okay, question number 2. Am I doing enough to make this a great place to work? Oh, oh, lovely. I run a business in the UK with 30+ employees, and I've been trying to build a workplace people actually enjoy beEP 204 · 10 Jun 2025·workplace surgery· 44:55–51:4534:32Execution over ideas and avoiding Franken-culturesAl Elliott: Let's talk about one of the other things I saw in your book, which is execution is 1,000 times more important than your idea. Now, I'd love to go down the rabbit hole of actually business ideas, but this podcEP 193 · 1 May 2025·interview· 34:32–39:155:23Radical transparency — why PostHog's handbook is publicAl Elliott: Looking at your website, it does feel a bit like I've got unauthorized access to your Notion wiki. It does. It feels a bit like I shouldn't know these things. Um, I've got, I've got loads of questions about sEP 189 · 17 Apr 2025·interview· 5:23–6:4838:24Egoless, permissionless buildingAl Elliott: So what we've got here is egoless, almost permissionless because people just build something and go, is this any good? Um, I really like that. Let's talk a bit about the actual The type of person for whom thiEP 189 · 17 Apr 2025·interview· 38:24–42:3542:35When freedom means people leave to start companiesAl Elliott: I would be worried about giving so much freedom to people who are essentially entrepreneurial with their ideas that you're just going to be set, people are just going to go, Oh, that's great. I'll go and do tEP 189 · 17 Apr 2025·interview· 42:35–44:5951:50Leanne and Al unpack the approachLeanne Elliott: Well, that was really interesting, Al, from James. What an unconventional approach to building teams. Um, and I, I, I like data and science and order in the workplace. I kind of like this idea of introducEP 189 · 17 Apr 2025·interview· 51:50–55:4331:04Values misalignment — where companies say one thing and do anotherCait Donovan: One of the things that almost every place needs is the praise and recognition piece. Most people are not doing this well, but giving regular and specific, pointed, not just like praise and recognition all dEP 185 · 3 Apr 2025·interview· 31:04–38:4642:26What Jeanette wants The Curve Group to be remembered forLeanne Elliott: And what do you want to be remembered for? What do you want The Curve Group to be remembered for? Jeanette Ramsden: Transforming working lives. We've really promoted within The Curve Group to sort of sharEP 183 · 27 Mar 2025·interview· 42:26–45:2810:28The first employee — and what culture really meansSteve Carse: Yeah. So yeah, we started, he was a lawyer, so he was employed much different Much riskier for him to quit his job as a lawyer to join in the popsicle trade. My father advised strongly against that with a haEP 181 · 20 Mar 2025·interview· 10:28–14:1716:27What "fun" actually means in the workplaceSteve Carse: Yeah, it is a difficult line. So, I mean, a couple of things we've tried that I think are just worth stating and probably kind of interesting. First, we tried to not be seasonal and we've kind of achieved thEP 181 · 20 Mar 2025·interview· 16:27–22:2539:06Do perks actually work?Al Elliott: I mean, thinking about tech, it was often tech companies kind of held up as the best practice, gold, platinum, shining example of workplace culture, these incredible complexes, these different ways of workingEP 162 · 14 Jan 2025·interview· 39:06–41:0025:29Workplace Surgery: Company Culture Post-AcquisitionLeanne Elliott: I think a lot of it comes down to being authentic and thinking about, you know, if you're— this is marketing, isn't it? It's— you'll speak to this much better than I can, Al, but it's about understanding,EP 144 · 12 Nov 2024·workplace surgery· 25:29–33:2942:59Can you avoid difficult conversations by choosing the right company?Leanne Elliott: So far, we've talked about how to have difficult conversations, but can you actually avoid them altogether if an organization is more aligned to your values? Liz Bronson: We also, in both the UK and here,EP 137 · 17 Oct 2024·panel interview· 42:59–45:2741:36Navigating tech company cultureLeanne Elliott: Yes, tech companies are famous for their unique cultures. We've all heard about the legendary perks at big tech companies— free food, nap pods, and on-site gyms. But what is it really like to work in techEP 135 · 10 Oct 2024·panel interview· 41:36–48:5730:59Workplace Surgery: Scaling company culture during rapid growthLeanne Elliott: Congratulations on your rapid, rapid growth, Techstarter Al Elliott: We've gone from 15 to 50 employees, 5-0, in just 18 months. And while I'm— whilst I'm thrilled with our success, I'm struggling to mainEP 130 · 24 Sept 2024·workplace surgery· 30:59–36:3733:20The first survey results that changed everything: 'We would rather know than not know'Leanne Elliott: You are going to get it. But I think our— we've settled on we would rather know than not know, because at least if you know, you can do something about it. So, you hear the term, like, quiet resignation. EP 127 · 12 Sept 2024·other· 33:20–35:1918:36Autonomy, freedom, and the clubhouse approachLeanne Elliott: What challenges have you experienced managing a young team? Again, millennials, Gen Z, talked about a lot in the world of work Ed Williams: I think the difference is they're looking for so much more from EP 125 · 5 Sept 2024·interview· 18:36–20:2328:18Workplace Surgery: evolving company cultureAl Elliott: Question number 2. I have built a smallish consultancy up from scratch where it was just me in my spare room to a proper office with 14 employees. But in the last 9 months, I just feel like we're not the sameEP 97 · 14 May 2024·workplace surgery· 28:18–35:3538:17Signs a company is in troubleTodd Davis: There was a software company in the healthcare organization, in the healthcare industry. Okay. And they, they're a pretty large company that when I say pretty large, they have about 4,000 employees, but they'EP 96 · 9 May 2024·interview· 38:17–40:3823:49Workplace Surgery: Contractors and company cultureLeanne Elliott: Yes Al Elliott: This person writes, our organisation uses a couple of outside contractors when we need them, usually about once or twice a month. These contractors work remotely and so far seem happy enouEP 92 · 23 Apr 2024·workplace surgery· 23:49–30:1413:57Cultivating a strong company cultureLeanne Elliott: Let's get to the good stuff— culture. HR is often left to execute, as Al said, the bad and the ugly of people and culture decisions— things like redundancies, grievance investigations, disciplinaries. ButEP 89 · 11 Apr 2024·interview· 13:57–18:449:39Dharmesh Shah on coding principles as company cultureAl Elliott: Yes, well done, well done Marriott, well done Gen Z, well done everyone, well done Leanne Leanne Elliott: Well done everyone, good job, good job, good job, good job Al Elliott: Apart from Gen Xers who, who juEP 88 · 9 Apr 2024·news roundup· 9:39–16:106:57Why culture mattered to Chris from the startLeanne Elliott: I was keen to learn why culture was so important to Chris and Brandon. Turns out, It started pretty early for them Chris Savage: The first thing is when we started, it was just the two of us for 2 years aEP 68 · 8 Dec 2023·interview· 6:57–9:019:28The word "fun" — how often it came up in conversationAl Elliott: Over the hour that Chris and I talked, the recurring keyword that came up was fun. And in fact, I did a quick count and he used the word fun 17 times in the hour, whereas the word revenue he used 3 times. It EP 68 · 8 Dec 2023·interview· 9:28–11:4315:14Core values — why fewer is moreLeanne Elliott: Yeah, key in the word core, I think. You know, you shouldn't have 10 core values, not so core anymore. So, it is the same when it works in terms of product values, in terms of culture values, building culEP 68 · 8 Dec 2023·interview· 15:14–17:1920:18From small company to "you Zoom things"Chris Savage: You are what you tolerate, you know, like a culture. You can say all these things, you can write them down, you can do it, but the reality on the ground is you have to deliver it. So if you have toxic peoplEP 68 · 8 Dec 2023·interview· 20:18–22:4250:29Closing words of wisdom: office vs. remote workingAl Elliott: Maneesh went on to turn this motto into an actual business. He founded this company culture consultancy that basically challenges this work-life divide. They help companies to foster engaging company culturesEP 56 · 14 Sept 2023·interview· 50:29–55:5819:02People and culture at Flight StoryLeanne Elliott: Um, but I want to know more about the people and culture. Oliver has been renowned for starting companies that are disruptive, youthful, innovative, game-changing. We don't even have time to talk about thEP 38 · 10 May 2023·interview· 19:02–22:514:39The 'family' trap: why culture-as-family backfiresMelissa Carson: I think when people talk about they wanna feel like a family, that it's just that everybody cares about each other and we're in it for the long haul together. But it, it is, it is a business that people aEP 28 · 1 Mar 2023·panel interview· 4:39–7:0152:24When belonging becomes a barrier to exitAl Elliott: But sometimes you build so much belonging and purpose into a company that you realize you actually don't want to sell it. You can't bring yourself to sell it. Simon's got a business like that right now Simon EP 28 · 1 Mar 2023·panel interview· 52:24–56:4154:33Red flags that will lose you the deal and the 'family' trapAl Elliott: Totally agree. I think there's so many people out there who are so obsessed with themselves and so narcissistic, as I think Sarah said, so narcissistic, they think that the business has to exist, that they arEP 27 · 22 Feb 2023·other· 54:33–65:037:13Small vs. big company culture and the HubSpot Culture CodeAl Elliott: One of the most common questions we get about developing company culture is about the differences between smaller and larger organizations. So we asked Kyle about this, and he explains what smaller organizatiEP 23 · 25 Jan 2023·other· 7:13–13:27
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