April 17, 2024 • 22 mins
First Focus wanted to set a precedent for mindset across the company and especially within management to allow for scaling. To do this, they developed a hard copy book that contained their values, processes, and stories from staff. Hiam led the team through a series of workshops to develop and curate copy and illustrations, which reflect the core aspects of the company. They were able to use this both internally, now running their own training based on chapters from the book, and for business development including recruitment and acquisition of other companies.
To learn more about The Culture Equation including our work with Culture, Leadership, Diversity, and Executive Coaching, or our Culture Canvas program, visit our website or book a Discovery Call with CEO Hiam Sakakini.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
S1 (00:02):
The culture equation.
S2 (00:08):
This book really holds a lot of that information within it.
And it was at that point I realized that the
business was really aligned with where I'd come from, and
made me feel that the brand was established, that it
was mature, that it had a very strong sense of self,
and that that was coming from the top.
S1 (00:28):
Welcome to stories from the Culture Equation. I'm here. I'm
Sara Kenny, CEO and founder of The Culture Equation. And
we partner with organizations to transform their workplace culture through leadership,
culture and diversity programs. We run catalysts of sorts, which
are tailored workshops and learning programs designed to ignite courageous
(00:49):
conversations that translate into meaningful action. That's all in service.
One key focus helping talent to thrive. The belief that
we all hold dear is that we have an opportunity
to improve quality of life through work. I've seen amazing
results working with clients, which are born from having those
(01:09):
courageous conversations, and I've seen a couple of failures along
the way. When the conditions are right and the conversations happen,
it is just pure magic, just one of the programs
we offer, and is a great starting point for many
of our clients, is called the Culture Canvas Workshop. This
is done virtually or in person with an entire team,
and it helps to align them and focus them around
(01:30):
the critical areas of culture that, if given attention, will
definitely have impact. We might think we're all on the
same page, but in our experience, that is rarely the case,
even with co-founders. Until we start asking the right questions
and having those conversations early is so important. So this
workshop really sets a team up for success. We've seen
(01:51):
some great results in the past. In this series, we'll
explore the challenges and subsequent rises of some of the
companies we've worked with. Our clients were generous enough to
share their stories firsthand about how we work together to
shift away from workplaces that are storming to ones that
are performing. On this episode, part two A First Focus
(02:12):
will continue our story about bringing the first focus method
to life, and we'll look at the impact it has
had on the business. Grace Marie Oldfield was our employer
brand specialist. Her goal was always to help our clients
articulate fit their brand to an external audience. So employee
value proposition and this sort of fell in that bucket
(02:33):
very different to what she'd done before. But it was,
again something she was really interested in. And so she
became the lead on this project.
S3 (02:41):
I previously worked with The Culture Equation as a brand
and marketing specialist, specifically focusing on EVP products. Initially, I
think what they were going to do is go to
a visual design agency, but you don't get the actual
minuscule look at culture. So I think really the foundational
step was actually going and understanding exactly what went into
(03:06):
first focus and what their culture war is, and actually
sitting in the room with them and understanding how they
interacted with each other, how they perceive their culture to be.
And clearly they were also quite passionate about it. So
kind of encapsulating that passion. And then from there it
was producing a visual representation of that culture. We ended
(03:29):
up arriving on like a comic book esque style, because
it's kind of like seriousness with some playfulness. But that
was definitely through understanding how they interacted.
S1 (03:39):
Nicole was really important when it came to mapping out
the chapters and the content within those chapters, and she
worked so closely hand in hand with grace every single day.
They really riffed off one another, which was lovely to
see that beautiful relationship build over time.
S4 (03:54):
So we went to a couple of different workshop groups,
so we had everybody put together like, what would the
chapters be? Tell us what you think the chapters would be.
And then we actually ended up back at something much
simpler based around scaling up, which is the gazelles methodology
is a big part of how we do run first focus,
and it just made sense to structure it in a
similar way to how we structured our company. As long
(04:18):
as I've worked at first focus, we've had our values
up on the wall. We were talking about with Yama
early on. She does help with that when companies don't
know what their values are. But we showed up. We
were like, here they are here. We actually changed them
just before we went into the book process. Not significantly.
We sort of collapsed two down. That had become quite similar,
and we did add a new one. So we've got
(04:39):
live curiously, always communicate, be the solution, win together and
never stop growing.
S3 (04:47):
So initially we had a workshop going through the culture
like I mentioned. Then we had a catch up a
few weeks later where I presented some visual styles. They
selected a style from there, and then we move forward
with actually like layouts and designs.
S1 (05:01):
I looked at Ross's quite kind of methodical. I thought, no,
we'll probably have to stick to the brand guidelines pretty rigidly,
which is fine. However, come to realize that Ros wanted
to go like quite far from the brand guidelines. The
way he was then talking about the book was very different.
They wanted it to be fun and engaging and not
(05:21):
too wordy and not too lengthy. And because it was
all about is it going? To be useful, as somebody's
going to pick that up and go, oh no, it's
just too heavy and dense and boring.
S5 (05:31):
I'm very much a let's just get going and start doing,
start writing. And again, that was probably the value that
really came from him bringing a bit more structure and
spending a little bit more time at the start, I
guess workshopping exactly what it is we're wanting to to create,
and the consistent theme that came out of it was
it had to be fun and engaging. And so that
(05:52):
kind of drove we have to keep coming back to. Yeah,
but that's we don't want to be boring. You know,
it has to actually be people need to want to
pick it up and read it. But it also has
to be a tone of seriousness to it as well,
because actually it's important stuff we're trying to convey. And so, yeah,
we're really trying to hit that balance between it being
kind of punchy and actually going, well, this is real
(06:12):
stuff we're talking about and almost overly blunt in that way.
And that's why kind of that comic kind of style,
the tone of voice in it is kind of deliberately not,
not strictly corporate, I guess.
S1 (06:24):
Grace had given three options of which one was selected,
and we ran with that option. And then Ross just
came up with a genius idea, a very different concept.
It was a retro superhero concept. And when we looked
at this and he gave examples, we just thought, definitely,
I know it's going to be a lot of work,
but we need to change. And so we did. It
(06:46):
was a lot of work, but it was worth it.
The end result was fantastic.
S4 (06:50):
We finally ended up with this like retro comic book style.
Our corporate identity is very grays and blacks and blues
and orange is very different. So everyone was very excited
for it to be quirky and fun and accessible to read.
We really didn't want to end up with an ops manual, right?
We didn't want to end up with paperwork or something
that wasn't easy to digest, easy to read, and actually
(07:14):
a bit of fun. Nobody was going to read it.
S1 (07:17):
The specifics of what's going to be included were also
quite interesting. With a creative process like this, we would
have times where there was a bit of a dry spell, collaboratively.
S5 (07:27):
Came up with a contents page, I guess you'd say,
you know, like, what does it actually need to have
and how would it structure? And at least it gave
us a really good starting point. But at the same
time we're doing that, we were pulling together, you know,
some existing bits that we had because like we were
starting from zero, there were bits of content around and
then working out the stuff we had to write as well.
And that was probably the that was the hardest part
is actually writing it. I can now say I know
(07:52):
what writer's block is, starting with a blank page. And
Nicole from our team was really good at helping with
that because I'd say we need to write about this,
and she'd just start writing some stuff and then at
least give it to me and say, okay, cool.
S4 (08:04):
It is going to be scary. You're gonna get to
that writing page. You're going to stare at the little
blinking cursor, and it is going to be hard. There
is a lot that we wanted to write down that
makes the culling process at the end a lot more difficult.
S1 (08:18):
And then you could tell when people were having bursts
of either energy, inspiration, creativity, because it would just land
in a big sort of brain dump. And we were
all trying to make sense of it, and where are
we going to put it and what chapter is, and
is there overlapping stuff? Is there stuff that needs to
be cut out? Do we have enough on this topic?
(08:38):
So I think that the fact that these workshops were
super inclusive and people were invited across the board, we
did three of them was really important.
S4 (08:46):
If you know who your company is and you know
the people who are working for your company, putting something
together like this, it will just click into place. It
does make sense when you get started. You just have
to start. He was six different chapter list potential versions.
S1 (09:04):
And then we did lots of review sessions, so we'd
get to a certain point in time and we asked
for feedback and that was really important to them.
S3 (09:11):
We move forward with that again, doing, I think, weekly sessions.
At this point, we did more check ins because we
realised how important it was for this to be a
collaborative process. It wasn't just, okay, well, I get the content,
I'll shuffle it around a bit and give it back. Um,
it really had to be because culture is such a
personal thing. Um, especially for someone. A lot of these
(09:32):
people had been there for years and years and years.
It's an intensely personal thing. By the end of it,
we'd have, I think it's an 80 page book all
in in that style and also working on the cover
and the spine. So it was eye catching was really cool.
So if it is on someone's desk, they're actually inclined
(09:52):
to grab it and like flip through it. It's bright orange,
definitely different from a lot of their other visual designs.
Getting it all together, sending it to the printers, getting
three draft copies. We all went out for dinner, and
just seeing everyone see it in person, I can't describe
the feeling because you're like, ah, we worked on this
and now it is something physical. It's much more impactful
(10:15):
than seeing something in a PDF document. No, this is
in my hands. I think from there they printed hundreds
of copies. And knowing that something that. Could be so influential.
I had some part in it. It's like an absolute
blessing and something I carry with me. I still have
the little draft like stack in my desk. Actually, all.
S1 (10:36):
Credit to Grace, because she was the one that was
at the pointy end of pulling everything together and not
only reading the content, you know, critiquing and saying, you know,
can can I make some suggestions on changes? Um, matching
the content then to the kinds of either infographics or
just the comic strip style or what what exactly should
(10:59):
we put here alongside this content? And even looking at
so pages that intersect and you might have a graphic
that goes across two pages, you know how she had
such a detailed brief of work to execute on and
execute on? Well, it was a lot from a, from
a design perspective and an execution perspective. And we definitely
(11:23):
blew out our time frames. But it was about we
wanted a quality product. And I know Ross, that was
his main goal. It's got to be quality, not just
get it out there and it's not quite right. The
third goal for the book was attracting the right people
to first focus in the first place by giving them
something that if you read this, you would be very
(11:43):
aligned to this first focus method because it would speak
to you. You would feel like there is an alignment
to my personal values, to what I stand for just
by reading this book. Usually, you know, we have that
sort of employee value proposition on a careers page on
your website that kind of gives you a very short,
sweet is this place. For me, this was much more
(12:03):
in depth. And so for any kind of senior leaders
that you're trying to attract or executive leaders, which was
definitely a core focus for them, this was more credible
as a source of information that say, I'm coming into
a CEO role or something. What's it going to be
like for me at first focus since creating the book,
(12:24):
it has been a game changer from a recruitment perspective.
They have made two very senior executive hires since then,
and they have said that the book had a major
impact on why they decided to work for First Focus.
These are really high caliber people, had multiple options on
the table, so what's really going to clinch it for them?
And these were the things this was it. You know
(12:45):
the stories. It was the context. It was the history.
It was the fun aspect to the book. So serious content,
but fun wrapping. It gives you such a good, informed
insight into what it's going to be like to work.
Here you go in eyes wide open. I think that
alone has been worth it. Because when you get the
right people and draw, especially at that level, it's huge
(13:08):
for the future of the organization. Likewise, if you get
the wrong people in the organization at that level, it
just wreaks havoc. Brandon Ritchie is chief growth officer based
in Brisbane. So again, remote from their core team in Sydney.
And it's interesting now to see from that executive recruitment
perspective that this book is playing a really pivotal role
(13:32):
in helping somebody to make that decision.
S2 (13:34):
And the chief growth officer at First Focus, a newly
created role that's been around for for about four months now.
I started in November heading up new sales and marketing
in that role. And, uh, when Ross was selling, he
was looking to step up his sales and marketing game.
This particular person had suggested that Ross have a chat
to me. So yeah, Ross reached out and she was
in my first meeting. Ross actually got another guy, Jake Burns,
(13:55):
to reach out and have coffee with me because we
were connected on LinkedIn already, and during that coffee, he
pulled out the first focused method book and was just
sort of showing me, you know, I guess as an
example of how well put together the the business culture
strategy and how aligned it was, despite the fact that
people were spread far and wide. I think it was
really his way of going. Look, you know, we're not newbies,
(14:16):
we're not beginners. We know what we're doing, we know
why we're succeeding. And this book really holds a lot
of that information within it. And so he let me
sort of just browse through it briefly. And it was
at that point I realized that the business was really
aligned with where I'd come from, which was the gazelle
slash scaling up framework. And clearly just looking through that book,
that obviously first focus lived and breathed, that framework and
(14:37):
that methodology. And so, yeah, from the outset, I was
pretty certain that I was going to fit in well
and kind of knew where it was all coming from.
I know how these people operate. I know that they've
got a clear definition of success, and they've identified how
they're going to get there and keep everyone within the
business aligned. And also the the way that they approach
management and approach feedback. The radical candor piece was very
(15:00):
familiar for me. You know, that caring deeply, but also
being honest and upfront about how, you know, people need
to potentially adapt to get to where they want to
get to and where the business needs them. You get
to all of that just sort of jumped out from
the pages at me and made me feel that the
brand was established, that it was mature, that it had
a very strong sense of self, and that that was
(15:21):
coming from the top.
S1 (15:23):
The other thing about first focus is. They acquire a
lot of other smaller companies. So again, it's playing a
big role in the acquisition process, which is like a
bit of a dating process, right? So in terms of
the business growth, it's it's playing a pivotal role not
just in senior people coming into their organization, but in
(15:44):
terms of acquiring other teams and organizations. So really strategically
building out either geographically or from a capability perspective.
S5 (15:55):
Part of our growth strategy at the moment is doing
acquisitions and part of our due diligence. We always want
to meet with their management team, and it's the same
way in that first day we meet them, we have
a chat to them, and we give them a copy
of the book to take away. Again, just trying to
shortcut that. What's it actually like working for first? Okay.
And acquisitions are strange in a lot of ways because,
(16:15):
you know, all of a sudden you've got a bunch
of people working for you who didn't actually choose to
work for you. So we're very conscious of that. And,
you know, you've got to be kind of, you know,
that was always bring that a lot of respect to
that conversation because just because no one has decided to sell,
they now their job is changed and they're working for
a company that they didn't sign up for. And so
we do want to make sure that the culture of
(16:37):
the two businesses is closely aligned to start with. It's
part of our process is to make sure that is
the case.
S4 (16:43):
Having been through a few acquisitions myself, I know that
that process is terrifying for people. There's a lot of uncertainty.
Are we going to fit in? Are they going to
change everything? And look, we do change stuff. That is
the nature of acquiring another business. But I feel that
the book helps people get a little bit more comfortable
with how things are going to change before they actually
(17:06):
get into it happening. I think it's helped build a
lot of confidence. It's helped people understand what our culture
looks like before getting into first focus, and I just
think it helps make that adjustment a lot easier.
S1 (17:17):
So in terms of the business growth, it's it's playing
a pivotal role not just in senior people coming into
their organization, but in terms of acquiring other teams and organizations.
So really strategically building out either geographically or from a
capability perspective, it's also just becoming more and more useful
from a mentorship perspective, from a learning perspective, training perspective
(17:41):
on the job reference perspective. And the main thing I
think is just scaling managers. So when you scale managers,
they again have such an impact on every single person
in their team. You don't want to scale the number
of managers without scaling their ability, their mindset, their skills,
(18:02):
their processes. You just can't promote and then leave them
to it. They need all of this. They need those
those guardrails, and they need that understanding of what good
looks like. The bigger picture, you know, what's what's it
like to be a manager here? And how am I
going to move from individual contributor to manager successfully? So
(18:23):
many people think a successful individual contributor because they're so
good at so being on the tools are going to
be then an exceptional manager. That's I think, the gold
in helping for us focus to scale. It does seem
like there is chat about the version two.
S5 (18:40):
They'll definitely be a second edition at some point. Things evolve.
I mean, nothing stays the same for very long, especially
in in technology and as a business is growing as well.
So already there's a few things that we are trying
and doing and the way the business is growing that
that there's some stuff already that I feel like, you know,
it needs an addendum. The other thing that's in now, again,
(19:03):
I feel like it's maybe industry specific, but 2 or
3 years from now, who knows, right. It is hard
to think forward too much. It's probably at the moment,
one of the biggest steps in our industry that is
occurring with AI at the moment. It's kind of the
the same as we had that step from having a
bunch of disconnect to computers to now we're all on
the internet. It is a big shift that's occurring. Knowing
(19:26):
what 2 or 3 years looks like is almost guessing
at the moment. What is certain is that the reliance
on technology is not going away anytime soon and is
only increasing, and we want to be a big part
of helping businesses with that. So that means, you know,
hopefully it'll be a bigger and bigger organization, which means
more and more challenges in terms of consistent culture and
(19:48):
finding the right people and getting them all working effectively together.
So this is a journey never stops, right?
S4 (19:53):
Cannot espouse enough the benefits of having somebody like him
involved in the process, especially if you're not sure on
those first steps, right? If you don't know your values,
if you don't know the mission statement, if you haven't
had those culture discussions early, the workshops were incredible for
uncovering even more of what we thought we already knew. Right?
(20:13):
There was more out there that we hadn't fully gone into,
so trying to do it on your own is hard.
I think when we established our values and things early,
we did have somebody come in and help consult and
that it is a huge part of. Getting started on
something like this is is that knowing process?
S1 (20:28):
Huge thank you. First to Ross and Nicole, who were
that part of that core team that really brought this
to life from every angle, from content to the design
aspect to obviously wrangling just the people into the workshops
that we carried out. A huge amount of kudos to
(20:49):
them for bringing this, this vision to life, and we
were just happy to help them with that. And then
really thankful to Brendan and Carol for giving us examples
of how this book has been used and how it's
been useful to them. I think the unsung hero of
the whole book is Grace. She was the one that
(21:11):
really pulled together everything into something that then could be
sent off to a printer, and she didn't just do
it by blindly copy pasting content. She critically looked at
every single aspect and thought about every word, the language,
the connection to the visuals. Everything had to match up
for her. And so she's a little genius that pulled
(21:32):
it all together. For more incredible stories of workplace transformation,
please visit us at the Culture Equation. Commu forward slash
stories I'm here, I'm Saki Keeney, and you've been listening
to stories from the culture equation.
S6 (21:56):
The culture equation.
The culture equation.
S2 (00:08):
This book really holds a lot of that information within it.
And it was at that point I realized that the
business was really aligned with where I'd come from, and
made me feel that the brand was established, that it
was mature, that it had a very strong sense of self,
and that that was coming from the top.
S1 (00:28):
Welcome to stories from the Culture Equation. I'm here. I'm
Sara Kenny, CEO and founder of The Culture Equation. And
we partner with organizations to transform their workplace culture through leadership,
culture and diversity programs. We run catalysts of sorts, which
are tailored workshops and learning programs designed to ignite courageous
(00:49):
conversations that translate into meaningful action. That's all in service.
One key focus helping talent to thrive. The belief that
we all hold dear is that we have an opportunity
to improve quality of life through work. I've seen amazing
results working with clients, which are born from having those
(01:09):
courageous conversations, and I've seen a couple of failures along
the way. When the conditions are right and the conversations happen,
it is just pure magic, just one of the programs
we offer, and is a great starting point for many
of our clients, is called the Culture Canvas Workshop. This
is done virtually or in person with an entire team,
and it helps to align them and focus them around
(01:30):
the critical areas of culture that, if given attention, will
definitely have impact. We might think we're all on the
same page, but in our experience, that is rarely the case,
even with co-founders. Until we start asking the right questions
and having those conversations early is so important. So this
workshop really sets a team up for success. We've seen
(01:51):
some great results in the past. In this series, we'll
explore the challenges and subsequent rises of some of the
companies we've worked with. Our clients were generous enough to
share their stories firsthand about how we work together to
shift away from workplaces that are storming to ones that
are performing. On this episode, part two A First Focus
(02:12):
will continue our story about bringing the first focus method
to life, and we'll look at the impact it has
had on the business. Grace Marie Oldfield was our employer
brand specialist. Her goal was always to help our clients
articulate fit their brand to an external audience. So employee
value proposition and this sort of fell in that bucket
(02:33):
very different to what she'd done before. But it was,
again something she was really interested in. And so she
became the lead on this project.
S3 (02:41):
I previously worked with The Culture Equation as a brand
and marketing specialist, specifically focusing on EVP products. Initially, I
think what they were going to do is go to
a visual design agency, but you don't get the actual
minuscule look at culture. So I think really the foundational
step was actually going and understanding exactly what went into
(03:06):
first focus and what their culture war is, and actually
sitting in the room with them and understanding how they
interacted with each other, how they perceive their culture to be.
And clearly they were also quite passionate about it. So
kind of encapsulating that passion. And then from there it
was producing a visual representation of that culture. We ended
(03:29):
up arriving on like a comic book esque style, because
it's kind of like seriousness with some playfulness. But that
was definitely through understanding how they interacted.
S1 (03:39):
Nicole was really important when it came to mapping out
the chapters and the content within those chapters, and she
worked so closely hand in hand with grace every single day.
They really riffed off one another, which was lovely to
see that beautiful relationship build over time.
S4 (03:54):
So we went to a couple of different workshop groups,
so we had everybody put together like, what would the
chapters be? Tell us what you think the chapters would be.
And then we actually ended up back at something much
simpler based around scaling up, which is the gazelles methodology
is a big part of how we do run first focus,
and it just made sense to structure it in a
similar way to how we structured our company. As long
(04:18):
as I've worked at first focus, we've had our values
up on the wall. We were talking about with Yama
early on. She does help with that when companies don't
know what their values are. But we showed up. We
were like, here they are here. We actually changed them
just before we went into the book process. Not significantly.
We sort of collapsed two down. That had become quite similar,
and we did add a new one. So we've got
(04:39):
live curiously, always communicate, be the solution, win together and
never stop growing.
S3 (04:47):
So initially we had a workshop going through the culture
like I mentioned. Then we had a catch up a
few weeks later where I presented some visual styles. They
selected a style from there, and then we move forward
with actually like layouts and designs.
S1 (05:01):
I looked at Ross's quite kind of methodical. I thought, no,
we'll probably have to stick to the brand guidelines pretty rigidly,
which is fine. However, come to realize that Ros wanted
to go like quite far from the brand guidelines. The
way he was then talking about the book was very different.
They wanted it to be fun and engaging and not
(05:21):
too wordy and not too lengthy. And because it was
all about is it going? To be useful, as somebody's
going to pick that up and go, oh no, it's
just too heavy and dense and boring.
S5 (05:31):
I'm very much a let's just get going and start doing,
start writing. And again, that was probably the value that
really came from him bringing a bit more structure and
spending a little bit more time at the start, I
guess workshopping exactly what it is we're wanting to to create,
and the consistent theme that came out of it was
it had to be fun and engaging. And so that
(05:52):
kind of drove we have to keep coming back to. Yeah,
but that's we don't want to be boring. You know,
it has to actually be people need to want to
pick it up and read it. But it also has
to be a tone of seriousness to it as well,
because actually it's important stuff we're trying to convey. And so, yeah,
we're really trying to hit that balance between it being
kind of punchy and actually going, well, this is real
(06:12):
stuff we're talking about and almost overly blunt in that way.
And that's why kind of that comic kind of style,
the tone of voice in it is kind of deliberately not,
not strictly corporate, I guess.
S1 (06:24):
Grace had given three options of which one was selected,
and we ran with that option. And then Ross just
came up with a genius idea, a very different concept.
It was a retro superhero concept. And when we looked
at this and he gave examples, we just thought, definitely,
I know it's going to be a lot of work,
but we need to change. And so we did. It
(06:46):
was a lot of work, but it was worth it.
The end result was fantastic.
S4 (06:50):
We finally ended up with this like retro comic book style.
Our corporate identity is very grays and blacks and blues
and orange is very different. So everyone was very excited
for it to be quirky and fun and accessible to read.
We really didn't want to end up with an ops manual, right?
We didn't want to end up with paperwork or something
that wasn't easy to digest, easy to read, and actually
(07:14):
a bit of fun. Nobody was going to read it.
S1 (07:17):
The specifics of what's going to be included were also
quite interesting. With a creative process like this, we would
have times where there was a bit of a dry spell, collaboratively.
S5 (07:27):
Came up with a contents page, I guess you'd say,
you know, like, what does it actually need to have
and how would it structure? And at least it gave
us a really good starting point. But at the same
time we're doing that, we were pulling together, you know,
some existing bits that we had because like we were
starting from zero, there were bits of content around and
then working out the stuff we had to write as well.
And that was probably the that was the hardest part
is actually writing it. I can now say I know
(07:52):
what writer's block is, starting with a blank page. And
Nicole from our team was really good at helping with
that because I'd say we need to write about this,
and she'd just start writing some stuff and then at
least give it to me and say, okay, cool.
S4 (08:04):
It is going to be scary. You're gonna get to
that writing page. You're going to stare at the little
blinking cursor, and it is going to be hard. There
is a lot that we wanted to write down that
makes the culling process at the end a lot more difficult.
S1 (08:18):
And then you could tell when people were having bursts
of either energy, inspiration, creativity, because it would just land
in a big sort of brain dump. And we were
all trying to make sense of it, and where are
we going to put it and what chapter is, and
is there overlapping stuff? Is there stuff that needs to
be cut out? Do we have enough on this topic?
(08:38):
So I think that the fact that these workshops were
super inclusive and people were invited across the board, we
did three of them was really important.
S4 (08:46):
If you know who your company is and you know
the people who are working for your company, putting something
together like this, it will just click into place. It
does make sense when you get started. You just have
to start. He was six different chapter list potential versions.
S1 (09:04):
And then we did lots of review sessions, so we'd
get to a certain point in time and we asked
for feedback and that was really important to them.
S3 (09:11):
We move forward with that again, doing, I think, weekly sessions.
At this point, we did more check ins because we
realised how important it was for this to be a
collaborative process. It wasn't just, okay, well, I get the content,
I'll shuffle it around a bit and give it back. Um,
it really had to be because culture is such a
personal thing. Um, especially for someone. A lot of these
(09:32):
people had been there for years and years and years.
It's an intensely personal thing. By the end of it,
we'd have, I think it's an 80 page book all
in in that style and also working on the cover
and the spine. So it was eye catching was really cool.
So if it is on someone's desk, they're actually inclined
(09:52):
to grab it and like flip through it. It's bright orange,
definitely different from a lot of their other visual designs.
Getting it all together, sending it to the printers, getting
three draft copies. We all went out for dinner, and
just seeing everyone see it in person, I can't describe
the feeling because you're like, ah, we worked on this
and now it is something physical. It's much more impactful
(10:15):
than seeing something in a PDF document. No, this is
in my hands. I think from there they printed hundreds
of copies. And knowing that something that. Could be so influential.
I had some part in it. It's like an absolute
blessing and something I carry with me. I still have
the little draft like stack in my desk. Actually, all.
S1 (10:36):
Credit to Grace, because she was the one that was
at the pointy end of pulling everything together and not
only reading the content, you know, critiquing and saying, you know,
can can I make some suggestions on changes? Um, matching
the content then to the kinds of either infographics or
just the comic strip style or what what exactly should
(10:59):
we put here alongside this content? And even looking at
so pages that intersect and you might have a graphic
that goes across two pages, you know how she had
such a detailed brief of work to execute on and
execute on? Well, it was a lot from a, from
a design perspective and an execution perspective. And we definitely
(11:23):
blew out our time frames. But it was about we
wanted a quality product. And I know Ross, that was
his main goal. It's got to be quality, not just
get it out there and it's not quite right. The
third goal for the book was attracting the right people
to first focus in the first place by giving them
something that if you read this, you would be very
(11:43):
aligned to this first focus method because it would speak
to you. You would feel like there is an alignment
to my personal values, to what I stand for just
by reading this book. Usually, you know, we have that
sort of employee value proposition on a careers page on
your website that kind of gives you a very short,
sweet is this place. For me, this was much more
(12:03):
in depth. And so for any kind of senior leaders
that you're trying to attract or executive leaders, which was
definitely a core focus for them, this was more credible
as a source of information that say, I'm coming into
a CEO role or something. What's it going to be
like for me at first focus since creating the book,
(12:24):
it has been a game changer from a recruitment perspective.
They have made two very senior executive hires since then,
and they have said that the book had a major
impact on why they decided to work for First Focus.
These are really high caliber people, had multiple options on
the table, so what's really going to clinch it for them?
And these were the things this was it. You know
(12:45):
the stories. It was the context. It was the history.
It was the fun aspect to the book. So serious content,
but fun wrapping. It gives you such a good, informed
insight into what it's going to be like to work.
Here you go in eyes wide open. I think that
alone has been worth it. Because when you get the
right people and draw, especially at that level, it's huge
(13:08):
for the future of the organization. Likewise, if you get
the wrong people in the organization at that level, it
just wreaks havoc. Brandon Ritchie is chief growth officer based
in Brisbane. So again, remote from their core team in Sydney.
And it's interesting now to see from that executive recruitment
perspective that this book is playing a really pivotal role
(13:32):
in helping somebody to make that decision.
S2 (13:34):
And the chief growth officer at First Focus, a newly
created role that's been around for for about four months now.
I started in November heading up new sales and marketing
in that role. And, uh, when Ross was selling, he
was looking to step up his sales and marketing game.
This particular person had suggested that Ross have a chat
to me. So yeah, Ross reached out and she was
in my first meeting. Ross actually got another guy, Jake Burns,
(13:55):
to reach out and have coffee with me because we
were connected on LinkedIn already, and during that coffee, he
pulled out the first focused method book and was just
sort of showing me, you know, I guess as an
example of how well put together the the business culture
strategy and how aligned it was, despite the fact that
people were spread far and wide. I think it was
really his way of going. Look, you know, we're not newbies,
(14:16):
we're not beginners. We know what we're doing, we know
why we're succeeding. And this book really holds a lot
of that information within it. And so he let me
sort of just browse through it briefly. And it was
at that point I realized that the business was really
aligned with where I'd come from, which was the gazelle
slash scaling up framework. And clearly just looking through that book,
that obviously first focus lived and breathed, that framework and
(14:37):
that methodology. And so, yeah, from the outset, I was
pretty certain that I was going to fit in well
and kind of knew where it was all coming from.
I know how these people operate. I know that they've
got a clear definition of success, and they've identified how
they're going to get there and keep everyone within the
business aligned. And also the the way that they approach
management and approach feedback. The radical candor piece was very
(15:00):
familiar for me. You know, that caring deeply, but also
being honest and upfront about how, you know, people need
to potentially adapt to get to where they want to
get to and where the business needs them. You get
to all of that just sort of jumped out from
the pages at me and made me feel that the
brand was established, that it was mature, that it had
a very strong sense of self, and that that was
(15:21):
coming from the top.
S1 (15:23):
The other thing about first focus is. They acquire a
lot of other smaller companies. So again, it's playing a
big role in the acquisition process, which is like a
bit of a dating process, right? So in terms of
the business growth, it's it's playing a pivotal role not
just in senior people coming into their organization, but in
(15:44):
terms of acquiring other teams and organizations. So really strategically
building out either geographically or from a capability perspective.
S5 (15:55):
Part of our growth strategy at the moment is doing
acquisitions and part of our due diligence. We always want
to meet with their management team, and it's the same
way in that first day we meet them, we have
a chat to them, and we give them a copy
of the book to take away. Again, just trying to
shortcut that. What's it actually like working for first? Okay.
And acquisitions are strange in a lot of ways because,
(16:15):
you know, all of a sudden you've got a bunch
of people working for you who didn't actually choose to
work for you. So we're very conscious of that. And,
you know, you've got to be kind of, you know,
that was always bring that a lot of respect to
that conversation because just because no one has decided to sell,
they now their job is changed and they're working for
a company that they didn't sign up for. And so
we do want to make sure that the culture of
(16:37):
the two businesses is closely aligned to start with. It's
part of our process is to make sure that is
the case.
S4 (16:43):
Having been through a few acquisitions myself, I know that
that process is terrifying for people. There's a lot of uncertainty.
Are we going to fit in? Are they going to
change everything? And look, we do change stuff. That is
the nature of acquiring another business. But I feel that
the book helps people get a little bit more comfortable
with how things are going to change before they actually
(17:06):
get into it happening. I think it's helped build a
lot of confidence. It's helped people understand what our culture
looks like before getting into first focus, and I just
think it helps make that adjustment a lot easier.
S1 (17:17):
So in terms of the business growth, it's it's playing
a pivotal role not just in senior people coming into
their organization, but in terms of acquiring other teams and organizations.
So really strategically building out either geographically or from a
capability perspective, it's also just becoming more and more useful
from a mentorship perspective, from a learning perspective, training perspective
(17:41):
on the job reference perspective. And the main thing I
think is just scaling managers. So when you scale managers,
they again have such an impact on every single person
in their team. You don't want to scale the number
of managers without scaling their ability, their mindset, their skills,
(18:02):
their processes. You just can't promote and then leave them
to it. They need all of this. They need those
those guardrails, and they need that understanding of what good
looks like. The bigger picture, you know, what's what's it
like to be a manager here? And how am I
going to move from individual contributor to manager successfully? So
(18:23):
many people think a successful individual contributor because they're so
good at so being on the tools are going to
be then an exceptional manager. That's I think, the gold
in helping for us focus to scale. It does seem
like there is chat about the version two.
S5 (18:40):
They'll definitely be a second edition at some point. Things evolve.
I mean, nothing stays the same for very long, especially
in in technology and as a business is growing as well.
So already there's a few things that we are trying
and doing and the way the business is growing that
that there's some stuff already that I feel like, you know,
it needs an addendum. The other thing that's in now, again,
(19:03):
I feel like it's maybe industry specific, but 2 or
3 years from now, who knows, right. It is hard
to think forward too much. It's probably at the moment,
one of the biggest steps in our industry that is
occurring with AI at the moment. It's kind of the
the same as we had that step from having a
bunch of disconnect to computers to now we're all on
the internet. It is a big shift that's occurring. Knowing
(19:26):
what 2 or 3 years looks like is almost guessing
at the moment. What is certain is that the reliance
on technology is not going away anytime soon and is
only increasing, and we want to be a big part
of helping businesses with that. So that means, you know,
hopefully it'll be a bigger and bigger organization, which means
more and more challenges in terms of consistent culture and
(19:48):
finding the right people and getting them all working effectively together.
So this is a journey never stops, right?
S4 (19:53):
Cannot espouse enough the benefits of having somebody like him
involved in the process, especially if you're not sure on
those first steps, right? If you don't know your values,
if you don't know the mission statement, if you haven't
had those culture discussions early, the workshops were incredible for
uncovering even more of what we thought we already knew. Right?
(20:13):
There was more out there that we hadn't fully gone into,
so trying to do it on your own is hard.
I think when we established our values and things early,
we did have somebody come in and help consult and
that it is a huge part of. Getting started on
something like this is is that knowing process?
S1 (20:28):
Huge thank you. First to Ross and Nicole, who were
that part of that core team that really brought this
to life from every angle, from content to the design
aspect to obviously wrangling just the people into the workshops
that we carried out. A huge amount of kudos to
(20:49):
them for bringing this, this vision to life, and we
were just happy to help them with that. And then
really thankful to Brendan and Carol for giving us examples
of how this book has been used and how it's
been useful to them. I think the unsung hero of
the whole book is Grace. She was the one that
(21:11):
really pulled together everything into something that then could be
sent off to a printer, and she didn't just do
it by blindly copy pasting content. She critically looked at
every single aspect and thought about every word, the language,
the connection to the visuals. Everything had to match up
for her. And so she's a little genius that pulled
(21:32):
it all together. For more incredible stories of workplace transformation,
please visit us at the Culture Equation. Commu forward slash
stories I'm here, I'm Saki Keeney, and you've been listening
to stories from the culture equation.
S6 (21:56):
The culture equation.
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