Oct 25, 2021
Startups are known for being fluid, nimble and open to
experimentation. In this episode of Building Better Cultures, Host
Scott McInnes’ guest is someone uniquely positioned to explain the
mindset and best practices under which these ventures thrive. Chief
Marketing Officer for MUSH, a Chicago-based food company that has
experienced phenomenal growth, Jo shares not only her
from-the-front observations in the start-up world but also links
them back to some of the leadership experiences she has gleaned
while at Fortune 500 companies such as PepsiCo. It turns out that
early-stage companies and established enterprises alike have
hard-earned lessons to learn – and to teach.
Startups done right embrace healthy workplace practices
immediately out of the gate, even well before any formal HR
function has been codified. Cultures that prioritize psychological
safety, practice empathetic leadership and value internal
communication set themselves up for the smoothest possible
transition to maturity and scalability. Jo offers strategies for
fostering employee engagement and building brand good will. She
also describes the importance of building a “fine to fail”
workplace environment in which leaders not only permit but
encourage experimentation, risk and missteps.
Jo and Scott also get granular about exactly when the time is
right to introduce a more formal HR function into the start-up
structure. It’s a transition that can be tough to make, but less so
if leaders are equipped with the wisdom and perspective Jo has
developed over her highly successful career across enterprises of
all sizes and styles. Enjoy this lively, informative
conversation!
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Scott opens the conversation by eliciting some of Jo’s origin
story.
- After many years working at established companies, like
PepsiCo, Jo has found the high-growth startup environment at MUSH
creative and exciting.
- What does an employee-obsessed culture look like? Leadership
and vision set the stage.
- People want to be involved with MUSH because of the sense of
community that is central to the workplace and fosters the organic
way in which partnerships are formed.
- Bigger organizations versus small: Does size matter when it
comes to employee engagement? Not necessarily, if the right
principles and practices are deployed.
- Some ways Jo sees that employee engagement can be
improved:
-
- Employee ownership – Adopt a cooperative model.
- Employee longevity: Commit and stay close to the consumer.
- Empower employees to do the right thing (even to the point of
creating a P&L line item to underwrite acts of kindness to
customers).
- How does Jo translate customer obsession to the back-office
functions?
-
- Make sure that – regardless of role – all employees spend time
on the front lines with the consumers.
- Integrating with customers is both fun and it generates passion
for the business.
- Leaders need to understand who their consumers are and then
empower employees to deliver on that promise.
- Scott shares an anecdote about Haagen Dazs that encapsulates
the power of customer touch and good will.
-
Jeff Bezos’s Day 1 Concept: It’s essential to keep thinking
like a startup because it keeps enterprises agile, experimental and
hungry. Does Jo agree? Yes, and here are three reasons why:
-
- Beginners’ mindset: Drawn from the Buddhist concept of
“shoshin,” it refers to an attitude of openness, eagerness and a
blank slate.
- Failure as Data Acquisition: When leaders embrace mistakes,
they open a path for creative problem-solving and advancement
throughout the workplace culture.
- Even if you don’t know how, just start: Successful startups
keep moving forward.
- Jo believes that when an employee is not a good internal fit –
and for whatever reason not carrying their weight plus some – it’s
incumbent upon leaders to act swiftly and decisively.
- Startups don’t have values-driven recruiting because they don’t
yet have an HR manual at all. Rather, it’s about building an
initial core A team.
- Start-up growth at some point depends on building out from the
central players, which requires a concept Jo learned from this
management article:
Give Away Your Legos.
- At what point in the transition from startup to mature business
do questions of shared values, workplace culture and internal
communications come into play? Jo shares some basic
parameters:
-
- When your staff grows beyond 20 employees.
- When you’re no longer able to turn around and get quick answers
from the collective hive, it’s time to start writing things
down.
- When you get to about 150 in staffing, a robust HR function
become essential.
- What can organizations and leaders within more established
companies do to promote psychological safety in the workplace?
-
- It has to start from the top! Leadership sets the stage.
- Build moments of gratitude and solidarity into the week.
- Always have curiosity. Openness breeds vital, collaborative
workplace cultures.
- Test before you invest. In addition to being nimble, startups
have to be smart, which means trying small-batch products before
committing to the large.
- Experimentation means giving employees permission to innovate,
fail and try again.
- Jo’s best advice for how astute leaders can best help their
people to shine:
-
- Understand who your employees are, what motivates and excites
them.
- Locate the right person for the right job.
- Reassure managers in a rapidly scaling enterprise that it’s
okay to share tasks and delegate roles.
- Reinforce that there is room to fail and recover.
- Share the load: Let team members in on challenges. It offers
them an opportunity to take ownership – and buy-in breeds loyalty
and commitment.
- We all get to the summit – but it’s the hardness, the toughness
and grit – that make for the most satisfying result.
ABOUT JO DUTTA
Jo @LinkedIn and
@camillab on twitter
Company Website: www.eatmush.com
MUSH on Instagram: @MUSH; on Twitter @MUSHFoods; and on Facebook
@MushFoods
ABOUT SCOTT MCINNES
Learn more about Scott
McInnes, your host and the Founder and Director of Inspiring
Change, by clicking here.
ABOUT WORKVIVO
To discover Workvivo, a
workplace communication and engagement platform that offers
seamless digital integration, please click here.