Hello Leaders,

When a company starts to scale quickly, everything changes. Your headcount increases, systems expand, and decisions move faster. But one of the hardest questions to answer during this time isn’t about strategy. It’s about culture.

Should your culture stay the same as you grow, or should it evolve with the business?

Let’s take a closer look.

The Culture That Got You Here May Not Get You There

Early-stage culture is often shaped by proximity. Small teams, flat structures, informal communication, and fast decisions. That culture works for a while.

As the organization grows, new systems and roles appear. Teams become more distributed. Not everyone knows each other. Communication slows. Without intentional effort, culture can become fragmented or feel outdated.

According to MIT Sloan, culture naturally evolves over time, whether you guide it or not. The question isn’t if it will change. It’s whether you will shape that change with purpose (MIT Sloan).

Culture Change Doesn’t Mean Losing Your Identity

Your core values can and often should stay constant. They represent what your company stands for.

But how those values show up day to day may need to shift. For example:

• “Move fast” could mean Slack messages and gut decisions at 10 people. At 150, it may mean faster meetings and clearly documented goals.

• “Trust” might shift from casual collaboration to well-defined accountability.

• “Customer-first” may expand from founder-led service to system-wide support teams.

Growth doesn’t erase culture. It just calls for a clearer, more scalable version of it.

What Happens If You Don’t Adapt Culture During Growth?

If culture doesn’t evolve with the business, misalignment grows. And the effects are costly:

• Employee disengagement when expectations become unclear

• Inconsistent management as teams operate with different norms

• Loss of identity as values become harder to see or apply

• Customer confusion when internal culture doesn’t support reliable delivery

According to Forbes, culture misalignment is one of the most common reasons fast-growing companies lose top performers during scale-ups (Forbes).

How to Evolve Your Culture With Intention

1. Revisit Your Values
   Hold onto what matters, but update how those values apply in your current phase.

   
   

2. Define Real Behaviors
   Clarify what your values look like in action so teams understand how to live them.

   
   

3. Talk About It Often
   Keep people in the loop. Share why the culture is evolving and how it benefits them.

   
   

4. Support Your Managers
   Train and equip your people leaders. They are the daily touchpoint for your culture.
   
   

5. Track What’s Working

   Use data to see what’s sticking, what’s slipping, and what needs reinforcement.

How Instill Can Help

At Instill, we work with fast-growing companies to manage and scale culture with intention.

With Instill, you can:

• Refresh your values to match your stage of growth

  
  

• Track real-time culture signals across teams
  
  

• Spot misalignment before it spreads
  
  

• Calibrate teams so their behaviors match your stated values
  
  

• Give managers weekly insights that help them lead better

Culture doesn’t have to be a guessing game. Instill gives you the clarity and tools to keep it aligned as you grow.

Final Thought

Your culture should never be fixed in place. But your values, your purpose, and your principles should carry forward.

Let your culture grow with you on purpose, not by accident.

Want to see how your culture is evolving during growth? Try Instill.