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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The culture equation.
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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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 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 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.
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.
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 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 live curiously, always communicate, be the solution, win together and never stop growing.
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.
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 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.
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 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 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.
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 was a lot of work, but it was worth it. The end result was fantastic.
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 a bit of fun. Nobody was going to read it.
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.
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 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.
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.
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? 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.
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.
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.
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 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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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, 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 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 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 in helping somebody to make that decision.
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, 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, 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 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 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 coming from the top.
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 terms of acquiring other teams and organizations. So really strategically building out either geographically or from a capability perspective.
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, 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 the two businesses is closely aligned to start with. It's part of our process is to make sure that is the case.
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 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.
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 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, 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 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.
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, 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 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 finding the right people and getting them all working effectively together. So this is a journey never stops, right?
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? 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?
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 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 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 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.
The culture equation.