There is a moment in a company’s growth when, suddenly, the founder stops knowing everyone by name.
If you are reading this and you lead a business that grew fast, you know what I mean. Two years ago, the team fit in one room. Decisions were made over lunch, everyone knew what the others were working on, and the company culture did not need to be explained: it was simply lived.
Today, the team has doubled. There are people in Lisbon, in Porto, maybe in Madrid. Some work remotely and have never set foot in the office. Meetings have multiplied, but the sense of being a team has shrunk. And what used to feel natural (the way of working, of deciding, of treating clients) starts to vary from person to person.
A company’s culture rarely disappears overnight. It dilutes. And when nobody takes care of it, chance becomes the one defining it.
The signs that cohesion is slipping away appear long before anyone gives them a name:
1-New hires do not understand “how things are done here”: nboarding covers the tools but not the way of working. The rules remain unwritten: the veterans know them, the newcomers discover them through trial and error.
2-Islands form: each office, each team, each time zone develops its own subculture. You start hearing “us” and “them” inside the same company.
3-Decisions change depending on who decides:without shared criteria, the same problem gets different answers in different teams. Clients tend to notice this before management does.
4-Communication becomes purely operational:tasks, deadlines, and requests circulate, but the “why” stops circulating. People execute without knowing where the company is heading or what role they play in that direction.
5-The best people start leaving:those who joined because of the culture are the first to feel it has changed. When the original team members start leaving, it is rarely about the salary.
So how do you maintain cohesion when the team no longer fits in one room?
I spent eleven years at Google, between Dublin, New York, and Lisbon. It is a company with thousands of people spread across continents and time zones and yet, with a strong culture that is recognisable in any office. Whether in Dublin, New York, Lisbon, Bangkok, or Tokyo, the way of deciding, of giving feedback, and of working with clients (aside from specific local cultural nuances) was very similar.
I learned there that what keeps a team united is rarely physical proximity. It is clarity: everyone knows what is expected of them, how decisions are made, and why.
Start by writing the culture down. A list of generic values on the wall helps very little. What helps are concrete behaviours: how a decision is made, how you handle an unhappy client, what is expected of each person in a meeting. If you cannot give examples, the culture is not yet defined.
Then, take onboarding seriously. The first few weeks of each new hire shape how they will work for years to come. Every new person should understand the why behind things, not just the how, and should have a go-to person to turn to.
Create rituals that do not depend on geography. A monthly all-hands meeting about direction and results. Regular in-person moments, with a budget planned for them (not only when there is leftover money). Spaces where each team shows the others what they are working on.
Choose your middle managers carefully.In a large team, culture reaches people through team leads. They are the ones who translate it day to day, and they deserve as much investment in training as any technical area.
Finally, document without creating bureaucracy. Minimal processes, clear and accessible to everyone, so that doing good work stops depending on knowing who to ask.
There is a simple question that shows where you stand:
If you presented the same difficult problem (an important client threatening to leave, for example) to three people from different teams, would you get the same answer?
If the answer is no, the company already has several cultures. What is missing is deciding which one you want to keep.
At Grow Beyond, we help growing companies structure their team management and train the leaders who will carry the culture to the next level. If your team is growing faster than your ability to keep it united, we can help you restore that balance.
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