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CULTURE
HACKING
THE AGENCY
SARAH HERNANDEZ
& RYAN BAUM

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START WITH WHY

Up until this point, The Agency has done an

excellent job of defining itself externally. Its
purpose, focus and unique value proposition
are clear to clients and team members, but
the driving reasons are still unclear to many.

Simon Sinek asserted in a now-famous TED

talk that the most iconic companies start with
why they do things, before moving to how
they do things and what those things are. For
example, Apple doesnt just sell computers,
it sells an idea: Think Different. This is a message that is felt through every product Apple
sells and it unites consumers behind a single
idea that drives them to make decisions.

BUT WHY?
Is the primary goal to generate revenue, or to
provide an immersive experience for the students who work here? Do we have values as
an agency that our team needs to live by? If
so, what are they? Which ones are we falling
short on?
These are all questions that need answers before our team can be on the same page.

UNITING THE TWO

We can unite our what with our why by
examining our how: We provide the best millennial insights in the business because they
come straight from millennials themselves
Millennials Engaging Millennials. Well need to
keep the how in mind as we search for the
why.

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IDENTITY CRISIS

ADJACENT ISSUE

The Agency knows what its up to its an

agency built by and for millennials but as
it rapidly grows and builds speed, it hasnt
found the time to truly reveal its own core values and purpose or the space to instill these
values in an authentic and cohesive way.

The Agency also has an incredibly unique issue specific to its team: the constant turnover
of students created by graduation and other
attrition. We want to make sure The Agencys core values are ones that survive and are
lived through each new class of Agency team
members, which will also help curb some of
the symptoms of the larger issue.

SYMPTOMS OF THE LARGER ISSUE

There are several other problems that currently seem unrelated, but which are symptoms of
the larger issue. This includes a feeling among
students that The Agencys team lacks an
overall unity. These students feel that there is
a clique issue in The Agency, as well as favoritism among some students based on their
project load. Other students feel bored or unfulfilled with their current workload, because
they dont see how their work is important to
The Agency or tied to a higher purpose.

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WHERE WE ARE & WHERE WE WANT TO BE

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We want to work with Agency team members

to reveal barriers and motivations at play within the work environment - We want to understand who and what factors motivate team
members to work at their best and how this
can be replicated throughout agency classes.
Once we have a clear idea of where were at,
well have a good idea of where we need to go
and how we can help The Agency get there.
INSIDE OUT NOT OUTSIDE IN
We want to help The Agency reveal its core
values - look from the inside out and not the
outside in. The idea is that The Agency already
possesses everyday practices and attitudes,
were just helping them extract and identify
these attitudes to help them better communicate them to future clients and team members.

We also want to make sure that this practice

is acted out the same way The Agency was
created - by and for its millennial staffers
and audiences. The aim is to collaborate with
Agency management and influencers to build
systems that can be operated without us. We
arent just delivering a situational analysis, we
want to deliver a sustainable culture.
EVALUATION
Last step is measurement. Were aiming to
create real, long-term behavioral changes,
but to make sure its actually getting done,
we need to set metrics from start to finish to
measure along the way. Culture is tricky to
measure, so evaluation needs to be at the
center of each and every effort for a full-proof
culture plan.

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TOOLS

INCLUSIVE RESULTS

Were going to be using some good ol fashioned primary research to measure initial attitudes towards The Agencys perceived culture
for a situational analysis.

The insight phase should be open to each and

every staffer in The Agencys five pillars. The
best activation ideas emerge when we tap
into everyones different ways of ideation, and
we want all the insight we can get to create
the kind of sustainable, social environmental
changes we want to see.

This involves conducting an agency-wide survey and interviews with management, example-setters and new staffers to figure out how
current Agency veterans perceive the reputation theyve been dishing out and whether
or not these attitudes align with what new or
potential staffers pick up.
We will also utilize focus groups, which should
be strategically segmented to find trends
among subgroups. We suggest 10 focus
groups, each representative outside of the
characteristic being grouped: first-year students, second-year students, third-year students, Catalyst students, Connector students,
Creator students, Strategist students, Admin
students, and two focus groups that are representative of The Agency as a whole.

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SURVEY

CRITIQUES

37 team members responded to a survey sent

out to The Agencys 85 staffers to gage initial
insight into the agencys currently perceived
culture. Only 11 respondents claimed they
were 100% satisfied with the agencys company culture its our goal to see that kind of
response across the board.

Critiques generally centered around the same

issue: Some newer team members tend to not
feel included because of pre-existing groups
of friends within the agency that can come
off as exclusive and unwelcoming. Students
claim there arent enough opportunities to
engage with other team members, making it
hard to make friends - especially if they arent
assigned to an account or across different
pillars.

RESULTS
Here are some elements of The Agencys
culture staffers liked:
+ Openness
+ Collaboration
+ Comfortable / Relaxed
Here are some elements staffers didnt like:
+ Cliquiness / Unwelcoming
+ Uneven distribution of work
+ Unorganized deadlines
+ Lack of transparency

Team members also claim that since the

agency seems so wide and segmented, they
arent aware of whats happening across different pillars or believe theres a lack of transparency on behalf of management.
MOVING FORWARD
We want to be replicating the shining stars
the positive experiences of newer team
members coming into The Agency making
sure were creating an inclusive and unified
environment using team members ideas and
recommendations.

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CULTURE ACTIVATION

BUY IN & ROLE MODELING

Were going to start off with a Culture Hack

workshop. The goal is to tap into everyones different ways of thinking and let team members
of all backgrounds build off each others opinions to create organic solutions.

Leadership of The Agency should be seen consistently and authentically modelling its values.
Each and every move should be one that advances The Agencys core beliefs and staffers
should be evaluated by their commitment to
authentically embodying each value. Both appointed and organic leaders need to fully believe in what The Agencys values are.

What this looks like: We bring together a workshop of 10-15 staffers representative of management, student influencers and new staffers
in one place for a huge ideas session.
After we identify initial insights into what team
members see as The Agencys core values, we
create groups around specific ideas, so they
can build upon what these core values look like
everyday and long term.
First-step questions can include:
+ What do we represent
+ How does that look like?
+ How doesnt that look like?
TRAINING
Culture training should have its first touch point
for new members at the annual fall and spring
retreats. This should be reinforced by an indepth culture workshop for new employees that
happens twice at the beginning of each semester. When through a culture deck that is distributed to all employees for reference

The reason for identifying, communicating and

embodying a culture is to create a sense of
unity to help potential staffers understand
what The Agency is about and to help The
Agency find potential staffers that are a good
fit. Millennials work best doing work they love
in an environment that inspires, and we want
Agency staffers to work at their best.
ACCOUNTABILITY
There needs to be regular reminders and accountability to change the culture and sustain
that progress. Once we determine our values and define our culture, they should come
through in every brief, meeting and presentation
we give they should be obvious, but not necessarily stated explicitly. In our employee evaluation system, we need to be evaluating for how
well employees embody these values.

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MEASUREMENT

FEEDBACK

Like we said earlier, measuring culture is a

little tricky. We recommend measuring team
member perceptions of how well The Agencys
values are being embedded, plus actual team
member behavior, at the beginning, middle
and end of this process. This involves settings
aims and metrics. To do that we need to figure
out what kinds of impact we want our culture
to have on the work The Agency produces.

To date, the only feedback The Agency has

received on the perception of its company
culture is via the single survey we referenced
earlier... and only 44% of staff responded. We
want a more representative pool of insights to
inform our evaluation, which requires more indepth forms of measurement.

Knowing what we do now, some metrics can

include:
+ Number of successful projects generated
by the end of each semester
+ Measuring attitudes towards collaboration
and inclusion
+ Measuring the impact of appraisals,
meetings, working patterns, etc. on work
ethic

Measurement should include agency-wide

distributed surveys and in-depth, representative focus groups each semester.
Questions we should be asking team
members:
+ How well do you think we embody our
company values as an agency?
+ How many times a month do you see your
supervisor/director deliver something that
embodies our values?
+ What do you think you can do better as a
team member to embody our values?