Cameron Herold says culture should report to the CEO, not HR. He used management by walking around at 1-800-GOT-JUNK to stay connected to people, and points to Chip Wilson's use of Landmark Forum at Lululemon as a powerful culture-building tool. He warns that culture can easily tip into cult-like behavior.
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I've always believed that a CEO should only have five core reports maximum. I've also believed that the head of hr, like compliance, policies and procedures, vacation, all that should report to finance. But the head of people, the head of giving a sh t about people, the head of culture should report to the CEO. The CEO has to have the people side. The people pulse, the caring and empathy and core values and gratitude and energy has to report into the CEO. When I was scaling 1-800-got- junk, I used to have time in my calendar that was called mbwa. I learned it from the book in search of excellence 30 years ago by Tom Peters. And it was management by walking around. And it was just time for me to wander around the office and sit down with people and go, how's it going? Show me what you're working on. We had 60,000 square feet of office space. We were on three floors of a class A building. And I used to take different paths through the office and on different floors during the day, forcing myself just to walk through different business areas just to be able to connect with all the people in all the areas that reported into me. So culture is the same thing with that. It has to be by design. I've always believed that a CEO should only have five core reports maximum because you also have culture, the board of advisors and legal or compliance as kind of things to think about and spend time on. So culture has to be like a direct report that you think about. I've also believed that the head of HR like compliance, policies and procedures, vacation, all that should report to finance. But the head of people, the head of giving a about people, the head of culture should report to the CEO. The CEO has to have the people side. The people pulse, the caring and empathy and core values and gratitude and energy has to report into the CEO. When we were in the entrepreneur's organization, we talked about if you really want your group, your forum group to go deeper, it's important to take the first risk and go deep. So as a leader, being vulnerable. I also love that you're putting people through Landmark. If you haven't been exposed to Landmark forum, it's a great two and a half or three day. It can be a little bit culty, fine, just tell people in advance. It can be a little bit culty. But the skills and the depth that your people will get out of that three day forum experience can be very, very powerful. When Chip Wilson was building Lululemon here in Vancouver, and I'm friends with Chip, he required every employee who worked at Lululemon's head office to go through the three day Landmark forum. If you didn't go through Landmark, you didn't get to work with Chip. If you were an outside supplier like running his marketing, pr, whatever, any agencies, their employees had to go through Landmark or he just didn't let you work with the organization. Really, really great when you're doing that kind of stuff for your people. I was a guest on a podcast called A Little Bit Culty where I spoke about when company culture can go too far and how do you build a cult like environment where you get really close to the line. And it was hosted by two of the people that broke the cult called Nexium, which ended up being this pretty crazy cult. But yeah, I love cult culture. And if we care again more about our employees personal lives and personal dreams, they'll show up at work as being much better humans.
