Organizational performance depends on thoughtful policies and practices with respect to employees and culture. That may seem obvious, but we have all had our experiences with less-than-stellar situations. The reasons range from inertia (“we’ve always done it this way”) to questionable motivations (perhaps that employee wellness program isn't actually designed with employee wellness as its primary goal).

Often, culture is simply neglected. Although most of us have heard the quotation attributed to Peter Drucker, “culture eats strategy for breakfast,” leaders don’t necessarily act as if they believe it. Because culture is amorphous and subtle, it often takes a back seat to more tangible and seemingly pressing issues on a leader’s to-do list. Yet we have found that getting people and culture practices right is crucial and often involves going against the conventional wisdom in human resources circles. It takes experimentation and iteration, some mistakes along the way, and a whole lot of listening and feedback from staff at all levels of the organization.

Look, no organization is perfect, and we are as leery as anyone about articles that proclaim that this nonprofit or that company has the secret recipe for building a great culture or achieving great results. That said, after spending nearly a half-century of person-years between us tending to the people and culture of the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)—and seeing our colleagues work with hundreds of foundations whose cultures we get to see up close—we’ve learned a bit that we think is worth sharing.

Two of us (Phil and Alyse) had the opportunity to help create a culture essentially from scratch as the first and fifth employees of CEP two decades ago. Leaha joined eight years ago and helped dramatically advance our approach to recruiting and to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Over these years, as CEP has grown to a staff of 60-plus and a budget of $15 million and has developed a reputation as a good place to work, we have resisted reflexively accepting the industry standard approaches. Our view is that the best cultures, like the best cookies, are made carefully from scratch—from a continually iterating and improving recipe—not squeezed from a tube.

We have come to believe in six people and culture approaches that in many respects go against the grain.

  1. Hiring processes that prize skills, not degrees or connections.
  2. A standardized approach to base pay that ensures against inequities.
  3. Performance-based incentive compensation that rewards group, not individual, performance.
  4.  A feedback and performance-oriented culture, across all levels, with everyone able to give input.
  5. A deep commitment to DEI that rejects the performative, emphasizes accountability for results, and avoids dependence on consultants.
  6. Transparency, care, and trust.

Read the full article about people and cultural practices for organizations by Phil Buchanan, Alyse d’Amico and Leaha Wynn at Stanford Social Innovation Review.