EP08 - How Do I Set Culture Before I Set Processes?

It sounds like a leadership question. In reality, it is a building question.

How do I set culture before I set processes?

I have heard this many times from founders, investors, and operators. Often from people who are smart, experienced, and genuinely trying to do the right thing. They want to avoid chaos. They want clarity. They want to scale without burning people out.

The problem is not the intention. The problem is the order.

We are trained to think in structures. Org charts. Playbooks. Roadmaps. Processes. They feel safe. They feel controllable. Especially for people who have grown inside corporate environments or institutional capital.

But culture does not come from structure. Culture comes from behavior. And behavior comes from mindset.

Culture Is Already There

The first thing I always say is this. You already have a culture.

Even if you are two people in a room. Even if you just incorporated last week. Even if you think it is too early to talk about culture.

Culture is present from day one.

It shows up in how you handle uncertainty. It shows up in how you talk about mistakes. It shows up in who gets listened to and who does not.

You cannot pause culture until later. You can only be intentional about it or ignore it.

When people say they want to set culture, what they often mean is they want to correct it later. That is already a warning sign.

Why Processes Fail Without Culture

I have built recruitment, learning, and leadership systems inside a global corporate with thousands of people. I have also built teams from scratch in startups where everything was messy and underdefined.

In both worlds, I learned the same lesson. Processes do not fix people problems.

If trust is missing, processes become control mechanisms.

If accountability is missing, processes become excuses.

If ownership is missing, processes become bureaucracy.

You can document everything. You can hire consultants. You can introduce tools. But if the underlying mindset is wrong, the system will break the moment pressure hits.

That is why I say culture decides whether your strategy and your processes ever stand a chance.

What Culture Really Is

Culture is not your values page. Culture is not what you say in onboarding. Culture is not your employer branding. Culture is what people do when nobody is watching.

It is how leaders behave when they are tired. It is how decisions are made when money is tight. It is how power is used when there is conflict.

In hospitality, you learn this very quickly. You can write service standards all day, but guests feel the culture the moment they walk in. The tone. The energy. The way people look at each other.

Business is no different.

Mindset Before Mechanics

When I help founders or leadership teams, I rarely start with process design. I start with questions.

• What do you believe about people?

• Do you trust them by default, or do they have to earn it?

• What happens when someone fails?

• What behavior gets rewarded in practice, not on paper?

These answers define your culture far more than any framework.

If you believe people need to be controlled, your processes will be heavy. If you believe people want to do good work, your processes will be light.

That belief always leaks into the system.

The Order That Actually Works

In my experience, the order looks like this.

First, clarity of intent.

Why are we here? What kind of company are we trying to build? What do we care about when things get uncomfortable?

Second, leadership behavior.

Not titles. Not hierarchy. Actual behavior. What leaders tolerate. What they challenge. What they role model every day.

Third, shared principles.

Simple rules that guide decisions when there is no time for consensus. These are not slogans. They are practical boundaries.

Only then do processes make sense. At that point, processes are not rules imposed on people. They are agreements created with people.

Processes as a Result, Not a Tool

Good processes feel almost invisible.

They support the team instead of slowing it down.

They remove friction instead of adding it.

They create rhythm instead of rigidity.

That only happens when people trust the system and the people behind it. I have seen teams with almost no formal process outperform highly structured organizations. Not because they were chaotic, but because they were aligned. Alignment beats documentation every time.

Culture Scales Through Consistency

One of the biggest fears leaders have is scale. They ask how culture survives when you grow. My answer is always the same. Culture does not scale through control. It scales through consistency.

If leadership behavior is consistent, culture scales.

If values are lived consistently, culture scales.

If decisions are made consistently, culture scales.

If not, no amount of process will protect you.

People copy what works. They copy what gets rewarded. That is how culture spreads.

Why This Matters for Investors and Builders

For investors, culture is often treated as a soft topic. Something nice to talk about after the numbers. That is a mistake.

• Culture determines the speed of execution.

• Culture determines resilience under pressure.

• Culture determines whether talent stays or leaves.

For builders, culture is the operating system. It is not a side project. It is the system that everything else runs on.

If you get it right early, processes become a multiplier. If you get it wrong early, processes become a tax.

The Simple Truth

You cannot design culture from a distance. You have to live it into existence. Set the tone through your actions. Be clear about what matters and what does not. Build trust before control.

When the culture is right, processes are easy. When the culture is wrong, processes are pointless.

That is why I always start with people. Everything else is just structure around them.

Timecode:

00:00 Introduction: Setting Culture Before Processes

00:03 The Importance of Culture Over Strategy

00:07 Processes Within Strategy

00:10 Culture Mindset in Organizations

00:17 Conclusion: The Necessity of Culture for Strategy and Processes

Links:

Uniprisma: https://uniprisma.com/

Meijer & Co.: https://meijerandco.com/

Personal Website: https://www.thijmenmeijer.com/

Transcript:

How do I set, culture before I set processes? It's a funny question because, culture eats strategy every day. processes are made within the strategy. so if you don't have the right culture mindset within, the organization, you cannot have processes. You cannot have a strategy.