Inspired by the folks at Obvious, with whom I spent a memorable five years, and their playbook in the public domain, Obvious U, I am sharing insights on organisation building.
How culture takes root
Inspired by the folks at Obvious, with whom I spent a memorable five years, and their public-domain playbook, Obvious U, I’m sharing some insights on organisation building.
Entrepreneurs build two systems in parallel. The first is the company: its regulatory identity, its contracts, P&L and systems, and its promises to investors and customers. The second is the organisation, a tender, living thing that builds resilience over time through consistent actions.
I usually step in when leaders feel their business has reached the point where they need HR help. Most of my energy (the 80:20 rule at work) goes into coaching leaders to amp up their personal power, navigate people, and get comfortable with ambiguity. For that conversation to work, leaders need to be at least conversant in emotional regulation. You can have great ideas, capital and a GTM plan, but if people navigation is a struggle, people systems become your weakest link. That’s not something I can solve for you, and no automation can either.
What drives culture?
At first, the founding team’s values and worldviews. Then come the expectations of investors, the realities of the market, and the passage of time. In 2026, volatility, fatigue and uncertainty are legitimate forces too, and many practices and policies take their cues from them. A cross-section of culture reveals four layers.
Everything starts here. Are your people empowered to fail safely in their work? Do they know the boundaries of failure, what could run afoul of the law versus what calls for a solemn conversation in a closed room?
Direct, respectful, timely communication turns perceived slights into “you and me versus the problem,” instead of frozen disagreements where the other person becomes the problem.
The kind you can’t buy. When trust is built and autonomy is consistently rewarded, ownership gets embedded in systems. You stop needing to mandate “going above and beyond,” and hand-offs start to feel like a well-orchestrated dance.
When the why and how are clear for the organisation as a living thing, purpose gets off the rhetoric wagon and becomes visible, present and tangible.
Current considerations
Thriving on the decline. Work is drudgery for 76% of India’s workforce (Gallup), a seven-point drop from the three-year rolling average. Only 17% feel they’re thriving. It mirrors a bearish emotional state worldwide, but that doesn’t take away from People & Culture leaders’ responsibility to move the needle for the people in their charge.
AI as a structural force. Can we free enough time from toil to build relationships, check in with people, give feedback, and have hard conversations kindly? Can we do it without letting legacy knowledge stay stuck with tenure or seniority, and without surveillance cosplaying as performance measurement? All while staying aware of the whiplash of compressed timelines and shifting power structures.
Building a high-trust culture that lets people thrive takes on a different meaning in this reality.
Start by getting day-to-day People Ops right. Only then can you begin layering sub-cultures of appreciation, respect, transparency and safety.
Chapter 2: Why Culture is a system, not a slogan
