Culture Review 2024

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Ferris Bueller

Every year, we ask our team to gut-check PD culture. We ask what they love, what needs fine-tuning, and what makes our culture worth celebrating. Then, we dig deeper. We encourage the team to examine their health and professional goals, assess external threats, and explore ways PD can bridge any gaps they find.

Why a yearly culture review?
As our journey becomes more complex with each scaling milestone, so does the risk of a once-vibrant culture becoming diluted or losing its edge. This yearly exercise ensures that we stay anchored to our core values as we grow.

So, with all that in mind, we’re excited to share our 2024 culture review.

Sentiments

What do people love about our culture?

We show up every day for so much more than just the work.
Comet

Here’s what our team values most about PD’s culture:

Better is non-negotiable.
PD pushes every team member to seek wisdom from books, mentors, and mistakes, always with excellence as the goal.
There’s no I in Team.
Everyone at PD is willing to lend a helping hand, tackle interesting challenges together, and push everyone to take creative risks (and catch them if they fall).
Work as play.
Surely, you need to be serious 24/7 to crush it at work, right? Nope, we like to have enough fun that work turns into play.

What makes PD unique?

The amount of weird people that work here.
Center

Our uniqueness lies in shared values – a clear theme from our team’s responses. Here’s what sets us apart:

Care and collaboration.
PD fosters a deeply supportive community for team members to bring their best selves to their personal and professional lives. We’re always here for each other.
Growth and development.
PD encourages soaring instead of stagnation with its deep commitment to growth, learning, and pushing past perceived limits.
Grit and innovation.
PD blends old-school values of scrappy resilience and get-it-done tenacity with modern execution as the company continuously charts the course ahead through innovation.

If you could change one thing about our culture, what would it be?

(…)Creating more opportunities to build connections as a whole team.
Ensign-W

For this question, 48% of the team couldn’t think of anything they would change. Of those who did, we found three main themes on how we can get better together.

More structured workflow.
Team members are calling for structured workflows to avoid burnout and context-switching. Even in a flexible culture, structure helps us stay strong over the long haul.
Fine-tuning feedback and communication.
Many PDTers want more regular feedback and communication to ensure gaps are addressed and everyone is informed. Another key consideration is when to give feedback in public versus private settings.
More ways to keep connected.
PDTers, especially those working remotely, would like more channels and rituals to connect with others to ensure our culture remains cohesive and inclusive to all.

What are threats to PD?

Forgetting why we exist.
Spark

No organization is immune to threats lurking around the corner.
Our team has listed the top three threats:

Cultural and excellence dilution.
Each new hire is an opportunity to strengthen our culture—or dilute it. Ensuring that every addition aligns with PD’s values will be essential to maintaining our core identity and standards.
Risk of losing focus and identity.
There’s a concern that external factors—like the rapid advancements in AI, shifting societal trends, or pressures to meet client demands—could cause PD to drift from its core mission. Staying grounded in our values will be essential to navigate these influences without losing sight of who we are.
Growing risk of burnout.
As PD grows and embraces new opportunities, the challenge of burnout arises, particularly within specific groups. Effective prioritization and delegation within these teams are essential to maintain resilience and sustain our momentum.

Health & Growth

In addition to seeking our team’s take on the state of PD, we ask them to take stock of their personal journeys and how PD supported them (or ways PD could support them) over the past six months.

Health

The overall sentiment from our team is positive.

Most PDTers felt supported by PD’s wellness initiatives, such as the weekly accountability group meetings and flexibility afforded to them. Many mentioned that their health and wellness-related successes owed to their personal commitment to maintaining healthy routines.

The scores below reflect how PDTers generally recognize that PD does a great job supporting them but trend lower for their self-assessment scores.

Health Average

8.69/10
How has PD supported you in your goals?

7.62/10
How committed have you been to your goals?

Health-related suggestions for improvement:

Leveraging flexibility tools.
PD’s flexible resources, such as break times and lieu days, are designed to support energy management and productivity. By strategically using these tools, team members can continue delivering at high standards without compromising wellness goals.
Physical activity and wellness initiatives.
Some suggested initiatives to integrate physical activity into the standard workday, such as setting aside time and space to exercise.
Improving nutrition and health.
While PD already provides healthy snacks, some recommended curating the selection to reduce sugary choices. Additionally, some requested more health-related content incorporated in goals meetings or the topic of Friducation presentations.

Personal & Professional Development

Overall, our team is happy.

Most express gratitude for the resources, opportunities, and accountability groups that support their personal growth. Key factors include access to books, courses, and mentorship from leaders, coaches, and peers. Many appreciate the unique programs such as the Star Trek Scholarship Program, the reinforcement that accountability groups provide, and the overall ecosystem that promotes continuous learning.

Personal challenges like motivation and focus were cited as common barriers, but ultimately, each person’s growth depends on their proactive engagement with available resources.

Much like the health scores, the development scores below reflect the onus of personal accountability.

9.24/10
How has PD supported you in your P&P achievements?

8.24/10
How committed have you been to your P&P achievements?

Development-related suggestions for improvement:

Increase opportunities to learn from senior team members.
Many expressed interest in having more chances to learn from their experienced peers. Suggestions included shadowing or viewing recordings of work, particularly from those in client-facing roles to provide valuable insights.
Expand learning initiatives.
Many want more structured learning sessions, such as starting a book club, more Friducation guest speakers, and internal lunch-and-learn sessions.
Optimize workflows for focus and learning.
Reducing context-switching and maximizing productivity relies on effective prioritization and time management. With these in place, team members can maintain focus and dedicate time to continuous learning and improvement.

Conclusion

In summary, the main focus of the 2024 mid-year culture review was managing the dual realities of internal team growth and the changing external landscape.

2024 is a year of massive change, underscoring the importance of our annual culture survey.

Here’s looking forward to 2025 and beyond.

Until then, a few words before we part…

Those few words…

We ask our team to provide five words that best describe our culture. Then we turn them into word clouds (though it would be more accurate to say word tumbleweeds). The following images were assembled based on frequency and theme.