How to restart company culture and remove the wrong people

Executive overview

A toxic culture won't fix itself — the wrong people must be removed, and removed decisively. Once you've identified cultural problems, act immediately and broadly rather than one by one.

Supporting survivors after a mass firing requires presence, not policy. People recover faster than founders expect.

Cut deep, cut once — and stay close to those who remain.

Removing cultural cancers

• Identify cultural misfits and fire them immediately — don't wait
• Scan the whole organisation when firing one person; remove all of them on the same day
• Fire for two reasons: wrong cultural fit, or not getting results

Supporting those who remain

• Expect survivor guilt — it's real and temporary
• Get out of private offices; sit with the team, go for lunch and coffee
• Ask people how they're feeling; stay present in the conversation
• Most teams return to normal within two to four weeks
• Treat it like grief — people have lost colleagues before and will move on