The art of building office culture with Brian Elliott at Slack

Culture eats strategy for breakfast. That was a hard-learned lesson for Brian Elliot, Senior Vice President at Slack. Over the past 20 years, he’s worked to perfect the art of building a culture that works for everyone. “Unless the team is actually motivated and going in the right direction, nothing else works,” he says.

In his best-selling book How the Future Works, Brian breaks down the importance of establishing a strong culture that helps employees do their best work. He emphasizes the importance of the individual and explains how schedule flexibility and hybrid work options play directly into that. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to the workplace anymore.

“When we first went into work-from-home, the sense of belonging, on average, dropped for teams. But when we dug into it, [and] it actually dropped for white employees. It rose for Black employees,” Brian says. He also found that 60% of working moms want to be in the office two days a week or fewer.

This illustrates the importance of incorporating policies that work for everyone, not just the majority, to ensure that all employees have the opportunity to bring the best version of themselves to their work. “Your future of work plans and your diversity, equity, and inclusion plans are tied together.”