The Culture Execution Playbook for Founders Part 2: Startup Culture Transformation
- Jörn Menninger
- May 13
- 14 min read
Why long-term culture transformation beats one-off training—and how trust, habits, and measurable engagement build ROI.
🪢 What Most Corporate Culture Programs Get Wrong
Leadership coach Christian Conrad returns for Part 2 of our Startuprad.io conversation with a reality check on startup culture transformation:
Most corporate L&D initiatives are just expensive encouragement with no follow-up.
He’s seen it too many times—trainings without behavioral change, feedback without data, and engagement programs without accountability.
That’s why his approach focuses on execution, measurement, and trust. Not slogans.
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🔧 Culture Isn’t a Workshop—It’s a System
In fast-growth environments, culture must evolve from intervention to infrastructure.
Conrad’s culture transformation system:
Start at the Top: Train leadership first.
Roll It Down: Cascade training across teams.
Track It: Use KPIs like eNPS and behavior tracking.
Stick With It: Run engagements over 12+ months.
“Short bursts don’t shift behavior. Habits do.”
He even backs it with AI-driven habit apps to nudge and track daily cultural behaviors.
🤝 The Trust Paradigm Shift: 100% First
"I give 100% trust from Day 1. If it's abused, I deduct."
That’s the principle Christian learned from a Danish GM at Kellogg’s.
Why it works:
Empowers initiative
Replaces fear with ownership
Drives bold ideas, faster execution, and deeper loyalty
The result? Emotional commitment that boosts measurable business performance.
🪡 From Habits to Culture: The 3 Execution Levers
Conrad uses the 4DX framework (Four Disciplines of Execution) to move from theory to daily impact:
Wildly Important Goal → e.g. +20 eNPS in 12 months
Lead Measures → Connective Listening, Positive Reinforcement, Feedforward
Visible Scoreboard → Cultural KPIs tracked publicly
Every leader gets a behavioral toolkit. Every team sees the scoreboard.
🌟 Case Study: From 6 to 40 eNPS in 18 Months
A fast-growing renewable energy company (listed on the TecDAX) implemented Christian's full program.
The result?
eNPS climbed from 6 to 40
Employer brand value skyrocketed
Retention and recruiting costs improved
And this wasn’t a fluke. Christian knew 60–80% of the employees personally and worked with them over 7 years.
✍️ Founders: Start With These 3 Micro-Habits Tomorrow
Christian’s no-fluff launch plan for startup leaders:
eNPS Field Research: Ask 10 employees if they’d recommend the company. Ask follow-ups.
Quick Wins: Prioritize 3 process tweaks or cultural pain points. Fix them this quarter.
Daily Practice:
Repeat what you hear in meetings
Ask open-ended questions
Practice Feedforward weekly ("How can I improve?")
Small shifts. Consistently. That’s the secret.
🔗 Startup Culture Transformation - Related Reads:
🚀 Quote to Steal:
“Culture becomes operational, not ornamental.”
🙌 Over to You:
Which leadership habit had the biggest impact in your company? Drop us a comment or share this post with a founder who needs it.
All rights reserved — Startuprad.io™
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About the Author:
Jörn “Joe” Menninger is the founder and host of Startuprad.io -- one of Europe’s top startup podcasts that scored as a global Top 20 Podcast in Entrepreneurship. He’s been featured in Forbes, Tech.eu, EU-Startups, Geektime, and more for his insights into startups, venture capital, and innovation. With over 15 years of experience in management consulting, digital strategy, and startup scouting, Joe works at the intersection of tech, entrepreneurship, and business transformation—helping founders, investors, and corporates turn bold ideas into real-world impact.
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Automatic Transcript
Narrator Dorsey Jackson [00:00:05]:
Welcome to StartupRad.io. Your podcast and YouTube blog covering the German startup scene with news, interviews, and live events.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:00:20]:
Hello, and welcome, everybody. Welcome to the second interview together with my guest, Christian Konrad. Here, a former marketing director for Kelloggs in the region ex Unilever, founder of Management Boost and author of Magical Company Culture of on in German, RoI his mission to have 1,000,000 smiling employees by 2035. And we've been recording for fifty minutes already part one of our episode. So, let's do the second episode here and go a little bit into solution systems and strategic impact of your work. Can you share a story where client turned their employee employer brand around through cultural work?
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:01:10]:
I'll I'll give you two very, very different examples. The earliest example that I had was over ten years ago when I worked with the Naturkolu Museum in Berlin. And I supported the new, then new General Director of the, of the Institute, Professor Johannes Vogel and his and his team for two years. And that was a fascinating journey because it was completely different. I'm a company, corporate, whatever business guy working in this kind of scientific community environment was fascinating. And developing a new vision, a new mission. And seeing how visionary leadership could actually transform a very, very stale, very kind of old fashioned organization into a fantastic and inspiring organization. Now, ten years later.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:02:14]:
It's very, I mean, I've, we gave them a little bit of an initial kickstart, and then they and they were running. But that was that was a dramatic change of culture and employee attractiveness as well. And performance as well. And the other one is more talent. It's for a for a smallish company, but listed in the tech tax in the environmental in the renewable energies sector. And we changed the net promoter score from six to forty talent eighteen months. RoI creating a big shift in employee brand and attractiveness as an employer in a company that is in an environment that is fast growth, double digit growth, year by year of over 10%. So that is the other story that I'm very proud of, and I'm very excited about.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:03:15]:
And that's a story that goes on.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:03:21]:
Mhmm. Where do traditional corporate l and d programs fall short? And how does your approach differ?
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:03:31]:
I think one thing that I I I've run loads of learning and development initiatives and programs in in a number of companies, big and style, for the last fifteen, seventeen years. And a lot of them are into I would call them interventionist. You run a training, you go away, you don't measure results. In a sense, it's almost like an incentive, oh, you're allowed to go to training. And there is very little follow-up and very style. What frustrated me that me as someone who is a facilitator RoI a mentor or coach in such a situation, you hardly ever get the long term feedback, you know, you get the feedback at the end of the session, oh, we love the session, RoI what's actually the impact on any kind of metrics, I was involved in some programs where I found that they did it a little better, because they didn't run a program over a year where there were several modules, you know, so that's, that's already an improvement. And what would I what I did as a result of that, I said, I want a program that actually measures success. And that is continuous, because I want to see the impact.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:04:53]:
So I don't want to run trainings because I won't I love trainings. But a training or a coaching session is a part a module of a program with a clear objective of driving engagement. We measure it, we run a certain sequence, we start at the top, we break it down into into the leadership. And then we roll it out in the organisation. And then you can really see how how it works and how it impacts. So I like long term projects, rather than short interventions, because I think they have a bigger impact on results.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:05:34]:
Actually, when I was in consulting, I also loved, to do the long long running projects for the very simple reason that there is a lot more impact and final results that you're seeing, not to mention, you get more acquainted with matter, with the company you're working for, with culture of them, like all the different branches all across the globe and how they're actually attracting. So you learn more and you can, over time, more and more tailor your approach to this client. That's just personal experience here.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:06:11]:
Exactly. That's what and that's that's that's another really good, good, aspect that you can only kind of you can only tailor things to a company if you know them well. So if I only go in for a day or two, it's not quite naturally very superficial, the knowledge that I have. But for example, let's take that client in the renewable energy sector. I know every single person in leadership, I know probably 60 to 80% of all employees. Because I've had the pleasure and the honor to work with them for seven years now. So I know them. And I can therefore tailor any anything that I do for them much more to their needs than I could if it was just someone I knew, because we just met.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:07:06]:
Do now I have a question because we're talking about like, it feels like two different perspectives, the number driven management and the emotional, driven leadership. So how does your Kave certified work on execution connect with emotional leadership? Because for a lot of people, there's actually two pair of shoes, like we would say in Company, but I do believe it is not.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:07:33]:
Well, I I I believe it's not. I think I used to work for execution, you know, the execution model of 40x of coffee. And that framework is at the back of my head when I run any kind of engagement booster program, you know, the risk, the four disciplines are, you know, have focus on one key big goal. So the focus then is management, You need to measure it. Otherwise, it's it's it it won't be a wildly important goal in the four d x terminology. You need to be able to have that kind of, measure that you can track, and then focus on the lead measures. That's that's that's discipline too. And the lead measures are the habits.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:08:24]:
So the habits, connective listening, positive reinforcement talent feet forward, those three habits, three lead measures that are the lever that drives it, and that makes the soft and then you then you then you should track your your results. You should track also how you do the how you practice the habits, which is why I offer my clients an app, an AI driven app that supports them in developing those habits. Because obviously, you know, you need something to help you to actually think about, okay, am I actually doing the habits RoI in all the everyday madness that we're all involved in. So it needs something that reminds you something that something so something that gives you some impulses automatically as you go. But the key is, if you want to move it from something that's fluffy and soft into something that's hard and measurable. It's about execution. It's about what you do every day. It's about developing habits.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:09:34]:
It's about changing your behavior as a as a, as a leader. And I had a beautiful example last week at a workshop with a client, when when one guy from operations, so that was, you know, in production of a client when he said, you know, my colleague was was at the training three weeks ago, and he changed his behavior. I said, Oh, yeah, that's interesting. What did he change? Well, he used to interrupt people in all in meetings all the time. And I noticed that since he's been to the training, he doesn't do that anymore. So that's an that's a that's a that's a very tangible little story of someone taking that on board and saying, Okay, this was very useful for me, I have a tool now. I've learned connective retaining. And it's something that we've practiced in the workshop and and applying it as a leader in my team.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:10:28]:
And he leads about I know, thirty forty people, and the colleague and he, you know, have sort of neighboring teams, that's why they interact a lot. And within only two, two or three weeks, he already had a noticeable change of behavior that had an impact.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:10:46]:
Mhmm. There's also something I need to work on not interrupting people. I see. You coach leaders to trust first. What are the business outcomes of that mindset?
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:11:05]:
Well, I'd I'll I'll tell you what inspired me. It was probably the manager that inspired me most when I worked at Kellogg's, I was marketing director talent our general manager was a Danish guy called Fleming. And Fleming, when he presented himself to the organization, he put himself in front of everybody and said, I've got some management principles. And one of them is, when I work with someone like you guys, I always give % trust. And only if that trust is abused, I will deduct. And for us, there was a huge paradigm shift, because we came from a culture, more of fear, where you could be really happy if you had 20% trust of the management. So we had to cover our asses, we had to be careful, we had to hold back. And we didn't feel we could do a lot, we were not empowered.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:12:03]:
When Fleming told us give you 100% trust, and only if you abuse it, I deduct, he gave us a vote of confidence. And that released a lot of energy in a turnaround situation. And the best business benefits, better ideas, more empowerment, more initiative, more boldness, better, better, better, better execution, better teamwork. And you could put figures behind all of those in terms of business impact. And I think anybody who's retaining, who's running an organization probably knows what I'm talking about, you know, if people actually believe in themselves, and I could feel it as I could feel that trust and confidence. And the and the emotional signal that it gave me or the little voice in my head said, Wow, I don't want to disappoint him. You know, that's a strong driver. You don't have someone who gives you that kind of trust.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:13:11]:
You don't want to disappoint. You want to want to honor that trust that drives intrinsic motivation. It's not an extrinsic thing. That's not it's not it's not a bonus payment.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:13:26]:
I see. I actually, I think once or twice in my life, I had leadership like this in different companies with different talent, but that was that that was really, really rare. That it was there's something I I would really call management talent that is, that's that's pretty cool. And, actually, if your employees see you like that, you've already won. I was wondering for, like, the closing words, what is your best advice for founders or executives who want to start tomorrow?
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:14:02]:
I think the first thing that you should do is you should, if you want to really start tomorrow, you go to 10 people in your organization, and you ask them, can I can I have five minutes of your time? And you ask them that question? You know, you ask them exactly that question? How likely is it that you will recommend our company to someone else? You do your own little field research, you know, you don't do a big survey, you do your own little field research. And don't just pick the peep, the people who who are fans anyway, but pick a couple, you know, who are who you know, are critical, and ask them then, you know, to say, Okay, I'm an eight and say, Okay, good. What do I need to do? Or what do we need to do as a management team as an organization, so that you will give us a nine or a 10? On that question? How likely is it that we recommend x y Zed as an employer to others, and you will find that you will get some really good ideas. So that's first step. Second step would be that you sit together, evaluate what you've just found out in your little field research, and make a few prioritize three or four actions, where you will improve the framework that you're working in whatever it is process improvement, nicer, company whatever, you know, and pick small measures that you can execute within a maximum of a quarter so that you see results. Don't do the big things, do the small things, do many small things regular, do like three, four things every quarter RoI four consecutive quarters. And the third thing is, style practicing those habits. You know, if you if you if you say, Okay, I don't know what connective listening is, just type in active listening RoI empathic listening and to chat GPT talent tell and ask us, you know, let them tell you what you should train and what you should look for.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:16:06]:
And then practice that be simple. You know, try to avoid management when you're listening. Repeat what you repeat what you've heard to make sure sure that the other person feels understood. Focus on open ended questions to start with what or what or how and avoid why, and all the police questions. So you know, you do that, and your world would change. The world around you will change. You do that consistently style things every day. Positive reinforcement, catch people doing things right, rather than doing things wrong.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:16:46]:
And ask for feed forward yourself. Is there something that where you would like to be better, where you want to improve, you're the CEO, there is something that you want to improve. Every week, one little thing that you want to improve on, you go to two or three people and ask them, you know, I've got this thing I want to improve. What can you what what tips do you have for me? No discussion, just accept their advice, their tips. And that builds connection. It shows you humility, but it also instills excellence in the organization, the drive for continuous improvement. So you do those three things, you do those three things, measure, get some actions on the way and start start implementing those habits. And you will transform your organization within twelve months.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:17:43]:
Final question. What advice when you started out a management career in more classic companies, what advice would you have loved to have at the point you started?
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:17:57]:
I think that I would have loved to have had those lessons that I learned from Fleming ten years later, straight straight from the bat, you know, the thing that you give trust, initially, that you try to focus on the strengths and the other things that you're good at, that your team is good at. I think that would have been that would have been great.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:18:26]:
I see. For our audience, I was wondering which leadership behavior made you feel seen and empowered at work. Drop us a DM or comment on YouTube or wherever you are following us. We might feature it in our next episode. Christian, thank you very much. It was a pleasure having you as guests. We may add to our audience that we are now recording for almost one hour and twenty minutes. The final episodes will be a little bit shorter, but nonetheless, we will be on Substack, for a little bit exclusive deep dive for our paying customers there.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:19:07]:
And thank you very much. It was a pleasure having you so long here.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:19:10]:
Thanks a lot, Jan. Thanks a lot for your for the great interview.
Jörn 'Joe' Menninger | Founder and Editor in Chief | Startuprad.io [00:19:14]:
Totally my pleasure. Have a good day. Bye bye.
Christian Conrad | Management Coach | Author [00:19:16]:
Cheers. Bye bye.
Narrator Dorsey Jackson [00:19:23]:
That's all, folks. Find more news, streams, events, and interviews at www.startuprad.io. Remember, sharing is caring.
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