The Behaviors You Reward Are Your Real Culture | Kit Krugman, Foursquare

What happens when you stop talking about culture and start designing it like a system?In this episode, I talk with Kit Krugman, SVP of People & Culture at Foursquare, about what it actually takes to build organizations that move fast without burning people out. Kit spent years advising companies like LinkedIn, Microsoft, and CHANEL on organizational design at co:collective. Now she’s doing the work from the inside—redesigning how Foursquare operates at the level of behaviors, feedback loops, and everyday decisions.We dig into how she audited Foursquare’s performance system and found a “collection of parts” instead of an ecosystem. How her team moved from annual reviews to real-time, peer-based impact tracking. What it looked like to return to office three days a week and what the data actually showed (an 83% jump in cross-functional collaboration). And the provocative experiments they’re running: stripping out meetings, flattening structures, and letting people feel what’s missing before adding it back.Kit doesn’t treat culture as a brand exercise. She treats it as a behavioral system, one you either design intentionally or inherit by default.What we explore in this episode* Why the behaviors your system rewards are your real culture* How Foursquare shifted from effort tracking to impact tracking* What Kit learned from auditing who was succeeding and who wasn’t* The tension between trusting people and holding them accountable (especially with RTO)* Her “Maslow’s hierarchy” of people practices and what self-reinforcing culture actually looks like* A reframe on burnout: it’s not about hours, it’s about disconnection* Why storytelling is context, and how micro-narratives shape whether people feel valued* The career move everyone called a dead end that changed everythingFollow along02:04 – What Foursquare does today06:03 – From advisor to operator09:58 – What's breaking inside companies right now14:35 – The 83% collaboration jump15:49 – Defining culture: behaviors rewarded and repeated17:47 – Culture debt21:55 – Redesigning performance at Foursquare29:11 – Maslow's hierarchy of people practices31:01 – You can't coach speed40:11 – The provocative experiments46:07 – Rapid fire + the dead-end job that changed everything49:48 – Sturdy leadershipIf this resonated, subscribe, and share with someone who should be in the future you’re building.Takeaways, Signals to Watch & Resources here: unmissableswithariba.comWhere to find Kit Krugman (LinkedIn )Where to find Ariba Jahan ( Linkedin , Instagram )Newsletter: unmissableswithariba.comEnjoying Unmissables? A quick ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on Spotify + a review on Apple helps more people find the show. Thank you! 🫶🏽 Get full access to Unmissables at www.unmissables.xyz/subscribe