Management Be Nimble - NYTimes.com Adam McCauley Adult Conversations Many managers go out of their way to avoid giving feedback, worried that it will turn into a battle. But the best managers have "adult conversations" right away to clear the air. We aspire to be the largest small company in our space. When Dominic Orr, the chief executive of Aruba Networks, said those words, he crystallized a goal I had heard many leaders express during the hundreds of interviews I've conducted for the Corner Office column: they want to foster a quick and nimble culture, with the enviable qualities of many start-ups, even as their companies grow. All leaders and managers face this challenge, regardless of the size of their companies. Even the founders of Google have worried about losing the magic that helped propel their search engine's phenomenal growth. When Larry Page announced that he was taking over the chief-executive role from Eric Schmidt a few years ago, he explained to reporters that the company needed to move faster and recapture the agility of its early days, before it grew into a colossus. "One of the primary goals I have," Mr. Page said at the time, "is to get Google to be a big company that has the nimbleness and soul and passion and speed of a start-up." Discussions of corporate culture can easily fall into platitudes and generalities, so I set out to answer a more specific question: What are the main drivers of corporate culture - the things that, if done well, have an outsize positive impact, and if done poorly or not at all, have an outsize negative impact? After searching for patterns among my interviews, I identified six key drivers that every organization needs to foster an effective culture that will encourage everyone to do their best work and help drive innovation. Here are brief summaries: A Simple Plan One of a leader's most important roles is to boil down an organization's many priorities and strategies into a simple plan, so that employees can remember it, internalize it and act on it. With clear goals and metrics, everyone can pull in the same direction, knowing how their work contributes to those goals. Tracy Streckenbach is the C.E.O. of Hillview Consulting, and she helps companies develop and carry out turnaround plans. Unlike consultants who deliver a report and then move on, she often joins client companies as a top-ranking executive to get them on the right track. She has seen firsthand the value of a simple plan. "You want to create an environment where people want to be at work," she said. I lived through that whole Internet craze where you couldn't hire people fast enough. During those days, you thought of culture as Ping-Pong tables and disco balls. Now I think the big focus is on how you get people invested, so that they care about what they're doing and feel like they have a hand in things. The only way you can do that is if you have very clearly defined and measurable goals. Then you make sure each and every department knows them, and how their work will support the overall goals. She added: "It sounds easy and simple, but it's not. In one company, it probably took me six months to clearly define the right goals and how to measure them. It's also devastating if you get them wrong, because then you're encouraging the wrong behaviors. But once you get it right, you see this change in people. They want to get the job done, and not just put in the time. FM Global, an insurance company, provides a good example. It uses a simple operating framework with three "key result areas," or K.R.A."s: profitability, retention of existing clients and attracting new clients. "You can talk to our employees in San Francisco, Sydney or Singapore, and they'll know what the three K.R.A."s are," said Shivan S. Subramaniam, the chief executive. "All of our incentive plans are designed around our K.R.A."s, and every one of those K.R.A."s is very transparent. Our employees know how we're doing. And, most importantly, they understand them, whether they're the most senior managers or file clerks, so they know that "If I do this, it helps this K.R.A. in this manner." " Rules of the Road Exercises to develop corporate values have prompted plenty of eye-rolls over the years, and can often yield little more than slick posters in conference rooms. But when developed and enacted in a thoughtful way, guidelines for behavior can help employees concentrate on the work at hand, rather than on navigating the stressful politics that arise when all sorts of bad behaviors are tolerated. Mark Templeton, chief executive of Citrix, a technology company, says its culture is based on three values: respect, integrity and humility. This article was adapted from "Quick and Nimble: Lessons From Leading C.E.O."s on How to Create a Culture of Innovation," by Adam Bryant. The book, to be published on Tuesday by Times Books, draws out the broader insights and themes that have emerged from his twice-a-week Corner Office interviews in The New York Times.