Alesandro said, “We're hardwired to remember and respond to stories†affirming that she sees storytelling as an emotional intelligence strategy.
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Adrienne Alesandro has devoted over 20 years to thinking about and working with company culture, treating it as both an ideal and an operating system.
Early in Alesandro's career, she was inspired by Netflix and HubSpot—companies which had, through their respective tomes, introduced the idea of culture as brand. Like Netflix's 2009 SlideShare deck, HubSpot's Culture Code illustrated that culture could be explicitly and creatively documented.
The value of codification, she explained, is to establish what matters, to clarify “how we want to operate, how we want people to show up, and, in framing, taken from Stanford University's Bob Sutton and Huggy Rao's book, Scaling Up Excellence, what's sacred and what's taboo.â€
As the Senior Director of Colleague Engagement and Leadership Development at Conga since 2019, she helped codify their culture and bring it to life. “Our former CEO would often say, ‘The music has to match the dance,'†Alesandro said, “and it's really the perfect metaphor for codifying a culture, then operationalizing that code.â€
Across more than 40 interviews with L&D leaders, it's rare to find someone who moves so fluidly between strategy (design and codification) and execution (leadership development and colleague engagement).
Adrienne Alesandro, Senior Director of Colleague Engagement and Leadership Development
Alesandro
Alesandro isn't interested in values that hang unnoticed on a wall. She's interested in values that truly shape the working experience of her colleagues.
“The best organizational culture work is anthropological,†she explained. “It clarifies the boundaries of the group. What's rewarded. What's discouraged. What belongs and what doesn't.â€
Once that standard is clear, leaders need to practice and model it for others. “Core values and their related competencies exist for a reason,†she said. “Your programs reinforce the behaviors supporting those pillars. They tell stories about them, helping people understand and, in turn, repeat those behaviors.â€
That's where emotional intelligence enters the picture. “If your company says it values transparency,†she shared as an example, “then your leaders can't simply claim to care about transparency and move on. They need to drive psychological safety up and down, be willing to field hard questions, and demonstrate vulnerability.â€
Conga's values framework, known as the Conga Way, became the foundation for employee experience design, recognition, rewards, and leadership development.
On top of that foundation, the company built “How We Lead at Conga,†a course designed to demystify leadership expectations through specific, actionable behaviors. The course centers on four leadership competencies: Decide & Align, Inspire & Collaborate, Build & Coach, and Deliver Results. Supporting behaviors underpin the competencies as practical guideposts. The goal of the program is to answer one question: “How do I know if I'm succeeding as a leader at Conga?â€
Alesandro emphasized that the program, held in-person over two days, isn't a lecture. It includes exercises, table work, role play, and peer learning. “We wanted to make sure the learning was practical and interesting,†she said. “Leader-participants learn from each other as much if not more than the facilitators, sharing their own experiences within the context of our leadership framework.â€
In this way, culture is codified in competencies and operationalized through learning and practicing specific behaviors. Accountability is the third leg of the stool, with everyone (leaders and individual contributors) assessed not only on what they achieved, but how (their alignment with the Conga Way) during annual performance assessments.
Alesandro pointed to communications expert Nancy Duarte and her work around storytelling as a major influence on her thinking.
“We're hardwired to remember and respond to stories,†she said, affirming that she sees storytelling as an emotional intelligence strategy. As Alesandro put it, “Stories help leaders connect people, drive trust and engagement, build stronger relationships, and break down and clarify complexity.â€
A company's culture is not made real by the stories the communications team tells (though they certainly help!). It becomes real when leaders understand, believe in, and reinforce its values and rituals—bringing it to life in authentic ways.
As work becomes more tech-first and AI-driven, Alesandro believes that the appetite for human connection will grow, not shrink. She pointed out that many workplaces may be headed toward an “analog†swing. People are exhausted by frictionless digital everything. They want experiences that feel intentional, real, and shared.
She is not advocating for wholesale return-to-office. Her point is that, when people do gather, those moments need to matter. They need to create the kind of thoughtful connection that binds people in a shared purpose.
“This epidemic of loneliness in the office has me concerned,†she said. “But there's a huge opportunity to teach people (leaders, especially) how to design productive meetings and create moments that matter, so that they're inspiring a camaraderie that can make being part of a team feel so special.â€
Alesandro's most-trained emotional intelligence strategy is one for navigating change. “According to Terry Pearce (and my own observations over years spent in tech), people hate change, but they love progress,†she said. “If people see progress—see their leaders anticipating challenges, addressing their concerns, acknowledging their feelings, making it safe to respond and ask questions during those times of change—it completely shifts employee sentiment.â€
This is where EQ helps breathe life into change management. “Change is the moment when people decide whether leadership is trustworthy,†Alesandro said. “Especially as the pace intensifies with AI, in this moment where we're all learning together, it's particularly important for managers to solicit different points of view, acknowledge varying feelings and concerns, and speak with candor and care.â€
By showing and sharing progress, leaders can build and sustain positive momentum—both tactically in their team's work, and emotionally as they generate little wins.
Codifying culture signals to people “what the music is.†Emotional intelligence matters because it helps people “dance to that music,†figuratively speaking.
The healthiest and strongest cultures are grounded in meaningful values, brought to life by vivid, emotionally resonant and clear communication, and visible in how leaders guide their people through change.
Kevin Kruse is the Founder + CEO of LEADx, an emotional intelligence training company. Kevin is also a New York Times bestselling author. His latest book is Emotional Intelligence: 52 Strategies to Build Strong Relationships, Increase Resilience, and Achieve Your Goals.
This article was originally published on Forbes.com
