Nurturing Growth Through Culture

By Luke Carothers 

Each year, over a hundred firms are recognized through Zweig Group’s Best Firms to Work For Award.  Many of them begin in the smallest category, with lean teams of fewer than 50 people—where culture feels natural, leadership is visible, and alignment happens without much friction. 

What’s less obvious is what happens next. 

As those firms grow, most don’t return to the list in a larger category.  Only a small group makes that leap, and an even smaller group continues to show up as they scale.  That pattern reveals something deeper than recognition alone.  It highlights a distinct set of firms that aren’t just building strong cultures early—they’re learning how to sustain them as the organization evolves. 

The Starting Point:  Small Firms That Get It Right 

In the 1-49 employee category, culture is rarely abstract.  It shows up in how decisions are made, how teams communicate, and how leadership engages with the day-to-day work.  Expectations are clear because they’re often set directly.  Accountability is visible because there’s nowhere for it to hide. 

Firms at this size can build alignment quickly, reinforce behaviors in real time, and shape a workplace experience that feels consistent across the organization.  It’s one of the many reasons so many strong performers emerge from this category, but that clarity doesn’t automatically carry forward.   

As firms grow, the conditions that made culture feel intuitive begin to shift. Teams expand; communication stretches; leadership becomes less centralized.  What once happened organically now requires intention.  The question isn’t whether firms can build a strong culture.  The data shows they already have.  The real test is whether they can hold onto it as growth begins to change the way the organization operates. 

The First Leap: Growth Tests Culture 

The move from a small firm to a mid-sized one is where the real pressure begins to show.  It’s also where the data becomes more selective.  Only a small number of firms that win in the 1-49 employees category go on to win again after they’ve grown. 

That drop-off isn’t necessarily surprising.  Growth changes the way a firm operates almost immediately.  New hires arrive faster than norms can be reinforced.  Communication, once direct and informal, starts to stretch across teams and locations.  Leadership, which was once highly visible, becomes layered. 

Some firms move quickly through this phase.  They double in size within a year or two, riding momentum and market opportunity.  Others grow more steadily, adding people and structure over time.  Regardless of the speed, the challenge is still the same.  What once felt natural has to be built. 

The firms that successfully make this first leap tend to recognize that early.  They begin to define expectations more clearly, create structure where it matters, and reinforce behaviors intentionally rather than relying on proximity.  Growth, in this sense, doesn’t break culture.  It exposes whether it was ever designed to scale. 

Scaling Culture as Firms Grow 

A small group of firms makes it through that first transition.  In the past five years, there are just 11 firms that follow this patterns, and only four of them have won across multiple larger categories.  That drop-off is where the real story is. 

That standout group—the firms that move from small to mid-size and then into larger categories—take it a step further.  They don’t just preserve culture.  They build systems that allow it to scale.  Leadership evolves with the organization.  Culture becomes embedded in how decisions are made, how teams operate, and how performance is measured.  That’s the difference. 

What This Means For AEC Firms Today 

Most firms in the AEC industry are somewhere along this growth curve.  Some are just beginning to build the kind of culture that earns recognition.  Others are in the middle of scaling, feeling the strain that comes with added complexity.  A few are further along, working to sustain performance across a much larger organization. 

What the data makes clear is that culture isn’t static.  It doesn’t hold on its own as a firm grows.  The conditions that make culture feel strong at 25 people are not the same at 75 or even 150.  Without intention, alignment starts to drift, and consistency becomes harder to maintain. 

The firms that continue to stand out treat culture differently.  They don’t hold it as a byproduct of leadership style or team chemistry.  They build it into how the organization operates.  They define expectations, reinforce them consistently, and adapt their structure as the firm evolves.  That shift is what allows culture to scale. 

Growth and culture are often framed as competing priorities, but the firms that move through multiple stages of growth and continue to be recognized prove otherwise.  Their success isn’t just about getting bigger.  It’s about building organizations that people want to stay with as they grow. 

Think your firm has what it takes to be a 2026 Best Firm to Work For?  Take the Employee Experience Survey today. 

source https://zweiglist.com/nurturing-growth-through-culture/