Dr. Nikki Blacksmith has spent her career trying to answer questions like:

• What are the characteristics of an adaptive culture and how do you create one?
• What's the unique role that founders play in setting a culture?
• When and how do you hire for culture?
• How do you have inclusion without assimilation?

In this interview, we talk with Nikki about her research into what makes an adaptive culture, the pivotal role leaders play in that, and how to make data informed people decisions around hiring and performance management.

Nikki has published more than 60 academic articles focusing on understanding the way personality and cognitive ability predict decision-making and job performance. She is an industrial and organizational psychologist, teaches at American University, is a research fellow at the U.S. Army Research Institute for Behavioral and Social Sciences, and is the CEO of Blackhawke Behavior Science, where they bring a research-backed approach to helping startups and venture capitalists make better people decisions, build more effective cultures, and the close the gender gap in venture capital funding.