446 Leveraging the Culture Index for Business Success with Danielle Scimeca and Conor Parrish

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How do you make "right person, right seat" a repeatable system—not a hope?

Fact Water Co's Danielle Scimeca (President) and returning guest Conor Parrish (Chief Growth Officer) share how the Culture Index became a decisive tool for coaching, hiring, and a company-wide restructure. If you lead field service, customer service, or operations in industrial water, this conversation offers practical patterns you can apply the next time a role feels misaligned or a 1:1 stall on surface-level updates.

From intuition to instrumentation

Trace opens with the origin story and quickly moves to why Danielle and Conor adopted the Culture Index. Conor outlines the survey's core traits (A, B, C, D), EU (energy units), logic, and ingenuity—and how those readings map to daily work. The team now enters 1:1s with data, not guesswork, and uses pattern shifts (e.g., crossing the bell-curve center line) as objective prompts to discuss burnout risk, disengagement, or role fit.

Coaching that respects how people actually work

Quarterly surveys provide a shared language for conflict and pace. Danielle and Conor show how "high-D vs. low-D" disagreements de-escalate when both sides name the pattern and adjust the level of detail or speed. The same framework helps leaders spot "quiet quitting" signals (e.g., EU changes) early, address them with empathy, and—when necessary—make seat changes with clarity.

Hiring with a C-Job—and holding the line

For open roles, they build a "C-job" (ideal pattern) and filter applicants by percentage match before reading résumés. That slows the front end but saves cycles by preventing mis-fit first interviews, reduces turnover, and improves team performance. The hardest lesson? When they ignored the pattern and hired outside the profile, they regretted it.

Restructure at scale—faster, with fewer re-hires

Armed with data, Fact Water accelerated a difficult restructure (significant field and customer-service turnover) and refilled seats against the right patterns. Outcomes included better alignment, happier team members, and fewer escalations. The same insights even improved communication at home—proof the temperament model applies beyond work.

Tools don't lead—leaders do. The Culture Index gave Danielle and Conor the transparency and conviction to act sooner and coach smarter.

Listen to the full conversation above. Stay engaged, keep learning, and continue scaling up your knowledge!

Timestamps

02:24 - Trace Blackmore shares Industrial Water Week recap & #IWW25 highlights

13:37 - Water You Know with James McDonald

14:53 - Upcoming Events for Water Treatment Professionals

21:22 – Interview starts: Danielle Scimeca & Conor Parrish of Fact Water Co

24:46 – Why Culture Index

26:16 - Culture Index Overview

36:11 – Coaching Use: Data-Drive 1:1s and pattern shifts

44:36 – Hiring Use: C-Job Profiles

47:49 – Slower Hiring vs. Lower Turnover: lessons learned

53:46 – Real Example: High- D vs. Low-D communication conflict

Quotes

Conor Parrish: "High level culture index is a tool that we use. It starts with the culture index survey."

Danielle Scimeca: "The program forces you to make tough decisions… you deserve to be in a job that you find fulfilling."

Conor Parrish: "HR isn't doing first interviews with 30 people—they're doing first interviews with three to five."

Conor Parrish: "There's so much more to it the more you go… I'm learning something new every day"

Danielle Scimeca: "If you're not ready to make changes, it might not be the right time to do it."

Connect with Conor Parrish

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.factwaterco.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/conor-parrish-cwt-15208251/

Connect with Danielle Scimeca

Email: [email protected]

Website: https://www.factwaterco.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielle-scimeca-esq-519604279/

Guest Resources Mentioned

Randi Fargen (Executive Advisor)

Culture Index Program

Scaling UP! H2O Resources Mentioned

AWT (Association of Water Technologies)

AWT 2025 Convention and Exposition

AWT 2025 Business Owners Meeting

AWT 2025 Golf Tournament

008 The One with Conor Parrish

186 The One where Conor Parrish Interviews Me, Part 1

187 The One where Conor Parrish Interviews Me, Part 2

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Check out our Scaling UP! H2O Events Calendar where we've listed every event Water Treaters should be aware of by clicking HERE.

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