It’s a familiar scene in many growing companies:
The leadership team retreats for a couple of days, digs deep, crafts a compelling vision, maybe even a new set of values—and then rolls it out with great fanfare in a company-wide meeting.
There’s a well-designed PowerPoint. Possibly a video. Maybe even branded mugs.
But here’s the question:
How much of it truly sticks?
Not just as slogans on the wall, but as the driver of the company?
Culture Isn’t What You Say. It’s What People Feel.
Culture isn’t installed. It’s not a software update.
It’s an ongoing co-creation of meaning—shaped every day by how people show up, how they make decisions, and what they believe they’re building together.
And that’s the key word: together.
The most enduring cultures aren’t handed down from the top. They’re built from the inside out.
From Rollout to Invitation
A founder I coach had this insight recently. He and his leadership team were circling around a unifying “why”—something beyond revenue targets, something they could all rally behind. And they were excited about sharing it with the team.
But instead of presenting it fully formed, we explored a different path:
What if the team helped shape it?
What if, at the next quarterly meeting, they posed a question instead of presenting a statement?
- “Why are we here?”
- “What kind of experience do we want to create for our customers?”
- “What do we want to feel when we go home at the end of the day?”
These aren’t fluffy prompts. They’re questions that create culture-shaping conversations. And they reveal what already matters to people—what’s already in the DNA of the company that’s waiting to be brought out in to the open.
You Don’t Need a Big Offsite—You Can Just Start
The right culture isn’t created. It emerges.
It’s coaxed from what already is happening when people are at their best.
Here’s what defining a culture can look like in practice:
- A lunch meeting where field staff and office staff share stories of when the company was at its best.
- A whiteboard in the break room with the question: “What’s one thing we’re proud of this quarter?”
- A 15-minute all-hands session where each team shares what they stand for—not what they do, but why they care.
These are simple moves. But they create buy-in because people see themselves in the answers. And they want to be more like the stories they are hearing. They want to be one of the people in the stories.
And when your team helps build the “why,” they don’t need to be reminded of it. They live it—because they made it.
Culture Is a Feeling, Not a File
The best company cultures aren’t designed. They’re discovered.
They live in hallway conversations, the tone of your emails, how you handle pressure, how you celebrate wins—and how you treat each other when you’re not winning.
So if you’re a leader thinking about how to shape culture as you grow:
Try less rollout. More invitation.
The PowerPoint can wait.
Start with a question. And let your people surprise you.