Culture by Design

Culture by Design™

An Architecture for Turning Values into Behavior, and Behavior into Results

Most organizations do not struggle because they lack values. They struggle because values are not operationalized. Culture by Design™ is a structured, 12 to 16-week engagement that moves culture out of abstraction and into the daily decisions, behaviors, and systems that actually shape performance.

This work is designed for organizations that want culture to support strategy rather than compete with it, scale beyond founders or individual leaders, and hold under pressure, growth, and change.

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CULTURE: THE INVISIBLE ARCHITECTURE OF EVERY ORGANIZATION

It determines whether strategy succeeds or fails, whether talent stays or leaves, whether growth strengthens or fractures what you have built. Yet it remains stubbornly difficult to get your hands around, easier to feel than to define, and harder still to deliberately design.

What This Work Solves

Executives often sense culture issues long before they can name them:

Values exist, but are interpreted differently across teams
Leadership behaviors are inconsistent
Decision-making feels subjective or politicized
New hires do not fully understand how things really work
Culture feels fragile during growth or change

Culture by Design™ turns aspiration into architecture.

What You Get

A structured 12 to 16 week engagement that builds:

📘 1. Culture Definition

Clear, shared understanding of what your culture stands for
Values clarification or refinement
Core behaviors defined for each value
A coherent culture story that reflects origin, evolution, and future state

This creates alignment at the level of meaning, not slogans.

🧠 2. Behavioral Architecture

Culture translated into expectations leaders can actually use
Behavior matrix showing what each value looks like in action
Decision-making filters grounded in values
Performance expectations explicitly tied to culture

This is where culture becomes operational.

🔄 3. Rituals and Practices

Culture embedded into the rhythm of work
Onboarding rituals that transmit culture
Recognition practices that reinforce values
Feedback loops that surface culture drift early

Culture stops being episodic and becomes lived.

🖼️ 4. Artifacts and Visibility

Culture made visible and repeatable
Culture handbook
Onboarding playbook
Visual artifacts (cards, posters, digital assets)

These tools ensure culture is consistent rather than leader-dependent.

🔧 5. Sustainability Design

Culture built to last beyond the engagement
Culture champions network
Quarterly culture check-ins
Early warning signals for drift

This is how culture scales without constant intervention.

The Engagement Process

Every organization is unique, and the time needed in each phase may vary based on your specific context, existing culture work, and organizational complexity. The timeline below reflects a typical 12 to 16 week engagement, but we adapt the pace to what serves your organization best.

1️⃣ PHASE 1: DISCOVERY

Weeks 1-3

We begin by understanding where you are. Through stakeholder interviews, we surface how culture is currently experienced across levels and functions. We conduct a culture health assessment to identify strengths and friction points, map the historical evolution of your culture, and audit any existing values work. This phase ensures we are building on reality, not assumptions.

2️⃣ PHASE 2: TRANSLATION

Weeks 4-7

This is where values move from abstract to actionable. Through facilitated workshops, we clarify or refine your core values and translate each into specific, observable behaviors. We develop a coherent culture story that connects your origin, evolution, and aspirational future. By the end of this phase, you have the foundation for a culture that can be taught, recognized, and reinforced.

3️⃣ PHASE 3: DESIGN

Weeks 8-11

With clarity in place, we design the systems that will sustain it. This includes rituals that embed culture into the rhythm of work, artifacts that make culture visible and repeatable, a manager toolkit for reinforcing culture in daily interactions, and feedback loops that surface drift early. The goal is infrastructure that holds without constant intervention.

4️⃣ PHASE 4: PILOT AND ROLLOUT

Weeks 12-16

We test the architecture with your leadership team and one department before full rollout. This pilot phase allows us to refine based on real use and surface any gaps. From there, we support a structured rollout with training, embed the culture architecture into onboarding and performance systems, and ensure your team is equipped to maintain it independently.

Delivery Format

Hybrid (Recommended)

In-person workshops for Discovery and Translation phases, combined with virtual sessions for Design and Rollout. This format builds the relational foundation needed for culture work while maintaining flexibility.

Fully Virtual

All sessions conducted virtually for distributed teams or organizations where travel is not practical. We adapt the workshop design to maintain engagement and depth in a virtual environment.

A Foundational Pillar of the ALIGN Operating System™

Within ALIGN OS™, culture is not treated as a standalone initiative. It is the operating environment that enables strategy, leadership capability, and people systems to function coherently.

This work ensures that strategic intent translates into consistent behavior, and leadership expectations are clear and shared across levels. Without this layer, alignment depends on individual effort. With it, alignment becomes systemic.

Learn more about ALIGN OS™

Common Questions

We already have values. Do we need to start over?

How do you prevent culture work from being performative?

How do you involve the whole organization?

What is the investment?

How is the engagement customized to our organization?

Ready to make culture a strategic advantage?

If culture is already shaping outcomes, whether intentionally or not, the question becomes whether it is doing so by design.

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