Capturing Culture

VALUES are the LANGUAGE of culture. PRINCIPLES are the PRACTICE of culture. The culture of an organization can be both obvious and elusive at once. It is obvious to any long time member of an organization, who may describe it quite differently than the management of that same organization (and too often only with assurance of anonymity).  Culture can be elusive to new members of an organization, who often find they have to learn by trial and error what the shared values, principles and behavioral norms are. Weak leadership tries to compensate for this lack of clarity through lots of specific “rules”.  True leadership recognizes the need to express culture by formalizing a set of shared values for the organization, and to operationalize culture through a set of principles which guide the translation of those values into daily behaviors that all are held accountable for.