Culture is built one decision, one interaction, and one moment at a time. Every policy you implement, meeting you run, and piece of feedback you provide either reinforces or undermines your desired culture.

Tom was surrounded by two of his valued team members in what he didn’t realize was about to become an intervention. “If you don’t change the way you treat us, we are walking,” they explained.

At that moment, Tom had what he describes as a “wake-up call.” He took a good, hard look in the mirror and decided to make some changes. His employees at Tasty Catering helped him understand what they needed, including more psychological safety and greater autonomy. What Tom discovered next changed everything, and it can transform your organization too.

Why Most Culture Initiatives Fail

Culture change doesn’t happen by declaring it. I’ve seen countless organizations launch formal “culture change initiatives” only to watch them fizzle out within months. The problem isn’t lack of good intentions. It’s that most leaders mistake what Marcus Buckingham calls “cultural plumage” (Nine Lies About Work, 2019): the ping pong tables, free snacks, and casual Fridays for authentic culture.

Research from MIT Sloan shows that a toxic corporate culture is 10.4 times more powerful than compensation in predicting turnover during the Great Resignation.¹ This underscores just how critical culture is to organizational success and how costly it is to get it wrong.

Real culture lives in how work gets done, how decisions get made, and how people treat each other in pursuit of shared goals. It emerges naturally from the conditions leaders create, not from motivational posters or company retreats.

After studying hundreds of high-performing teams and having ringside seats to both glorious successes and unfortunate failures, we’ve identified six specific elements that consistently separate the extraordinary from the ordinary. Think of these as the culture equation: the fundamental components that, when present, create the conditions for teams to thrive. (This framework is detailed further in our upcoming book, The Intentional Executive.)

The Six-Element Culture Equation

These aren’t theoretical concepts pulled from academic research (though the research supports them). These are the practical elements we’ve observed in every high-performing team we’ve encountered. More importantly, they work as a diagnostic tool. You can assess where your team stands and identify exactly where to focus your efforts.

Let’s examine each element and how you can evaluate your current culture.

Element 1: Psychological Safety

Psychological safety means team members feel they can take interpersonal risks without fear of negative consequences. Harvard professor Amy Edmondson’s research (The Fearless Organization, 2018) shows this is crucial for team learning, innovation, and performance. Google’s extensive Project Aristotle research confirmed it as the most critical factor in team effectiveness.²

What it looks like in practice: People speak up in meetings without fear of reprisal. Mistakes are treated as learning opportunities rather than sources of punishment. Team members feel free to ask questions without worrying about appearing incompetent. Instead of assigning blame, failures are examined for learning and improvement.

Quick diagnostic questions: Do you hear bad news quickly? Do people come to you with problems? Is feedback flowing in all directions? Are questions welcomed and addressed?

Tom was fortunate that his employees felt compelled to speak up and safe enough to share their experiences. They had enough psychological safety and loyalty to voice their concerns, a reality not every company has. This started a chain reaction that led to complete organizational transformation.

Element 2: Performance Excellence

High-performance standards are closely tied to the organization’s core purpose. This isn’t about being demanding for the sake of it. It’s about establishing norms around good performance that move teams from their comfort zone into the performance zone.

What it looks like in practice: Clear expectations about what good looks like. Recognition systems that celebrate excellence. Continuous improvement processes. Team members who push themselves to be their best while supporting each other in that ambition.

Quick diagnostic questions: Are your standards clear and consistently applied? Do people understand what excellence means in their role? Is there a shared commitment to delivering your best work?

With Tom’s support, Tasty Catering’s leadership defined core values and intentionally integrated them into decision-making, hiring, firing, rewards, and recognition. They set out to transition from a top-down leadership approach to growing a culture of leaders.

Element 3: Operational Autonomy

The best organizations empower their teams with autonomy to contribute and perform at the highest level possible. They move decisions to the lowest level where the information is available to make effective decisions, then ensure those individuals have the training, coaching, and freedom to act.

What it looks like in practice: Rather than creating rigid policies for every situation, great leaders establish guiding principles that enable smart decision-making. Teams can adapt quickly while staying true to what matters most. Bureaucracy is minimized, and critical thinking is fostered across the organization.

Quick diagnostic questions: How many approval layers exist for routine decisions? Can people solve problems without constant escalation? Do you have principles or just policies?

Tom and his leadership team empowered team members to find their own answers. Instead of providing solutions, they expected team members to devise three proposed solutions to their questions or problems before Tom would weigh in. This helped team members grow their resourcefulness and recognize their leadership capabilities.

Element 4: Growth Focus

In a growth-focused organization, learning and improvement are valued over “in-the-moment” performance, and strengths are built upon as the foundation of future success. Teams focused on growth achieve exponential improvements because they’re focused on getting better at getting better.

What it looks like in practice: Actionable feedback that’s specific and future-focused. Development opportunities that challenge and engage team members. Healthy disagreement that drives to better solutions. Regular reflection on successes and failures with a focus on learning.

Quick diagnostic questions: Do your reviews focus on growth or just evaluation? Is failure treated as learning? Are people encouraged to experiment and take appropriate risks?

Tasty Catering established a “Good to Great Council” inspired by Jim Collins’ book (Good to Great, 2001), with team representatives from each department tackling business challenges with a holistic perspective. This created systematic opportunities for growth and learning across the organization.

Element 5: Kinship

Kinship fulfills our shared desire for connection, communication, and collaboration. Teams that develop kinship have a socially constructed experience that taps into shared purpose and memories. It’s often observed in groups who undertake difficult things together and build an “all for one and one for all” mentality.

What it looks like in practice: Team members genuinely have each other’s backs. There’s seamless collaboration and willingness to cover for one another during challenges. People transfer tasks naturally to achieve shared goals. There’s loyalty and willingness to support others, valuing team success over individual recognition.

Quick diagnostic questions: Do people cover for each other when needed? Is there genuine care between team members? Do you see evidence of “we’re in this together” thinking?

During the 2008 recession, Tasty Catering’s team devised the collective decision for shared pay reductions to prevent layoffs. Since the team was given input on the solution, they supported what they created and felt more valued. This demonstrated the deep kinship that had developed.

Element 6: Abundance Mindset

Abundance thinking isn’t just an individual mindset. It’s contagious. Teams with an abundance mindset approach challenges with possibility thinking rather than scarcity. They reframe constraints as creative catalysts and see opportunities where others see only obstacles.

What it looks like in practice: Problems are framed as opportunities for innovation. Teams build on each other’s ideas rather than shooting them down. There’s a focus on what’s possible rather than what’s wrong. Constraints are viewed as creative challenges rather than insurmountable barriers.

Quick diagnostic questions: How do you typically frame problems in team discussions? Do people see opportunities or only obstacles? Is the default response “yes, and…” or “yes, but…”?

Tasty Catering’s transformation wasn’t just about implementing new processes. It was about building deep connections and adopting an abundance mindset that enabled creative solutions even during challenging times.

What Transformation Looks Like

Tom was fortunate that when problems arose, his employees felt compelled to speak up and safe enough to share their experiences. Tasty Catering not only weathered that storm, but the company and team came out thriving on the other end³.

The beauty of these six elements is how they work together synergistically. Psychological safety enables growth focus. Kinship supports performance excellence. Abundance mindset fuels operational autonomy. When you get the equation right, you create what we call “performance synergy.” Teams don’t just collaborate effectively, they innovate, adapt, and consistently deliver beyond expectations.

Conversely, when elements are missing, you see the opposite. Teams without psychological safety become risk-averse. Organizations lacking kinship devolve into internal competition. Groups with scarcity mindsets get stuck in problem-focused thinking rather than solution-oriented action.

Your Culture Diagnostic

Here’s a simple way to assess where your team stands: Rate your organization on each of the six elements using a 1-5 scale (1 = significant opportunity, 5 = clear strength). Be honest. This isn’t about where you want to be, but where you actually are today.

Look for patterns in your ratings. Which elements are your strongest? Where do you see the biggest gaps? Most importantly, don’t try to tackle everything at once. It’s better to excel at 2-3 elements than be mediocre across all six.

For a more comprehensive evaluation, I encourage you to take our Leading for Peak Performance Assessment. It provides detailed insights on the kind of culture you’re fostering and specific recommendations for improvement.

Where to Start

If you’re wondering which element to focus on first, start with psychological safety. It’s the foundation that enables everything else. When team members feel safe to speak up, take risks, and learn from mistakes, you create the conditions for all other elements to flourish.

Pick one element to focus on for the next 90 days. Model the behaviors you want to see. If you want psychological safety, admit your own mistakes and ask for feedback. If you want abundance mindset, start framing challenges as opportunities in your communications.

Remember: your commitment to culture is demonstrated by the behaviors you tolerate, not the values you espouse. When you allow someone to consistently act counter to your desired culture (especially a high performer), you send a powerful message that undermines everything else you’re trying to build.

The Choice Every Leader Faces

Culture is built one decision, one interaction, and one moment at a time. Every policy you implement, meeting you run, and piece of feedback you provide either reinforces or undermines your desired culture.

You’re either intentionally building culture or accidentally allowing it to develop. The six elements provide a roadmap, but execution requires commitment and consistency.

The question isn’t whether you have time to focus on culture. It’s whether you can afford not to. As Simon Sinek reminds us (Start with Why, 2011), “Customers will never love a company until the employees love it first.”

Which element will you focus on first? Your team is watching, and your culture is being written right now.

References:

1. Sull, D., Sull, C., & Zweig, B. (2022). Toxic culture is driving the great resignation. MIT Sloan Management Review, 63(2), 1-9.
2. Duhigg, C. (2016). What Google learned from its quest to build the perfect team. The New York Times Magazine.
3. BenedictineCVDL. (n.d.). How to Build a People-Centered Culture from the Ground Up – Tasty Catering [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBQ4xHFuhOs

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