Design Culture Intentionally or Watch Chaos Take Over—Your Company's DNA Starts with You
Every company, team, or even informal group has a culture—whether it’s thoughtful or accidental. When the Airbnb founders first faced growth, they realized every hire brought new habits and assumptions, potentially shaping their business for years. Hiring was more than finding the next coder or marketer; it meant establishing the genetic code for all future decisions, behavior, and traditions. Would they be scrappy and resourceful or big and bureaucratic? Would feedback be candid or sugarcoated? Small choices snowballed into culture.
Armed with new awareness, they didn’t rush. Instead, they paused to write down the traits they prized—hard work, boldness, a “family spirit”—before they ever posted a new job ad. They studied organizations with distinctive cultures, from Apple to Zappos, borrowing rituals and mission statements. Values weren’t abstract: they shaped who got hired, promoted, or let go.
Over time, stated values became the common language—referenced in interviews, performance reviews, and team debates. When a rough patch hit, those with shared values stuck together. Others drifted out. Even basic details—like how candidates were greeted or how feedback was delivered—flowed from these early decisions. Research in organizational psychology confirms that early-stage teams able to state and practice explicit values avoid later confusion, conflict, and misalignment as they scale. The culture isn’t the ping pong tables or free snacks—it’s the invisible rules people live by, and they start with intentional choices.
Take a quiet moment to list five values that truly matter to you in a team or group—don’t rush, and try to be as honest as possible. Talk these through with your peers or workmates, inviting honest (even tough) questions about what would actually work day to day. Use these values as your compass for two weeks, letting them shape decisions about feedback, how you spend time, and what you celebrate. Write them down, post them somewhere you can’t ignore, and keep coming back to check if your reality matches your ideal. Let them be guides, not decorations.
What You'll Achieve
Clarify your team’s core principles to guide hiring, feedback, and daily rituals, reducing confusion and misalignment. Internally, this builds a stronger sense of community and psychological safety, while externally it leads to more effective growth, smoother onboarding, and resilience during stress.
Craft and Defend Your Team's Core Values Early
Write Down 5 Key Values.
Reflect on what kind of group or workplace you want to build; jot five beliefs or behaviors you consider non-negotiable (e.g., curiosity, candor, hustle, kindness, or ownership).
Share and Discuss with Your Team or Friends.
Invite trusted collaborators or team members to respond, suggest edits, or add their own. Notice where alignment and differences emerge.
Refine by Real-Life Testing.
For two weeks, use your values to guide small decisions—hiring, feedback, planning events—and observe what feels natural or forced.
Codify and Display Values Visibly.
Print or prominently post your chosen values where everyone can see them—bedroom wall, team chat, office whiteboard—and refer to them during onboarding or meetings.
Reflection Questions
- What would you never want to change about your group or team?
- How do you want people to feel when they work or collaborate with you?
- Which values have you seen ignored or compromised in past projects?
- How do your daily actions reinforce or contradict your stated culture?
Personalization Tips
- In a volunteer club, values like 'respect everyone’s time' and 'pitch in without being asked' shape how you run meetings and plan events.
- On a sports team, you might choose 'show up early, support teammates, speak openly even about mistakes.'
- For a student project, try ‘share credit, ask for help when stuck, make progress visible daily’.
The Airbnb Story: How Three Ordinary Guys Disrupted an Industry, Made Billions . . . and Created Plenty of Controversy
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