Culture is the collection of shared assumptions, behaviors, and unwritten rules that determine 'how things really get done around here.' It is the operating system of your organization running silently in the background, shaping every decision, conversation, and career outcome. Culture has three layers: Artifacts (what you see), Espoused values (what you say), Underlying assumptions (what you believe). Culture lives in specific moments: The All-Hands Question, The 'High Performer' Exception, and The 'Ghost Value'. High-performing cultures obsess over three things: Behavioral clarity, System alignment, and Manager enablement.
