How to Define, Declare, and Defend Culture

Culture is defined as the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors that characterize a company and its employees.

The values, attitudes, and behaviors that define us appear in everything we do.

So, defining our culture defines everything.

Define, Declare, Defend

What’s your culture?  How do you define it?  What values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors characterize the culture you work in or live in?

Work and personal cultures are separate; however, the culture with the most established (defined, declared, and defended) leadership starts infiltrating the other.

If your work culture is ambiguous, harmful, or toxic, your personal life starts to reflect that culture. Conversely, if your work culture is positive, uplifting, focused, and encouraging, it's easy to see that play out elsewhere.

Robby Emery, who you may recall from our podcast together last fall, will be a speaker at the IDL Summit 2025.

He will share tremendous lessons and stories from his experience as Michigan Football's Director of Character Development. He will explain what it has taken to define, declare, and defend a championship culture.

Our Words

Once we define a culture—again, the values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors—we can’t leave it there. We must declare how the culture is lived out, why it's essential, and what it means. If not, we might defend the wrong thing.

In college football, it has been a tradition for a visiting team to plant its flag in the middle of the field after defeating its home opponent.

Some people like it, others don't.

Some teams have made it a cultural decree not to let another team plant their flag.

And this is where spoken words can lead to unintended consequences.

When Michigan beat Ohio State at home…again (painfully), the players chose to defend a motto - a declaration they had been echoing for nearly two years. “We will not let them plant the flag on our field.”

As a Buckeye, it sounds great to me.

No opponent flag planting.  “I’m all in.”

Yet, were the coach's words enough to drive the desired behaviors?  Nope

Michigan players attempted to plant the flag, but a few Buckeyes rose to defend.
They were standing true to the declaration…No flag planting.

But they missed the message.

Values on the walls don’t lead to action in the halls.

It was not so tongue-in-cheek, but the action people wanted was to win the game.  Because they would have meant the winning opponent wouldn’t plant the flag.

The value on the wall was not flag planting, but it did not lead to winning the game.

The lesson: Your words are meaningful and powerful.  Both positive and negative.  What we speak about, we bring about.  So, we need to be really clear about the values, behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs we want our culture to be about.

I sure wish Coach Day had championed “Michigan does not win in our stadium.”

Different declaration, but the same result - No Flag planting!

Culture Lives in Person

I was chatting with a friend about the IDL Summit 2025 and culture earlier today.

I asked him and the companies he works with how they foster their culture.

In person.

It was that blunt.  Not all of their companies operate in-person or in one office location.

They have combinations of in-person, hybrid, and field structures, but they all require time spent interacting and connecting in person. 

They have forgone office leases for team retreats, shifting the overhead costs of providing office space for all their employees to bringing people together for occasions that sometimes have nothing to do with their work.

It makes sense because culture needs a host, requiring a person to live within and be expressed through.

This is, first and foremost, the leader and flows through every other person.

The Summit is an exact opportunity to do that; It is a place, time, and occasion to Define, Declare, and Defend the culture you want and everyone you work with desires.

Summit

Not even organization is the same. No two leaders have the same talents, challenges, or blind spots. Yet every organization has people. People led by leaders

What excites me about the Summit this year is the ability to in real-time share and work through the barriers, walls, and challenges that keep cultures from being what everyone wants them to be.

On May 7th and 8th, I will host the 2nd annual Impact Driven Leader Summit.

This year, we have an unofficial theme, and it’s culture.  Culture Matters, Winning Culture, Connecting Culture and Creating Culture.

Be a part of the event and learn from some of the best culture-focused leaders in the country.

I can't wait to see you in May. Register Here

Did you catch this podcast? If not, listen to it here.