The Behaviors You Tolerate
Michael Basch put it plainly in Customer Culture: "People change, not because managers direct them to change, but because they find themselves in a culture where personal change is in their best interest."
Restaurateur Danny Meyer said something similar, from a different angle: “Culture is the sum of all the wanted behaviors you celebrate, minus the unwanted behaviors you tolerate.”
Two definitions. One conclusion: culture is built—or eroded—through daily behavior.
Most leaders know this in theory. Fewer act on it in practice. They invest in values workshops and culture decks, then wonder why nothing changes. The problem is culture-building gets treated as an initiative rather than the ongoing work of leadership.
Culture happens whether you plan it or not. The question is whether it's working for you or against you.
What deliberate culture-building looks like
Trip Randall, CEO of Superfeet, made culture part of his business strategy from day one. His defining principle: the No Jerk Policy. No matter how talented someone is, they don't last if they don't treat others with respect.
Simple. Specific. Enforced.
Because that standard was clear and consistently reinforced in hiring, in feedback, and in everyday decisions, it became habit. It became the default. That's the Basch insight in action: when the behaviors you want are clear and recognized, people build habits around them. Inc. Magazine named Superfeet one of its Best Workplaces. More importantly, respectful collaboration stopped being a poster value and became just how things work.
The culture-execution connection
Culture is the operating system your execution runs on. Google's Project Aristotle found that psychological safety was the single biggest predictor of team performance. When people feel safe to speak up and surface problems early, execution improves. When they don't, problems hide until they're expensive.
That's a culture outcome, not a process outcome.
What this asks of you
If you want disciplined execution, model discipline. If you want people to surface problems, reward them when they do. If you want honest communication, make honesty safe.
The behaviors you celebrate become the behaviors people repeat. The ones you tolerate quietly become habits too.
Culture builds in both directions. You get to choose which way it goes.
