What is Culture?

Culture is a shared (and often unspoken) understanding of why and how work gets done.

It determines whether people should generally collaborate or work independently, how flexibly or rigidly they interpret processes and rules, and whether they work purely for the advancement of those involved or to impact a broader community.

Two culture types can be adjacent (differ on a single dimension), semi-adjacent (differ on two dimensions), or opposite (differ on all three dimensions).

We can measure a team’s expressed culture type by asking team members about their experience. When responses are consistent, the team has a coherent culture. When responses are inconsistent, the team has an incoherent culture.

We can measure a person’s personal culture fit by asking them about their preferences. When responses are consistent, the team has a unified culture. When responses are inconsistent, the team has a [scattered, fractured, fragmented] culture.

What is Team Culture?

Teams can maintain high morale and functionality despite a [scattered, fractured, fragmented] culture if they nurture psychological safety.

Teams that contain personal culture fits of opposite culture types require the most psychological safety to maintain high morale and functionality. This is especially true if they have a coherent culture that is opposite the personal culture fits of some individuals on the team.

High morale and functionality requires either a unified, coherent culture, or a psychologically safe environment.

The Team Culture Framework

The TeamCulture framework was developed by combining and refining ideas from some of the top minds in business and academia.

The 8 culture types—and ideas on how to measure them—are derived from the Integrated Culture Framework as outlined in the Harvard Business Review article “The Culture Factor” by Boris Groysberg, Jeremiah Lee, Jesse Price, and J. Yo-Jud Cheng.

Additional pieces of the framework were informed by Robert E. Quinn and Kim S. Cameron’s “Culture Typology,” developed at Michigan State University.