Govern with Culture

Culture as Operating System

Core Decision Principles

1. Disagree & Commit

• Voice concerns early
• Make decisions explicit
• Move forward as one team

2. Default to Open

• Share context broadly
• Document decisions
• Public-by-default channels

3. You Build It, You Run It

• End-to-end ownership
• Full-cycle development
• Direct customer feedback

Engineering Rituals

Weekly Cadence

Day	Ritual	Purpose	Format
Monday	Team Planning	Set weekly focus	30min, all hands
Wednesday	Demo Time	Share & learn	45min, open invite
Thursday	Tech Talk	Deep dive topic	60min, rotating presenter
Friday	Retro	Improve process	45min, team only

Monthly Cadence

Week	Ritual	Purpose	Format
Week 1	Architecture Review	System evolution	90min, tech leads
Week 2	Innovation Day	Explore new ideas	Full day, self-organized
Week 3	Post-mortem Review	Learn from incidents	60min, relevant teams
Week 4	Tech Strategy	Align direction	90min, leadership

Cultural Artifacts

1. Decision Records

# Decision Record Template

## Context
- What's the current situation?
- Why is a decision needed?

## Decision
- What was decided?
- Who was involved?

## Consequences
- What changes as a result?
- What are the trade-offs?

## Follow-up
- What needs monitoring?
- When to revisit?

2. Team Agreements

communication:
  async_first: true
  response_sla: "< 4 hours"
  escalation_path: ["team-lead", "engineering-manager", "CTO"]

code_practices:
  pr_review: "< 1 business day"
  test_coverage: "> 80%"
  documentation: "required for APIs"

on_call:
  rotation: "weekly"
  handover: "Friday 4pm"
  compensation: "time-off following week"

Measuring Cultural Health

1. Quantitative Metrics

Metric	Good	Warning	Action Needed
Decision Time	< 2 days	2-5 days	> 5 days
Documentation Rate	> 90%	70-90%	< 70%
Ritual Attendance	> 80%	60-80%	< 60%
Cross-team PRs	> 20%	10-20%	< 10%

2. Qualitative Signals

• Psychological safety in retros
• Knowledge sharing frequency
• Innovation proposals
• Conflict resolution patterns

Common Anti-patterns

1. Process Over Principles

❌ Problem: Adding rules to fix every issue ✅ Solution: Document principles, trust judgment

2. Ritual Without Purpose

❌ Problem: Meetings because “we always have them” ✅ Solution: Regular ritual reviews and adjustments

3. Culture by Decree

❌ Problem: Top-down culture mandates ✅ Solution: Co-create with teams, lead by example

Implementation Guide

First 30 Days

1. Document core principles
2. Start weekly demos
3. Set up decision record template

60-90 Days

1. Establish all key rituals
2. Begin measuring cultural metrics
3. Create team agreements

Beyond 90 Days

1. Regular culture surveys
2. Ritual effectiveness reviews
3. Principle evolution process

Integration Points

With Other Practices

• Feeds into Alignment & Feedback
• Supports Team Decoupling
• Enables Flow Optimization

With Tools & Systems

• Confluence/Notion for documentation
• Slack for communication
• GitHub for collaboration

Related Topics

• Values Framework
• Operating Model Overview
• Mission & Objectives

Pro Tip: Culture needs constant gardening. Schedule regular “culture health checks” to ensure principles and rituals evolve with your team’s needs.

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Further Reading

• “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle
• “Turn the Ship Around!” by L. David Marquet
• “Drive” by Daniel Pink
• “Project to Product” by Mik Kersten