Culture is one of those words that means everything and nothing.

We need a strong culture. Culture eats strategy for breakfast. They're not a culture fit.

But when you pause to ask most people to describe what culture is, they fumble.

I found two descriptions I liked equally. One from the book, What You Do Is Who You Are. The other is from a work of fiction.

Ben Horowitz, the co-founder of the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, studied a range of strong cultures well outside the typical business contexts. Think prison gangs and slave rebellions.

After carefully observing the invisible glue that binds a group of people, here's how he describes culture.

While I believe in the value of writing it down and saying it aloud, none of that matters without the behaviors to back it up.

The difference between values and slogans is sacrifice.

Here's my two-question test.

Where the answer is Yes - that's your culture.

But for those aspects where you rationalize exceptions...

Those might be valuable, but they're not your values.

My other favorite definition brings this home. It's from Fredrik Backman, author of Beartown:

Because culture, at its essence, is behavior.

It's how we show up in the big moments as well as the small ones.

It's how we treat others. It's what we tell customers. It's how we solve problems.

It's what we do when everyone's watching. And especially when they're not.

It's the easy decisions we make. And the hard ones that we don't.

I have bad news. No one has the answer to this but you.

Culture is neither uniform nor is it static. What served you at 5 people might not serve you at 50 or 500. And what makes your system hum won't work for your competitor.

Take Netflix. Reed Hastings set out to build a company with an international culture from Day 1. They publish their now famous culture deck to the company and the world.

They have since rewritten it into a culture memo. And while many aspects remain consistent, it has evolved to meet its global expansion and shifting business focus.

The Principles at Bridgewater, which serve as an operating system for the world's largest hedge fund, also evolved. What started as an 80-page memo from the founder was debated by 1000s of employees and turned into a 300-page bestseller a decade later.

So while there is no one-size-fits-all paint-by-numbers culture template, you will see that companies applauded for their strong culture tend to share three foundational elements.

They Repel. I led a Netflix case discussion with a client recently. Most of the employees could not imagine a worse place to work. And that's the point. For the right people, they can't imagine working anywhere else.

They Align. The mission demands the right values. The values attract the right people. The people interact in a way that differentiates their ability to complete the mission. If the pieces don't line up, the culture will not withstand the pressure of impact.

They Evolve. They're respected as the way things get done, but not dogmatically. When a bug is found in the system, the system gets an update. Cultures endure when they balance being uncompromisingly principled and pragmatically agile.

If your culture hits the mark on all three, you likely have the essential ingredients of a culture that can empower your people and outlast the competition. These are the essence.

But you also want to get specific. Most high-performing cultures have authentic answers to the following questions:

You'll notice these are all "How" questions. With culture, you're trying to convey common meaning to fuel collective understanding. "How" questions demand clarity.

And the answers are lines of code in your company's operating system.

I wish it were as easy as pressing submit on a line of code, but it's not. You're trying to guide (or change) behavior. And not of one person but of an entire group.

Despite this challenge, I've been able to get surprising results by applying three moves consistently.

Writing brings clarity. The act helps sharpen your thinking. The outcome helps align others.

The fastest way to bring the team along? Give them the pen.

If you're a founder or CEO:

If you're leading a team within a company:

If they need a little inspiration, this Zappos Culture Canavs from FearlessCulture creates a helpful outline your team can color in.

Now that they've helped you tell the story, you need to find examples that show the culture in action.

Bridgewater can tell you they operate with radical transparency. Or they can require that you watch a video of someone getting harsh feedback in a room of 75 people.

Zappos can tell you they're quirky. Or they can visit their office to see "ringing cowbells, employees singing, and spur-of-the-minute parades."

NextJump can tell you they value security. Or they can offer you lifetime employment.

The recipe for mythology to work is simple to understand but takes effort to perfect:

And remember, to be truly magnetic, to attract and keep the deeply-aligned people you covet, these myths must also turn some people off.

If they appeal to everyone, they compel no one.

When Patty McCord cautioned Reed Hastings that publishing the culture deck would scare away all the candidates, he slyly responded, "Only the ones we don't want."

Ritual is not a word I selected by accident, it conjures a very different image than process, meeting, or event.

Rituals are intimate. They build connections. They harness the power of tradition.

Take the Blue Angels. These best-of-the-best pilots from the US Navy fly their planes 18 inches apart at 1200 mph. And they credit their ability to do this safely to the ritual of their Debrief.

How do I know it's a ritual?

We had something similar at Bridgwater with our Diagnosis Process. Because everyone knew it was the expected ritual to deal with problems and everyone knew how the dance was done, it created an efficient way for us to get to the root quickly.

And to more deeply connect with each other while doing it.

And most importantly: embody the culture you're trying to create.

Because what you do is who you are.

Speaking of rituals, my life has a soundtrack. There's a list for slow Sunday mornings with the family, an upbeat list for hanging on the boat in the summer, and anthems to energetically introduce every module of our MGMT Accelerator.

And now there's a Spotify list of hype songs from this community.

I'll admit I had to veto a couple of suggestions. My apologies. But for the most part, they're all on here. And I'll keep adding as they come in.

Side note: if you needed more evidence that people think very differently, wait until you see the range on this list.

If you run a company or team with at least 20 managers, we run private, customized cohorts of the MGMT Accelerator remotely and in person.

This has been a very effective model to help align teams after reorgs and acquisitions. Individuals can level up their leadership skills while connecting with their new colleagues.

Please drop me a note so we can find time to discuss.

We want the MGMT Playbook to help you win. And last week, 43 of you voted for me to draw up this play on team culture.

What play should we call next week?

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