Page 146 · Module 06, Build Your Team · this screen continues that page
All 108 frameworksCulture Code Canvas
Define your culture before your culture defines itself without you
The prompt
Copy & paste readyLabelsReplace theseSwap the role below
Who should run this prompt
Module role profileWho should advise on people and leadership decisions? Leadership decisions are the highest-leverage decisions in any organisation — and the hardest to get right because the stakes are human. The roles on this page bring the perspectives of people who have seen hundreds of teams succeed and fail. Use them before hiring, before giving difficult feedback, before restructuring, and before having the conversations you have been avoiding.
Choose any role to drop it into the prompt above. Only the highlighted opening clause changes — the rest of the prompt stays exactly as printed.
◆◆◆◆◆ → ◆ seniority, board level down to specialist◈ outside the organisation
How to make any role sharper
- Add years of experience: "...with 15 years in enterprise SaaS" produces different depth than just the title.
- Add what they care most about: "You care most about [X]" shapes every word of the output.
- Add their communication style: "Be direct. Flag risks first. No jargon." changes the tone entirely.
Use this when
The problem it solvesYour team is growing and people are joining who haven't been shaped by your founding culture. Or different parts of the team have different norms and it's causing friction. Culture is happening but not the one you intended.
How the framework works
From the printed pageDaniel Coyle's research in The Culture Code identified three core elements of high- performing team cultures: Safety (people feel they can speak up without risk), Vulnerability (leaders show imperfection, creating permission for others to do the same), and Purpose (a shared sense of why the work matters). The Culture Code Canvas operationalises these into a practical document that defines your team's values, behaviours, decision-making norms, and cultural boundaries, the things you hire for, reward, and fire for.
The method, in four moves
Do these in orderWrite your culture code based on how you actually behave, not how you aspire to behave.
For each value, write a behaviour that demonstrates it and a behaviour that violates it.
Share the culture code with every new hire in their first week before their first project.
Review and update annually cultures drift, and drift is invisible until it's damage. The 'what we don't tolerate' section is the most important and the most avoided. Every culture has things it informally tolerates that it publicly says it doesn't. Write the real list, not the aspirational one. The gap between what you say you won't tolerate and what you actually do tolerate is exactly where culture breaks down. PRO TIP
Where the framework comes from
Daniel Coyle, The Culture Code, 2018
Pairs well with
As printed with this frameworkModule 06 — Build Your Team
Build people who build the company leadership is the product.
12 frameworks, printed on pages 135–158.
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