How to Guide Your Organization’s Culture

Name it: create a living document, be it a mission statement or a creed or even a motto. Use it as a touchstone to guide your decisions.
Refer to it: a culture that is neglected will still develop, but it will develop in accordance with the various contexts of your organization, possibly not in accordance to the vision or values of the larger organization.
Live it yourself: do your best to reflect the culture you want to cultivate
Establish buy-in from tastemakers: any organization will have folks from whom many others take their cue. These are the most important people to have believe in, and act to advance, the culture of the organization.
Empower: Give everyone in the company the trust and the power to act in accordance with the company culture, be it greater latitude in serving customers or flattening the hierarchy, put everyone in a position to advance the positive culture.
Be flexible: everyone will have their own interpretation of how an organization should operate – a good culture is able to handle debate and criticism without breaking down.
Revisit and Reflect: take a hard look at your organization’s existing behavior and culture from time to time. Is it as good as it could be? What are the pain points? How can you always be improving?

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Simon Ouderkirk