Clearing the Fog: Create a Culture Plan

by Pamela Coleman

September 2025

Ask any leader for a copy of their strategic plan, and they will readily share it. Ask the same leaders for their cultural plan, and you might see hesitation or a furrowed brow. Why is that? Most leaders agree that a well-managed culture can act as a strategic accelerant. So, why is it rare to find a formal plan for culture?

To launch a journey and reach a destination, you need to know where you are going. Only then can you strategize on how to get there. The start of any solid plan is understanding your goal. However, most teams are foggy about what they want their cultures to look like. 

When the Netflix team declared Freedom & Responsibility as their credo, they also established a cultural vision. This vision led to identifying cultural traits and designing ways of working. For example, Netflix was the first Bay Area company to grant employees unlimited PTO (paid time off) because leaders believed employees would be responsible with this type of freedom. They went on to select cultural attributes that would produce an operating model to further support their cultural vision of Freedom & Responsibility, such as candor and empowered decision-making, and they launched programs to develop these traits across the team.

More than ever, leaders must address their cultural foundation: Who are we? This question, and others like the ones outlined below, inspire leaders to craft a cultural vision that fosters an environment tailored to their organization, team, talent, industry, and market.

-              How should we think and act to reach our strategic goals?

-              Does our cultural vision give our employees a clear roadmap for success?

-              What ways of working do we envision that put the cultural vision into action?

-              How easy will it be to maintain accountability to the vision, especially for us?

The cultural vision forms the core of your culture’s organizing framework. Once articulated, your team can select cultural attributes that help bring the vision to life. A coherent cultural framework benefits all employees by giving them the confidence to act and make decisions -  because they understand how to do so. Get rid of the fog today! If you need a model to build your cultural plan, please reach out!