Culture

Culture is a mysterious energy. You can't see it but you can certainly feel it. You can feel when it's particularly strong within a team or in a physical space. If you've ever known what great open culture feels like, you'll also quickly know when you can't feel it.

We often liken open culture to the force in Star Wars. The force was strong in young Luke Skywalker in Star Wars IV – A New Hope: he wasn't wearing a t-shirt that said so, but others could feel it when in his presence. Open culture is like that. You'll know it when you've got it and you'll know when it's getting stronger. Your job is to regularly assess, sense, and check how strong the open culture is and, if you feel it could be stronger, explore more cultural foundation practices to strengthen it. We'll explore different techniques and practices that help measure and learn from the impact of these changes in Chapter 13, Measure and Learn.

In the...