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Culture Map

Culture as a chain of cause and effect, not a values poster.

The Culture Map makes company culture tangible in three layers: outcomes at the top, the behaviours that cause them in the middle, and the systems that make that behaviour possible (or impossible) at the bottom. Made for leaders, HR leads and teams who want to change culture, not just describe it.

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BoldcasterCulture Map · template

What is the Culture Map?

The Culture Map was developed by Dave Gray (XPLANE, author of Gamestorming). He broke with the habit of naming culture through abstract values and built a model that treats culture as a system: outcomes are the result of behaviour, and behaviour is the result of enablers and blockers. Do not change the values; change the blockers and the enablers, and the behaviour (and with it the outcomes) will follow.

The problem it solves: 'culture programmes' often end in posters, T-shirts and away days without anything changing in daily work. The Culture Map forces the discussion to shift from 'which values do we want' to 'which behaviour delivers our outcomes, and which systems block or speed up that behaviour'.

Where it falls short: it is a tool for diagnosis and design, not a method for change. To carry out the programme, combine it with a Change Management Canvas and with operational instruments (rituals, OKRs, review cycles).

When do you use it?

Use the Culture Map when you want a shift in culture (after an acquisition, when scaling from 30 to 300 people, after a crisis, during a strategic reorientation), or when you notice that 'we do not do what we say'.

For carrying out the programme: the Change Management Canvas. For the brand identity that culture connects to: the Brand Identity Canvas.

How to fill it in

Work from top to bottom: first the outcomes you want, then the behaviour needed for them, and only after that which systems you need to change. The temptation is to start with the blockers; do not.

01

Desired Outcomes

The results the culture should produce: concrete and visible, across several axes (customer, team, business). Avoid the language of values; use the language of outcomes.

Questions that help

  • ·What do you want customers to experience?
  • ·How do you want employees to feel about their work?
  • ·Which business results do you expect from this culture?

Example

Customers: 'get an answer within 4 hours, even at weekends'. Employees: 'say it is the best place they have ever worked'. Business: 'less than 8% staff turnover a year'.

Common mistake

Confusing outcomes with values ('we want to be open and honest'). Outcomes are measurable.

02

Behaviours

The everyday behaviour that demonstrably leads to the outcomes: verbs, not values. Limit yourself to 4 to 7 crucial behaviours; more cannot be upheld.

Questions that help

  • ·Which behaviour do we already see in our best teams?
  • ·Which behaviour is missing where things go wrong?
  • ·What does someone need to say or do to succeed here?

Example

1. 'Customer emails are answered within one working day, even if the answer is "I do not know yet".' 2. 'Decisions are shared in five-sentence memos.' 3. 'Anyone can start a retro without a leader's permission.'

Common mistake

Phrasing behaviours as values ('we are customer-focused'). Behaviour = verb + object.

03

Enablers & Blockers

The systems, rituals, rewards, spaces, leaders and tools that make the behaviour easier or harder. Changing culture means adding enablers and removing blockers, not putting up posters.

Questions that help

  • ·Which system makes the desired behaviour easy?
  • ·Which system quietly rewards the old behaviour?
  • ·Which ritual, meeting or incentive blocks what we want?

Example

Enablers: a five-sentence memo template in Notion, a retro bot in Slack, 'customer response time' on the main dashboard. Blockers: bonuses based only on individual targets, an annual review without peer input, a Slack channel where only senior people post.

Common mistake

Adding enablers without removing blockers. The old system then always wins.

Common mistakes

The language of values instead of behaviour

'Customer-focused' is a value, not a behaviour. 'Answering customer emails within one working day' is behaviour.

Starting with the blockers

First know what you want (outcomes), then which behaviour causes it, then which systems you touch. Otherwise you change things without a compass.

Too many behaviours

More than 7 is not a culture; it is a rulebook. Choose the crucial ones, not all of them.

Adding enablers and leaving the blockers in place

The old system (bonus structure, planning, leadership behaviour) always beats a new poster.

Imposing culture from the top down

Work on the canvas together with representative team members. What managers call culture often feels different on the shop floor.

A one-off exercise

Without a monthly check and visible action, the canvas disappears into a drawer. Put it up on the wall and refer to it in one-to-ones.

In Boldcaster

How Boldcaster helps you with this

Fill it in interactively

No stray PDF lost in your downloads folder. Fill in the canvas in the app, with version history and comment threads.

Bold AI does the groundwork

Paste in your business plan, annual report or rough notes and Bold AI fills in the canvas for you. Or ask it for suggestions block by block.

Connected to your strategy

Send an insight from this Culture to your Priorities, KPIs or strategy in one click, instead of leaving it on a whiteboard.

All canvases in one place

Pilot users get access to BMC, Lean Canvas, Value Proposition Canvas and whatever comes next. One platform, one system.

Create a free account and use every canvas

Prefer some guidance?

You don't need to know the models: Bold AI helps you block by block. Want someone alongside you to run the sessions with your leadership team? Start with the scale-up audit. After that, we're happy to introduce you to a coach from our network who works with Boldcaster.

Frequently asked questions

How does it differ from Schein's model of culture?

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Schein distinguishes artefacts, espoused values and basic assumptions: a diagnostic model. Gray's Culture Map is geared to intervention: from what you want, through behaviour, to systems. They complement each other.

How many people should I involve in filling it in?

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Start small (8 to 12 representative people), validate with the wider team (focus groups or a survey), and decide with the leadership. A purely top-down approach gains no traction.

How long does a Culture Map session take?

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A first version: half a day with good preparation. A usable version after 2 or 3 iterations with data and conversations: 3 to 6 weeks.

Does this work for remote teams?

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Yes, even better in fact: remote working forces explicit enablers (rituals, documentation, async defaults). Much of the implicit culture from the office does not work remotely.

How do I measure culture change?

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Three tracks: outcomes (NPS, staff turnover, customer response time), behaviour (peer observations, participation in rituals) and pulse surveys on the enablers (does the ritual actually work?).

What if the leadership itself is the blocker?

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That is common. Make it discussable in the canvas itself (honestly: 'leadership behaviour X blocks Y'). Without naming it, nothing changes.

How often should it be updated?

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Look at it every six months, revise it every year. In between for major events (an acquisition, redundancies, a strategic shift).

Further reading

What does a filled-in Culture Map look like?

An empty canvas is the easy part. The hard part is what goes in it. I'll send you a completed Culture Map: a fictional company, real wording, sharp enough to base decisions on.

See a completed example

The strategy canvas of a fictional installation company, fully completed. Plus five signs that a canvas actually steers the business, rather than just being filled in. Four pages, PDF.

You'll see the example straight away and get a copy by email. We keep your address so we can help with your strategy; unsubscribe any time in one click.