Culture by Design: 8 simple steps to drive better individual and organizational performance

by David Friedman

Culture has become the hottest word in today's organizational lexicon. From boardrooms to locker rooms, everyone's talking about the critical link between culture and extraordinary team performance. Yet, as clear as that link may be, understanding what culture is, and what to do about it, has always been so murky. Until now. In this game-changing book, David Friedman cuts through the fog and provides a simple, clear, and practical roadmap for building a high-performing culture - in any organization. Filled with stories and examples from his own leadership career, as well as his work with hundreds of other CEOs, Friedman brings a level of credibility and practical wisdom that stands in stark contrast to the typical academic treatment of culture. Delivered with his legendary logic and easy-to-read style, he makes understanding culture so simple that you'll wonder why you didn't think of it all yourself. Quite possibly. it's the most useful book ever written on organizational culture.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Self Help, Cultural

242 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 21, 2018

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Reviews

[Polina Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was recommended this book by the CEO and COO of the company I work for. It has some excellent ideas. Culture shouldn’t be confused with moral of the company but the behaviors of the employees.

[Andreas Konstantinou · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Culture by Design, entrepreneur and consultant David Friedman describes a comprehensive framework for designing the culture of a company, through the behaviours that define it. Friedman rightly advocates that behaviours, not values, is what can accurately define the culture of a company, what behaviours are healthy and which ones are toxic. He describes the most thoughtful approach I have seen for instilling healthy behaviours in a company, through a weekly communication system that reinforces each behaviour and what it means from the perspective of employees. Friedman has helped 700+ companies adopt his behaviour-based approach, where each company has typically 25-30 fundamentals (aka behaviours), and prescribes how those behaviours can be reinforced during hiring and integration (aka onboarding). Overall, this is the most thoughtful and practical approach I have seen so far for designing a company culture through values and behaviours.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 My employer hired the author to present at our annual leadership conference and gave us all this book. There were some good nuggets for consideration. I’ve made some changes to focus more on culture when conducting team meetings and connecting with team members individually.

[Amanda Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Super practical and applicable. I immediately bought his other book Fundamentally Different after reading this one and I’m instituting the Fundamentals at work. It’s a bit of a sales pitch for his business services, which I’m sure are awesome but are $$$.

[Todd Cheng · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book helped set fundamental of group and empowering the team to innovate and be creative. I am not a fan of the nearly advertising mode of the book, but it does help break it up.

[Frank Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

An insightful and practical read for any business or organizational leader who is serious about strengthening their organizational culture.

[Asha Hawkesworth · Rating 2 out of 5]

The distance between the bindings was too large. It has some value, sure, but this could've been a blog post.

[Daniel Hopkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

The ideas in this book have the potential to change your business’ culture dramatically. Last few chapters are filler.

[Jean Curley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author provides a simple and practical framework with actionable steps that seem easy to follow and replicate.

[Joseph Chick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cannot recommend enough for
Anyone interested in moving the needle on their organizational culture. Actionable and approachable, it’s a solid must read

[KateLynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for work book club. Some good tips.

[Tim Penning · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smart. A practitioner's view of what theory has determined.

[Herschel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Operationalizing Culture

Mr. Friedman’s approach of defining culture as behavior and integrating it into organizational and individual behavior is excellent and practical.