When it comes to business results, leaders often focus on the tangible—strategies, products, operational efficiencies, and profit margins. But what about the intangibles? What about culture? Many leaders see it as a soft, undefined element of an organization. They think it’s about perks, ping-pong tables, or morale-boosting activities that don’t directly contribute to the bottom line. However, culture is not just a nice-to-have—it’s the engine that drives results.
Culture Defined: Thinking and Acting for Results
The biggest misconception about culture is that it’s nebulous and unmeasurable. At Culture Partners, we define culture simply: it’s the way people think and act to achieve results. This definition shifts the conversation from the abstract to the actionable. By aligning how employees think and act with the organization’s strategic goals, businesses can see transformative outcomes.
But how do we know this works? It’s not just theory; it’s backed by decades of research and real-world application.
Data Speaks: Strong Culture Multiplies Revenue Growth
In partnership with Stanford University, we conducted a study of 243 organizations, each with between 100,000 and 350,000 employees, over a three-year period from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to 2023. The findings were compelling. Companies with strong, intentional cultures experienced a 42.2% revenue growth rate—four times higher than their counterparts with weaker cultures, which grew by just 10% during the same period.
While companies with weak cultures can still grow, the magnitude of growth is strikingly different. Strong culture isn’t just a competitive advantage; it’s the difference between incremental improvement and transformational success.
Why Perks Don’t Cut It
Let’s address a common misstep: confusing perks with culture. Nap pods, catered lunches, and after-work happy hours are fun, but they’re not the foundation of a strong culture. These perks are, at best, enhancements—icing on the cake. They don’t fundamentally change how people think and act. And they certainly don’t align employees with business results.
For example, a CEO once mandated “nap time” during COVID-19 after reading about the benefits of sleep. While well-intentioned, this initiative didn’t move the needle on results because it didn’t address core beliefs, actions, or alignment with organizational goals. To truly influence outcomes, culture needs to go deeper than surface-level perks.
The Results Pyramid: A Framework for Culture Transformation
At the heart of our work is a framework we call the Results Pyramid. It’s a tool that helps organizations align their culture to drive outcomes. Here’s how it works:
- Results: Every business starts with results. Whether it’s increasing revenue, improving customer satisfaction, or hitting operational KPIs, results are the ultimate goal.
- Actions: To achieve results, people must take specific actions—adopting new technology, restructuring teams, or launching strategic initiatives.
- Beliefs: Actions are driven by beliefs. If employees believe in the mission, feel valued, and trust leadership, they’re more likely to act in ways that align with organizational goals.
- Experiences: Beliefs are shaped by experiences. Every interaction—whether it’s a team meeting, feedback from a manager, or a story shared in a company newsletter—creates an experience that influences beliefs.
This framework ensures that culture isn’t a vague concept but a structured approach to achieving results.
Real-World Impact: Florida Power & Light
One of our most inspiring case studies comes from Florida Power & Light (FPL). Michael Fowler, the company’s former CIO, worked with us to integrate the Results Pyramid into their operations. FPL was already a high-performing organization, but Fowler wanted more. He believed that by aligning IT and business teams around shared beliefs and actions, they could unlock untapped potential.
Fowler began by defining what success looked like. For FPL, it meant achieving a “100% effortless” experience for both employees and customers. This aspirational goal shaped the company’s culture work. Employees co-created shared beliefs such as “delivering simply” and “valuing shared outcomes.” These beliefs weren’t just slogans—they were embedded in the company’s actions and decision-making processes.
The results? Teams resolved complex issues faster and more collaboratively. One project that previously might have taken six months was completed in a fraction of the time, thanks to the alignment created by this cultural shift.
Middle Managers: The Secret to Sustained Change
One of the biggest challenges in any cultural transformation is getting middle managers on board. They are often the lynchpins of organizational change. At FPL, middle managers weren’t just passive recipients of the new culture—they were active participants. They helped define the desired beliefs and actions and became culture champions, driving change from within their teams.
By involving middle managers early and empowering them to lead, FPL ensured that the cultural transformation was not just top-down but embedded throughout the organization.
Measuring Culture: Turning the Intangible into the Tangible
A question we often hear is: how do you measure something as intangible as culture? The answer lies in alignment. When culture is defined as how people think and act to achieve results, it becomes measurable through the outcomes it drives.
At Culture Partners, we use tools like the Results Pyramid and partnerships with organizations like the ROI Institute to isolate the impact of cultural initiatives. For example, in a retail client’s pilot program, we compared revenue growth between stores that implemented cultural changes and those that didn’t. The data clearly showed a significant lift in performance for the participating stores.
In other cases, we survey employees and ask them to quantify how much of their improved performance they attribute to cultural initiatives. By combining their self-reported data with confidence ratings, we calculate conservative estimates of cultural impact. These methods provide credible, actionable insights into how culture drives business outcomes.
From Belief to Action: Creating Intentional Experiences
At the core of cultural transformation is creating experiences that shape beliefs. These experiences don’t have to be elaborate or costly. Simple yet impactful practices like storytelling, recognition, and feedback can make a profound difference.
For example, one organization embedded storytelling into its daily routines. Teams began meetings by sharing stories about how their work connected to the company’s mission. This simple practice reinforced shared beliefs and aligned teams around a common purpose.
Another client revamped its recognition program to link individual contributions to organizational goals. Instead of generic praise like “great job,” managers gave specific feedback tied to cultural beliefs and strategic outcomes. This helped employees see the direct impact of their actions on the company’s success.
The Culture Equation: Aligning Purpose, Strategy, and Culture
Finally, we introduce our clients to the Culture Equation: Purpose + Strategy powered by Culture = Results. It’s a simple yet powerful formula that aligns every aspect of an organization. Purpose provides the “why,” strategy defines the “how,” and culture is the way people think and act to execute the strategy and fulfill the purpose.
Organizations that align these three elements see dramatic improvements in performance. Our research shows that companies with aligned purpose, strategy, and culture achieve three times the results of those that are misaligned.
