Organizational Cultures

A collection of examples of ways that humans and organizations have collected, codified, and expressed cultures, values, strategies, and passions.

While this is not intended to be a complete collection of "culture decks", it is an ever-growing collection of presentations, lists, jargon files, essays, and maxims in which leaders and members of well-known organizations have inventoried and structured what they've deemed essential elements that shape their local ecosystems and how they work in the larger world. The qualifiers and filters used to determine what should be included here is kept intentionally vague to allow for gathered wisdom of all types to be shared.

(Updated 2024-12-10)

1. Netflix: Culture Deck (V1 ) (V2 ). This is a classic slide deck that many point to as an example of how startups in the early 2000s began to wrestle with the challenge of "organically" transmitting culture within rapidly-growing tech organizations. As these tech companies grew, it became harder and harder to trust that everyone magically knew the mission, agreed with the mission, and was "on mission". Netflix's culture deck, later "Culture Memo", is a serious but playful document that simultaneously celebrates personal responsibility as well as individual autonomy.
2. Rob Strasser: Nike's 10 Principles (1977) ( ) (JPEG ) "Despite what you may have read recently on social media sites and Linkedin posts, Phil Knight did NOT write a set of “10 Principles” in 1980. Oh, these 10 principles do exist (as you can see), and they were essentially the earliest precursors to what Nike now calls its “Maxims.” But they were actually written in 1977, and by Rob Strasser."
3. IBM: Jargon and General Computing Dictionary, Tenth Edition (2019) (). The items in this dictionary have been selected from the huge vocabulary of computer-related terms used in IBM. To be included here, a word or phrase must either have originated in IBM, or (more commonly) its meaning or usage in IBM must be different from the usual. Acronyms and abbreviations are not included except where they are necessary for cross-references, or are used as true words in their own right (for example, “APAR”).
4. Sam Altman: Essays, including "What I Wish Someone Had Told Me" (). Sam is a Stanford drop-out, Loopt founder, Y-Combinator partner, former Y-Combinator President, and co-founder of OpenAI. He's been in the Silicon Valley ecosystem since 2005 and has been part of, as well as observer to, many of the transformational shifts in technology over the past two decades.
5. Paul Graham: Essays, including "How to Do Great Work" (). Paul is "an English-American computer scientist, writer, entrepreneur and investor. His work has included the programming language Arc, the startup Viaweb (later renamed Yahoo! Store), co-founding the startup accelerator and seed capital firm Y Combinator, his essays, and Hacker News." —Wikipedia
6. Garry Tan: Essays on a wide range of subjects. Garry is "an American venture capitalist and executive who is the CEO of Y Combinator and a founder of Initialized Capital. He previously co-founded Posterous and Posthaven. He was an early employee at Palantir Technologies, and previously a partner at Y Combinator. Tan is also known for his engagement in San Francisco politics, both as a commenter on social media and as a political donor." —Wikipedia
7. Y-Combinator: Essential Startup Advice (). There are a million sources of ways to transform excellent ideas into businesses; Y-Combinator is just one. They have a decent track-record, and are very open in sharing their struggles and successes.
8. Ben Barry: Facebook's Little Red Book (2012), digitized by Matthew A. Parkhurst. (). "As the company of Facebook grew, we faced a lot of challenges. One of them was explaining our company's mission, history, and culture to new employees. Over the years, a lot of formative company discussions and debates had happened in Facebook Groups, over email, or in person. Those who had been present at the time had context, but for new employees that information was difficult to find, even if you knew what you were looking for. We wanted to try to package a lot of those stories and ideas in one place to give to all employees." —Ben Barry
9. Douglas Adams: The Meaning of Liff (Note: this isn't, specifically, a directly applicable collection of organizational culture, but it works to inspire in ways similar to the IBM Jargon Dictionary)
10. Kevin Kelly: 68 Bits of Unsolicited Advice (The original list has been removed from his blog as part of marketing his related book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier). However, the post has been cached on Archive.org ()
11. Kevin Kelly: 99 Additional Bits of Unsolicited Advice (The original list has been removed as part of marketing his related book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I'd Known Earlier) (However, the post has been cached on Archive.org) ()
12. Dieter Rams: Ten Principles of Good Design (Wikipedia). These principles, with slight liguistic reworkings, can be understood to be broadly applicable to many types of problem solving beyond design.

    • good design is innovative
    • good design makes a product useful
    • good design is aesthetic
    • good design makes a product understandable
    • good design is unobtrusive
    • good design is honest
    • good design is long-lasting
    • good design is thorough down to the last detail
    • good design is environmentally friendly
    • good design is as little design as possible

13. NYUAD: Shibboleth () was written with the intent to "preserve, however much possible, the unique values and characteristics of the NYUAD community amidst its rapid change and transitions, for future generations of students." The first distribution of the book took place in Fall 2019 whereby a copy was dropped off outside each first year student's dorm.
14. US Government: Design Review Process
15. NASA: Systems Engineering Handbook (2007) () ()
16. MIT: Hacker Ethics. Although "hacking" has no single home or point of origin, MIT has, in recent times, been used as a placeholder for both. Hacking, in this case, is a positive term used to describe acts of knowledge generation by way of persistently exploring, discovering, and crossing the limits of systems in the world.
17. MIT: Acronyms and Jargon wiki. This is an evergreen database of MIT jargon, both serious and playful; though, mostly serious.
18. MIT: Culture of Shared Language across the Institute. (). This short "guide" is just a sample of the ways in which members of the MIT community communicate with each other by way of shorthand and jargon.
19. Tesla: Master Plan: Part 1 (2006) (). This document lays out a set of assumptions and strategies for Tesla to move from producing only the Roadster to being a company offering a range of affordable Electric Vehicles.
20. Tesla: Master Plan: Part 2 (2016) (). This updated document shares a refined vision for getting Tesla vehicles closer to fully autonomous driving (and RoboTaxis) while also slightly dubiously insisting that Elon's brother's failing solar company SolarCity is a necessary factor in the overall equation (rather than just acknowledging it was a merciful acquisition).
21. Tesla: Master Plan: Part 3 (2023) () (). This third "master plan" is much more like a corporate white-paper and includes language and diagrams that make it feel less like a secret manifesto and more like a document filed with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission).
22. Japan: Wabi-Sabi — Again, not a directly-applicable collection of organizational cultural practices, but it serves to inspire an approach to celebrating flaws as part of perfection.
23. Denmark and Norway: Hygge — Again, not a directly-applicable collection of organizational cultural practices, but it serves to inspire an approach to developing human-positive answers.

24. IKEA: Culture and Values highlights the 8 key values listed below. The longer text "The Testament of a Furniture Dealer" () shares a longer narrative of the stories behind of the IKEA brand and values.

    • Togetherness
    • Caring for people and planet
    • Cost-consciousness
    • Simplicity
    • Renew and improve
    • Different with a meaning
    • Give and take responsibility
    • Lead by example

25. Finland: Sisu — Again, not a directly-applicable collection of organizational cultural practices, but it serves to inspire an approach of fostering the resilience required to persevere through hardships. "Sisu is extraordinary determination in the face of extreme adversity, and courage that is presented typically in situations where success is unlikely." —Wikipedia
26. UAE: The UAE’s 10 Principles for the Next 50 Years ( ) () — "This document sets forth 10 principles for the UAE, which all government agencies, including the legislative system, the police and security institutions as well as the scientific entities, must adhere to and use as guidelines for all their decisions, and strive to implement through their frameworks and strategies."
27. NYUAD Engineering Design Studio (EDS): In 2018, out of a concern that the NYUAD administration and leadership teams misunderstood the vision and value of the EDS, students wrote a manifesto to ensure that its core principles, from a student community perspective, were well-documented and communicated publicly.
28. Amazon: "We hold ourselves and each other accountable for demonstrating the Amazon Leadership Principles through our actions every day. Our Leadership Principles describe how Amazon does business, how leaders lead, and how we keep the customer at the center of our decisions. Our unique Amazon culture, described by our Leadership Principles, helps us relentlessly pursue our mission of being Earth’s most customer-centric company, best employer, and safest place to work." The Inside Amazon Youtube Channel has a YouTube Playlist with videos explaining each.

    • Customer Obsession
    • Leaders take Ownership
    • Leaders Invent and Simplify
    • Leaders Are Right, A Lot
    • Learn and Be Curious
    • Hire and Develop the Best
    • Insist on the Highest Standards
    • Leaders Think Big
    • Bias for Action
    • Frugality
    • Leaders Earn Trust
    • Leaders Dive Deep
    • Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit
    • Deliver Results
    • Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer
    • Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

29. Mars: "The Five Principles are how we do business at Mars. They unite us across geographies, cultures and generations. Together, they serve as a guide that every Associate can depend on to make decisions – big or small – knowing that when we look at a problem through the collective lens of the Five Principles, we will reach a stronger decision. They are at the heart of the success we’ve enjoyed over the decades and will continue to guide us in the decades to come."

    • Quality
    • Responsibility
    • Mutuality
    • Efficiency
    • Freedom