# Culture And Values

> Shape organizational culture and values so they influence hiring, recognition, decisions, and everyday behavior — not only wall posters. Use when defining values, assessing culture, or aligning people systems to desired norms.

- Skill: `itsual/culture-and-values` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add itsual/culture-and-values`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/itsual/culture-and-values/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: itsual (https://skillmd.com/u/itsual)
- Updated: 2026-09-21
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/itsual/culture-and-values

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# Culture and Values

## Overview

Culture is the pattern of behaviors that are rewarded, punished, and tolerated. Values statements matter only when systems and leaders reinforce them.

## When to Use

- Defining or refreshing values
- Culture assessment and change
- Aligning hiring and performance to values
- Post-merger culture integration

## Core Practices

- Describe values as observable behaviors
- Embed values in hiring, recognition, and performance criteria
- Surface hypocrisy gaps between stated and lived culture
- Use leader storytelling and modeling deliberately
- Measure culture through employee signals and behavioral indicators
- Change systems (incentives, rituals, org design) not only messaging

## Principles

- What leaders tolerate becomes culture
- Values that conflict with incentives lose
- Subcultures exist — diagnose before prescribing one narrative
- Culture change is slow and evidence-based, or it is slogans

## Verification

- [ ] Values have behavioral definitions
- [ ] People processes reference them concretely
- [ ] Gaps between stated and lived culture are acknowledged