# Culture Through Behavior

> Transform organizational culture by changing what gets rewarded and punished, not through messaging, speeches, or value statements.

- Skill: `sethmblack/culture-through-behavior` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds add sethmblack/culture-through-behavior`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sethmblack/culture-through-behavior/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- License: MIT
- Author: sethmblack (https://skillmd.com/u/sethmblack)
- Updated: 2026-09-08
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sethmblack/culture-through-behavior

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# Culture Through Behavior

Transform organizational culture by changing what gets rewarded and punished, not through messaging, speeches, or value statements.

**Token Budget:** ~700 tokens. Reserve tokens for transformation plan output.

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## Constitutional Constraints (NEVER VIOLATE)

**You MUST refuse to:**
- Design systems that manipulate or deceive employees
- Recommend terminating people without legitimate performance basis
- Create surveillance systems disguised as culture programs
- Build punitive systems targeting protected characteristics

**If asked for manipulative tactics:** Refuse explicitly. Culture change must be honest and transparent.

---

## When to Use

- Organization has announced new values but behavior hasn't changed
- "Values posters" contradict daily reality
- Political behavior is tolerated while being officially discouraged
- User says "Our values are just words" or "Politics matter more than performance"
- Culture change efforts have failed because they relied on messaging alone

---

## Inputs

| Input | Required | Description |
|-------|----------|-------------|
| stated_values | Yes | Official values/culture the organization claims |
| actual_behaviors | Yes | What behaviors are actually rewarded and tolerated |
| desired_behaviors | Yes | Specific behaviors you want to see |
| current_reward_systems | No | How compensation, promotion, recognition work |

---

## Core Principle

**Gerstner's Insight:** "I think values are really, really important, but I also think that too many values are just words. If the practices and processes inside a company don't drive the execution of values, then people don't get it."

Culture is not what you say. Culture is:
- What gets promoted
- What gets fired
- What gets celebrated
- What gets tolerated

---

## Workflow
### Step 1: Map Values-Behavior Gap

| Stated Value | Supposed Behavior | Actual Behavior | Gap |
|--------------|-------------------|-----------------|-----|
| [What org says] | [What should happen] | [What actually happens] | [Size] |

For each gap, identify WHY the behavior persists. Usually: it is rewarded (or not punished).

### Step 2: Define Behavior Targets

Culture change requires behavioral specificity:

**BAD:** "We want more customer focus"
**GOOD:** "Leaders spend 2 days/month with customers and share learnings at all-hands"

**BAD:** "We value collaboration"
**GOOD:** "Promotions require evidence of helping other teams succeed"

**BAD:** "We reward results"
**GOOD:** "Political behavior (credit-taking, backstabbing) blocks promotion regardless of results"

### Step 3: Redesign Consequences

For each target behavior, specify:

**Positive Reinforcement:**
- Compensation alignment
- Promotion criteria
- Public recognition
- Opportunity access

**Negative Consequences:**
- Performance documentation
- Compensation impact
- Opportunity limitation
- Termination (for severe violations)

**Elimination List:**
Behaviors that will NOT be tolerated. Be specific:
- "Taking credit for others' work"
- "Badmouthing colleagues"
- "Withholding information for political advantage"
- "Prioritizing internal politics over customer needs"

### Step 4: Start with Leadership

**Gerstner's Method:** "Management doesn't change culture. Management invites the workforce itself to change the culture."

But management must demonstrate first:
1. Leaders model new behavior publicly
2. First consequences apply to senior people
3. Stories of leadership change spread
4. Workforce sees that this is real

### Step 5: Eliminate Political Operators

**Gerstner's Approach:** "I eliminated people who played politics, bad-mouthed others, or self-aggrandized. I rewarded people who helped others."

Identify people who:
- Succeed through politics rather than performance
- Take credit for others' work
- Undermine colleagues for personal gain
- Hoard information as power

These people must change or leave. One political operator in leadership undermines all culture messaging.

### Step 6: Measure Behavior Change

Track leading indicators:
- Promotion correlation with target behaviors
- Exit patterns (are political operators leaving?)
- Recognition distribution (are helpers being celebrated?)
- Employee feedback on cultural reality

---

## Outputs

```markdown
## Culture Through Behavior Plan

### Values-Behavior Gap Analysis
| Stated Value | Actual Behavior | Why It Persists |
|--------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| [value] | [reality] | [reward system enabling it] |

### Behavior Specifications
| Target Behavior | Observable Indicator | Measurement |
|-----------------|---------------------|-------------|
| [specific behavior] | [how you'd see it] | [how to track] |

### Consequence Redesign
| Behavior | Positive Reinforcement | Negative Consequence |
|----------|----------------------|---------------------|
| [target] | [rewards] | [consequences] |

### Elimination List
Behaviors that will not be tolerated:
- [Specific behavior with clear definition]
- [Specific behavior with clear definition]

### Leadership Actions (First 30 Days)
- [Specific leadership behavior to model]
- [First consequence to demonstrate seriousness]

### Political Operator Strategy
[How identified political operators will be addressed]

### Measurement Plan
| Indicator | Baseline | 90-Day Target |
|-----------|----------|---------------|
| [metric] | [current] | [target] |
```

---

## Error Handling

| Situation | Response |
|-----------|----------|
| Leadership not committed | Culture change impossible without leadership commitment; escalate or decline |
| Cannot change reward systems | Identify what CAN be changed; focus on recognition and opportunity |
| Political operators in C-suite | Flag as critical blocker; cannot succeed without addressing |
| Vague desired behaviors | Refuse to proceed until behaviors are specific and observable |

---

## Constraints

- Do not use this analysis as the sole basis for critical decisions
- Do not apply this framework to situations outside its intended scope
- Acknowledge that analysis is based on available data, which may be incomplete
- Honor the complexity of real-world situations that resist simple categorization
- Present findings with appropriate confidence levels
- Recognize the limits of the methodology

## Example

**Input:**
```
Stated value: "Customer obsession"
Actual behavior: Sales closes any deal regardless of customer fit. Churn is someone else's problem.
Desired behavior: Sales qualifies customers properly; retention is everyone's responsibility.
Current rewards: Sales comp is 100% new bookings. No consequence for churn.
```

**Output:**

### Values-Behavior Gap Analysis
| Stated Value | Actual Behavior | Why It Persists |
|--------------|-----------------|-----------------|
| Customer obsession | Close any deal; churn is ops problem | 100% comp on bookings; no churn consequences |

### Behavior Specifications
| Target Behavior | Observable Indicator | Measurement |
|-----------------|---------------------|-------------|
| Qualified selling | Sales declines bad-fit prospects | Qualification rate; churn within 12 months |
| Retention ownership | Sales maintains customer relationships post-sale | NPS; renewal involvement; upsell from existing |

### Consequence Redesign
| Behavior | Positive Reinforcement | Negative Consequence |
|----------|----------------------|---------------------|
| Qualified selling | President's Club includes retention metric | Deals that churn in 12 months reduce commission |
| Retention ownership | Bonus for renewals and expansion | Cannot achieve top comp tier with high churn |

### Elimination List
- Closing deals you know will churn to hit quota
- Blaming ops/CS for deals you sold poorly
- Hiding negative customer feedback from leadership

### Leadership Actions (First 30 Days)
- VP Sales publicly declines a large deal that doesn't fit ICP
- CEO shares story of a deal that shouldn't have been closed and what it cost
- First comp adjustment for high-churn rep

### Political Operator Strategy
Any sales leader who protects high-churn, high-booking reps is enabling the old culture. Clear conversation about new expectations; transition out if they cannot adapt.

### Measurement Plan
| Indicator | Baseline | 90-Day Target |
|-----------|----------|---------------|
| 12-month churn rate | 25% | 18% |
| Deals declined as bad fit | 0% | 10% |
| Comp tied to retention | 0% | 20% |

---

## Integration

This skill is derived from Lou Gerstner's IBM culture change methodology. It focuses specifically on the behavior/reward mechanism rather than broader cultural transformation. Use in conjunction with:
- `enterprise-turnaround-diagnosis` - When culture is identified as root cause
- `execution-gap-diagnosis` - When cultural behavior blocks execution