Leaders spend millions on consultants who tell them to integrate culture into strategy, as if culture is a software plugin you install after the real work is done.
After years in corporate leadership at Nike, Levi’s, and Verizon, and now as Vice President of Culture and Engagement and an executive coach working alongside c-suite executives and teams across the public and private business community, Jones believes that companies that treat culture as separate from strategy lose to competitors who make culture the foundation of every decision. More importantly, they also find themselves at a crossroads with the delivery of their commitment to their audience.
Culture isn’t integrated into strategy. Culture is strategy. The question isn’t how to add culture to business planning but how to stop designing strategies that ignore the human dynamics determining whether plans actually work.
Define What Culture Actually Means Today
Every organization has an embedded culture. The question isn’t whether it exists but whether leaders are honest about what it is.
“Every single organization already has an embedded culture, and I think understanding and defining what that is today for them is core to aligning it to what that does to support you in your business strategy,” Jones explains.
Most organizations skip this step. They point to mission statements, values on websites, and annual culture surveys while ignoring what happens when decisions get made, which behaviors get rewarded, and whose voices get heard.
Real culture revealed itself at Levi’s when the CEO walked into the lunchroom during struggling times and saw employees wearing competitors’ jeans.
“He did not appreciate that when we were struggling,” Jones notes. “So the mandate was that it is unacceptable to wear competitors’ jeans or anyone else’s jeans to work when we certainly are struggling.”
The mandate wasn’t authoritarian posturing but clarity about what culture meant in practice. Employees wearing competitors’ products while the company struggled signaled a disconnect between stated values and lived reality. The CEO forced alignment by making visible what the culture required.
“It sent a message that we needed to believe in our product, and we needed to not only believe, but we needed to represent the product, whether it was internally or externally,” Jones explains. “To me, that was culture.”
Defining culture today means acknowledging gaps honestly. What do we say we value versus what behaviors actually get rewarded? Where do employee experiences disconnect from customer experiences? What stated values contradict how decisions get made?
Make Values Actionable or Stop Claiming Them
Writing missions and values is easy. Making them actionable separates serious organizations from posers.
“Having clearly defined actionable steps that align with the missions and the values that support the culture, I think, is important,” Jones emphasizes.
Words without action create cynicism. Organizations declare people-first values while judging employees on busyness rather than results. They claim innovation matters while punishing failure. They state collaboration as a priority while rewarding individual achievement exclusively.
“We had a lot of creativity in how we self-design, how we chose our products, how we chose the looks, and how we chose to show up to work,” Jones notes. “That to me was culture. Be yourself.”
The alignment worked because the stated value matched actionable behavior. Self-expression wasn’t an aspirational poster on the wall but a daily practice in how people dressed, designed products, and represented the brand.
“My biggest takeaway was that there was no disconnect from the employees and the customers and the experiences that we tried to create,” Jones explains. When employees understand how their work connects to customer value and business outcomes, engagement follows.
Use Feedback Loops That Measure What Matters
The third step is measuring whether culture drives results.
“Are you hitting your targets? Are you hitting your measurables? Are you having consistent communications and dialogue with your employees that are in alignment with your target audience?” Jones asks. “That to me is feedback. And then we start the loop again.”
Most organizations measure business outcomes without connecting them to cultural factors. Revenue hits targets or misses. Employee surveys show engagement scores. Customer satisfaction fluctuates. But few ask whether cultural alignment drives these results or whether misalignment explains failures.
“The center of that experience is always people,” Jones notes. “When we start engaging, when we start talking about, when we start really acknowledging each other in the workplace, that I think is centered on belonging.”
Feedback loops should measure this belonging, whether employees feel connected to the mission, whether customer experiences align with brand promises, our value proposition, and whether business results reflect cultural strengths or expose cultural weaknesses.
Culture Drives Strategy
After years in corporate leadership and executive coaching, Jones rejects the premise that culture integrates into strategy.
“The way that I see it is culture is already embedded,” Jones concludes. “It’s not an added conversation. When you start thinking about designing a business strategy, you are also talking about designing culture. Culture drives your strategy.”
Define what culture means today. Make values actionable with specific behaviors required, or stop claiming them. Use feedback to measure whether cultural alignment drives results.
When these practices shape how strategy gets designed rather than getting added afterward, culture stops being an initiative and becomes the engine driving competitive advantage.
Connect with Lorenzo “Zo” Jones on LinkedIn for insights on making culture drive business strategy.
