The Culture Compass: A Culture Assessment That Turns Into Action
Turn the culture you want into the way your team works every day.
Your Culture Is Already Shaping Every Decision
Culture shows up in how people communicate, make decisions, resolve tension and get work done. The Culture Compass helps you see those patterns clearly and decide what you want to strengthen.
Culture isn’t the values on your wall. When it stays implicit, it drifts as you grow: new people learn it by accident, leaders interpret it differently and the founder becomes the only reliable reference. The Culture Compass makes it explicit, so your team can use it without you in the room.
How It Works
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Facilitated intake
Working sessions with your leadership team to capture mission, vision and the nine parts of the grid, with input from the people closest to the work.
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Synthesis
We turn raw input into a clear, usable compass: principles, decision filters, ways of working together and design guidelines.
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Review and refine
You and your leaders test it against real situations. We refine until it describes the organization you are and the one you’re building.
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Put it to work
The compass feeds how you run the company, how you show up publicly and how customers experience you.
What You Get
We look at how your culture works across purpose, people and process, asking the same three questions about each: what you aim for, what people actually do and who fits. Then we turn it into a practical compass your leadership team can use every week, with six parts.
| Purpose What we stand for, what really matters | People How we communicate, collaborate and relate | Process How we structure work and get it done | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norms and ideals | |||
| Behaviors: how people know | |||
| Qualities we look for in new team members |
Purpose anchor
Your mission and vision combined into one statement of why the organization exists in the wider world. It becomes the final word when a decision is hard.
Core cultural principles
Five to seven principles, each with what it means in practice, why it matters, how you can tell it’s happening, and what it means for how you design work.
Decision filters
Explicit trade-off rules, like “clarity over speed,” so leaders make similar calls in similar situations without escalating.
How we work together
Norms for communication, collaboration and handling tension, plus a short list of non-negotiable behaviors everyone can see and uphold.
Work design guidelines
Principles for structuring work: clear ownership, information flowing to where decisions are made, and the anti-patterns to avoid, like excessive approvals or meetings by default.
Talent signals and friction map
What you hire for, what you won’t tolerate, the early signs of misalignment, and where friction is building today.
Results From Mission-Driven Teams
Sarah Brown, Founder & CEO
Gatherwell
Grew capacity by 50% in 90 days and on a path to doubling revenue.
“Justin and Ian have a gift for seeing both the potential in a business and the person behind it. Their thoughtful, nonjudgmental approach helped me move past shame, clear mental blocks, and reconnect with the vision I had for my work. They’re a truly complementary team: insightful, supportive, and genuinely fun to work with. I’ve become a more confident leader and my business is stronger because of it. I highly recommend them!”
Maggie Henjum, Founder & CEO
Motion
Grew site locations 30% and doubled revenue in less than 6 months.
“Ian’s guidance through Still Point, supported our growth, helped us scale, and kept us aligned with our mission. I truly love my job more than ever before because of their process!”
Kim Peterson, Founder & CEO
KPT Advisors
Cut work hours in half while managing $100M in annual revenue.
“We were burning out working 80–90 hour weeks. The anxiety was constant. Always working, always behind, always guilty. We broke that cycle and created a sustainable operating system that eliminated the chaos. Now we’re working 40-45 hours a week and managing the same volume.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a culture assessment?
A culture assessment looks at how an organization actually works: what people value, how they communicate and decide, and how work gets done. Many stop at a score or a report. The Culture Compass turns what it finds into principles, decision rules and design guidelines your team can use.
How is the Culture Compass different from an employee engagement survey?
A survey captures how people feel. The Culture Compass helps explain why, by mapping the norms, behaviors and structures behind those feelings, and gives you a way to change them.
Who takes part?
Leaders and the people closest to the work. A fuller range of perspectives gives the team a more useful picture, and the insight you need usually already exists inside the organization.
How long does it take?
It depends on your organization and the pace you want to go. A focused Culture Compass can come together in a matter of weeks. A deeper cultural assessment and analysis can run over several months. We agree the scope with you before we start.
Can we get the Culture Compass on its own?
Yes. You can bring us in for the Culture Compass on its own, as the result of a deeper cultural assessment, or as part of the 90-Day C.L.E.A.R. OS™, where it becomes the foundation that every workflow and operating standard is checked against.
Related: Organizational development & culture consulting · Leadership team & strategic planning · Operations & business systems · 90-Day C.L.E.A.R. OS™
No hard sales. Just 15 minutes to pinpoint your next steps.