Culture playbook: turning values into the specific behaviours that make strategy actually happen
A culture playbook translates your values and leadership principles into the specific behaviours, the virtues, people are expected to demonstrate every day. Where values live on a wall and principles live in a deck, the playbook lives in how meetings are run and decisions are made. It is how culture stops blocking strategy and starts enabling it.
Trusted by 100+ organisations across Finland and the Nordics since 2007.
Built for CEOs, managing directors and leadership teams who have values on a wall but no visible behaviour change, and who need a culture model specific enough to use in coaching, recognition and promotion decisions.
Values on a wall don't change behaviour; a playbook does.
We start from the culture you actually have, described honestly through surveys, observation and interviews, not the one you wish you had, then choose the three to five values that genuinely support your strategy.
Most companies have too many values and too little behaviour change; the playbook fixes the ratio.
We translate each value into the specific behaviours, the virtues, that demonstrate it.
For each chosen value we name the concrete behaviours that show it in practice, so 'respect' or 'courage' becomes something observable rather than aspirational.
Virtues are values made specific enough to coach, recognise and hire for.
We surface the 'poison cocktail' that contradicts the values before the virtues can take hold.
Every organisation has current ways of working that quietly contradict its stated values. We name that poison cocktail and remove it, because new behaviours cannot grow on top of the old blockers.
Naming what must stop is as important as defining what should start.
Culture gets embedded in cadence, recognition, performance conversations, promotion criteria.
The playbook is built into the systems that actually shape behaviour, so the culture is reinforced every week rather than launched once and forgotten. It pairs naturally with self-management.
Culture that isn't embedded in cadence decays back to the old default within a quarter.
Frequently asked questions
What is a culture playbook?
A structured translation of an organisation's values and leadership principles into the specific behaviours, virtues, people are expected to demonstrate every day, embedded in recognition, performance conversations and promotion criteria.
What is the difference between values and virtues?
Values are what you stand for; virtues are the specific, observable behaviours that demonstrate each value in daily work. The playbook turns abstract values into coachable virtues.
What is the 'poison cocktail'?
The current ways of working that quietly contradict the stated values. Stradigo surfaces and removes these blockers, because new behaviours cannot take hold while the old contradictions remain.
What is a concrete example of a poison cocktail?
A company that states 'collaboration' as a core value but runs a performance system ranking individuals against each other. The ranking system is the poison cocktail: it quietly teaches that individual performance beats collaboration, whatever the poster says, and the playbook cannot take hold until it is redesigned.
What does the engagement leave behind?
Three to five strategic values translated into specific, coachable virtues; the poison cocktail identified and removed; and the playbook embedded in recognition, performance conversations and promotion criteria, reinforced weekly through the Captain Process cadence, so culture compounds instead of decaying.
Does this work in Finnish, Swedish and English?
Yes. We run the engagement in Finnish, Swedish or English, domestic leadership teams in their own language, Nordic and international clients in English.
This engagement is typically led by Oskar Westerlund, Partner, strategy and operations. Meet the team.