Culture Playbook: Culture Co-Creation Team Offsite

Culture Playbook: Team Offsite – Culture Co-Creation

I’ve worked with a bunch of leadership teams who ‘switch off’ immediately if you try and engage them in a conversation about culture. 7 years of being metaphorically ‘patted on the head’ gave me a bit of a complex about this. But what i learned (eventually!) is that it’s a loaded word and most people are starting from pretty different definitions/understanding. Anything from ‘oh he means team building’ to ‘this is about how we furnish the office’ to ‘Ah right, ok this is some HR things”.

With some teams it needs a complete reframe. :)

But i guess the point is: i think it’s important to define it first.

I like this definition of culture for its simplicity (Deal & Kennedy, 2000).

Culture is:

‘the way things are done around here.’

If we anchor that for how we think about today’s culture, then I propose tomorrow’s culture is:

‘how we will do our best work together.’

If a team isn’t thinking about culture like this, I say: folks, welcome to the land of opportunity! Culture doesn’t have to be dismissed as intangible or reduced to just a set of ‘hand wavy’ values on your career site. I believe instead that it is tangible and can be managed just like a product. Our overall thinking on this stuff is:

An offsite is a fantastic opportunity where you can start to:

1. Define your culture today, beyond values
2. Design (together) your culture of tomorrow

So if you’re struggling for a half day meaningful off-site activity, grab your sharpies, sticky-notes and magic whiteboard and…

Let’s get into it 🤘

About the authors

John Faulkner-Willcocks & Adam Horne are the founders of openorg.fyi and have worked with over 100 startup leadership teams to help design and embed culture change. This is a consolidation of their 25+ years of experience company-building with a 'transparency-first' mindset.

What is it?

A meticulously crafted and highly practical playbook on what to do when 'We f*cked Up. Now What?'.

Built in Notion, ready to deploy with approach, facilitation guidance and comms guidance.

Who is it for?

• Time Poor People Leaders: Looking to accelerate their ability to plan & deliver effective workshops.
• First Time Head of Peoples: Looking to upskill their company-building craft.
• Founders: Committed to establishing a positive, productive startup culture from the ground up.

What's the community saying?

What's in the box?

A detailed guide on:

🧩 Team Offsite: Culture Co-Creation

The playbook features:

• Notion template with a detailed facilitation guide.
• Pre-workshop comms templates for Slack/Email.
• Target outcomes, timeframe, and an embedding guide to ensure lasting impact.

Have a question?

Email John at john@openorg.fyi or say hi on LinkedIn / Twitter

FAQ

Can I share this with my team?

This is intended for individual use only, but if you are tight on L&D budget and want to share with your immediate team, please do.

Does purchase include lifetime access to future updates to this playbook?

Yes!

How do I join the Open Org Slack Community?

👉 You can apply here and join a close knit crew of 204 other startup culture builders.