Building a High Performing Culture

Enron had ‘Integrity’ carved into marble in their headquarters lobby before collapsing in one of history’s largest corporate scandals.

Over 80% of large companies publish values statements, yet research shows most employees can’t recall them or apply them to daily decisions.

Picture this: executives championing values while decisions throughout the company contradict them. This misalignment creates organizational turbulence that, like in aviation, begins as subtle vibrations before potentially tearing apart the entire structure. What we need isn’t more posters in break rooms—it’s a complete rethinking of how values translate to specific, measurable behaviors at every level of the organization.

The Cockpit vs. The Boardroom: Lessons from 30,000 Feet

What if I told you that the difference between a successful flight and a catastrophic crash often comes down to the same factors that determine business success or failure? In aviation, there’s no room for ambiguity when lives are at stake. Every behavior is meticulously defined and measured. Pilots don’t follow vague directives or simply “try their best” – they adhere to specific, observable protocols that leave absolutely no room for interpretation.

In stark contrast, the corporate world routinely accepts nebulous instructions like “show integrity” or “be innovative” without defining what these look like in practice. These abstract values create a dangerous disconnect between organizational aspirations and actual team behaviors during critical decisions.

The precision of aviation stands as a powerful counterpoint to business ambiguity. In high-reliability settings like a C-5 Galaxy cockpit, communication follows strict guidelines about who speaks when, what information must be shared, and how acknowledgment occurs. These aren’t suggestions but non-negotiable standards ensuring critical information transfers properly during operations.

Crew Resource Management and The Transformation

This disciplined approach has transformed aviation safety dramatically. Commercial aviation accident rates have plummeted from 7.3 accidents per million flights in the 1970s to 0.2 in recent years. Crew Resource Management (CRM) revolutionized flight safety by emphasizing specific behaviors rather than vague concepts. This improvement didn’t result from telling crews to “be safe” – it came from defining exactly what safe operation looks like in observable terms.

The lesson for businesses is clear: specificity drives performance. While many organizations display values on lobby walls and websites, MIT research suggests these statements often have zero correlation with employee behavior. The gap between stated values and daily actions creates confusion, inconsistency, and ultimately, underperformance.

Forward-thinking companies recognize this disconnect. Organizations like Biogen don’t merely promote “innovation” – they encourage specific behaviors such as candor in testing assumptions. Amazon has created concrete behavioral guidelines defining how innovation manifests in daily operations. These companies create alignment by establishing clear expectations about what “good” looks like in observable terms.

By defining exactly which behaviors demonstrate each value across different roles and situations, these organizations enable meaningful evaluation, consistent feedback, and targeted development – essential components for sustained excellence.

The performance difference is substantial. Companies with behavior-based values outperform competitors in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and financial results. When everyone understands exactly what’s expected, they consistently deliver on those expectations.

Despite this advantage, approximately 80% of large companies make a critical mistake: failing to translate abstract principles into specific, observable behaviors that can be measured and reinforced. This oversight creates a fundamental disconnect between aspirational statements and operational reality.

For businesses seeking high performance, the path is clear. Use purpose-driven design to create the right values / behaviors for your business that are easy to understand and action. Assess the behaviors are important to your business performance. Transform any abstract concepts into concrete actions. Only then can values truly drive performance rather than simply decorating office walls.

From Checklist to Scoreboard: Measuring What Matters

Ever wonder why some organizations consistently outperform others despite having nearly identical stated values? The answer lies not in what they measure, not what they say. Without rigorous measurement, even the most well-defined behaviors remain little more than suggestions.

Ever wonder why some organizations
consistently outperform others
despite having nearly identical stated values?

In aviation, a pilot’s performance is measured through specific, quantifiable metrics: approach stability, procedural compliance, and communication clarity. Every action in the cockpit is evaluated against clear standards, creating an environment where accountability is foundational to success and survival. Similarly, high-performing businesses measure cultural behaviors with the same precision they apply to financial metrics, creating a visual parallel between cockpit instruments and cultural dashboards.

Most businesses operate with a curious blind spot. They track financial outcomes—revenue growth, profit margins, market share—yet fail to measure the cultural behaviors that drive these results. This is equivalent to monitoring an aircraft’s altitude without checking its engine performance—focusing on the destination while ignoring the systems that get you there.

Measuring the Performance

High-performing organizations establish clear metrics for cultural behaviors, connecting daily actions to business outcomes. The data shows this works.

Consider Netflix’s approach to candor. The streaming giant doesn’t merely encourage open communication—it measures it. Feedback is treated as an essential performance component, integrated into evaluations. This systematic approach creates accountability because employees understand exactly how their communication behaviors contribute to both individual advancement and company success.

An example of a measurable behavior / value is “Deliver Results” — its actionable. We know if someone is doing this or not. Its clear, actionable, and benefits the business.

“Deliver Results” is an example of a
performance based behavior
that is actionable

Organizations that weave specific behaviors into hiring processes, performance reviews, and promotion decisions create multiple reinforcement points for their cultural standards. These companies don’t hope that employees will embody their values—they systematically evaluate and reward those who do, while providing clear development paths for those who don’t.

Aviation’s post-flight debriefing protocols offer a valuable template for businesses. After each flight, crews assess their performance against specific behavioral standards through disciplined analyses. Business teams can adopt this framework directly, creating regular “culture debriefs” where behavioral alignment is evaluated with the same rigor as financial performance. This can help embed the behaviors into everything you do.

These regular evaluations serve as early warning systems.

Just as flight crews use debriefs to catch potential safety issues before they escalate, business teams can maintain cultural alignment through similar processes. When behaviors begin to diverge from established standards, structured evaluations provide the opportunity to course-correct before affecting business outcomes.

Gallup’s research confirms this approach, showing that organizations with strong alignment between culture and performance metrics consistently outperform their competitors. The most successful companies engineer their culture with precision.

The measurement mechanisms can be straightforward: behavioral checklists, peer evaluations, or regular culture surveys provide valuable data on behavioral alignment. The critical factor isn’t the sophistication of the system but its consistency and connection to meaningful outcomes. When employees understand not only what behaviors are expected but how those behaviors will be evaluated, abstract values transform into concrete action.

Performance Is Built Into The Culture

High-performing cultures are distinguished by organizational discipline—the rigorous commitment to define, measure, and refine behaviors that bring values to life.

Their cultures are part of a
purpose-driven design
focused on performance.

Organizations that translate values into actionable behaviors create an operational framework functioning with the reliability of a pilot’s checklist. Every team member understands exactly how to embody the company’s mission through daily actions.

When companies like HubSpot transform abstract principles into lived experience, they create the foundation for sustainable excellence. Just as aircraft require precise engineering for optimal performance, exceptional organizations architect their cultures with equal precision, ensuring every component works in harmony toward a common purpose. By systematically building values into your organization’s DNA, you create not just an impressive workplace, but a high-performance engine capable of sustained excellence.

The Built to Soar Book discusses this in further detail so you can make positive changes to your organization, and be one that is built to soar!