Culture is shaped by how people feel about their work and their environment. If someone feels like they can’t speak up in meetings, no memo about “open communication” will change that.
It’s not about what you say as a manager, it’s what you do and how the team reacts to it. For example, if you say “we value work-life balance” but then reward people for working overtime, guess what the real culture is? It’s one where overtime is expected.
People pay attention to what’s rewarded. If you reward positive behaviors—like taking time off or collaborating—they’ll naturally become part of the culture.
Culture can’t be mandated. You can’t write “We’re an open and honest company” on a poster and call it a day. You can’t make a quiet introvert talkative by telling them to “speak up more.”
Culture grows from what people see, hear, and experience every day—not from the latest strategy PowerPoint.
Google’s 20% Time Rule
Google’s famous 20% time rule—where employees could spend 20% of their workweek on side projects—was never written in stone. It wasn’t something that was officially mandated. It was more like a suggestion, an idea that started with a few people who used their “free” time to experiment.
This idea caught on not because management said “Everyone must use 20% of their time for innovation,” but because people saw others doing it and saw results. Stuff like Gmail and Google News were born from this time. This became part of Google’s culture—innovation and creativity at all levels, not just from the top.
Notice the difference? It started from the bottom and spread across the company, without management forcing it.
Netflix’s “No Vacation Policy”
At Netflix, they introduced a “No Vacation Policy”. It sounds extreme, but the idea was simple: trust your employees.
Instead of mandating how many days people could take off, Netflix gave employees the freedom to manage their own time.
There wasn’t a set number of vacation days or a system for tracking them. You just took time off when you needed it.
How did this play out? Well, it wasn’t chaos. Instead of everyone slacking off or taking too many days off, the opposite happened. Employees managed their own time responsibly because the culture of trust encouraged them to balance work and rest.
What’s interesting is that this wasn’t micromanaged. There wasn’t a checklist or a “culture committee” monitoring how much time people were taking off. Instead, it was a bottom-up culture of trust. The policy worked because Netflix built an environment where employees felt empowered to make their own decisions. Trust was shown at the top, and people on the ground responded accordingly.
Just like with Google’s 20% time rule, this policy spread organically because people saw the results and trusted that their co-workers weren’t going to abuse it. It also reinforced the idea that Netflix trusted its people, which made them even more loyal and committed to their work.
Atlassian’s “ShipIt Days”
Atlassian, the company behind tools like Jira and Confluence, has a quarterly event called ShipIt Days. During this time, employees stop their usual tasks and work on whatever they want for 24 hours. It could be a side project, an improvement to an existing tool, or even something entirely unrelated to their day-to-day job.
Here’s the key: Management doesn’t dictate what people work on. The whole event is about giving teams the freedom to work on something they’re passionate about. Employees then present their projects, and the best ones can be incorporated into the company’s products.
ShipIt Days was born from an employee suggestion, not a top-down decision. It started as an experiment but quickly became part of the company’s culture. The results have been impressive—some major product improvements and features originated from these ShipIt projects.
Again, notice how this was bottom-up. The freedom and creativity came from the employees themselves, and the culture evolved from there. Management just provided the space for it to happen.
Both of these examples show how culture thrives when employees have the freedom and trust to make their own decisions. When culture grows naturally, from the bottom up, it tends to be more resilient and authentic. Management can’t force that, but they can certainly help it flourish by stepping back and trusting their teams.
Management Needs to Get Out of the Way
So, where does management fit in? Management should guide the conditions for culture to grow, not dictate it. Think of it like gardening. You can’t force a plant to grow faster, but you can make sure it has the right soil, water, and sunlight.
Here’s what management can do:
- Set the Tone: Show people what behaviors are rewarded. If you, as a leader, take time off and don’t reward burnout, the team will follow.
- Create a Safe Environment: Make it safe for people to speak up, experiment, and fail.
- Step Back: Let the team take ownership of their culture. It’s their day-to-day interactions that shape it, not the latest leadership email.
If you’re a manager, your job is to create an environment where people feel like they belong. You set up the framework, but you don’t control the outcomes. It’s like setting up a coding environment—give the team the right tools, but they’re the ones writing the code.
