Forget work culture – let’s build work community instead

I’ve been living this for 18 years and it’s time I put it out there: most workplace ‘culture’ is superficial and performative, loosely defined with few – if any – clear principles.

We’ve all seen it in offices around the world. The ping pong tables gathering dust. The company values plastered on walls that nobody actually lives by. The leadership teams pontificating about “strong cultural fit hires” masqueraded as “let’s just hire another person like me” while their teams roll their eyes in Slack channels they'll never see.

After more than a decade studying what makes communities genuinely powerful, I've come to a conclusion. Instead of this top-down corporate culture, our focus should shift towards a lived community. Defined by its members and aligned towards a shared rather than prescribed purpose. Built from the bottom up and bought into by everyone who design its principles and rituals together.

I've been part of many such communities – 14 currently (and no, LinkedIn doesn’t count) – with purposes covering everything from knowledge sharing to activism. In 2007, I cofounded SheSays, a non-hierarchical organization tackling the gender leadership imbalance by focusing on the power of our collective voices. Nearly 20 years later it has 90,000 global members and a growing list of pioneering achievements. Engagement can be scaled.

The culture problem is real (and getting worse)

When companies try to create resilience after restructuring, reset for growth, or boost engagement, they tend to lean into their culture as the bond that brings their teams and opinions together. But here's an uncomfortable truth – 68% of senior managers feel a sense of belonging at work when only 50% of non-managers do (source.) That's a chasm that swallows good intentions whole.

This happens because workplace culture often means “the way we do things around here” and is set by a very small group of people homogenous in their thinking and behavior. Therefore? Culture initiatives typically fall into three fatal categories:

Superficial: "Let's get a beer fridge and call it culture!"

Unfounded: Vague values powered by unproven principles with little accountability behind them.

Top-down: Leadership decides what culture means, then broadcasts it downward.

All three approaches create the same result: a convoluted mismatch where everyone has different ideas about what the culture actually is, and nobody feels genuinely bought into it. So it’s not surprising that in 2024, Gallup reported global workforce engagement at 21%, matching the lowest levels since the pandemic began.

Communities are different – and measurably better

A community approach flips this dynamic on its head. But how do you get there? You can't copy another company's method and paste it into your organization. Community-building is inherently collaborative – it must be designed by the people who’ll live it.

You could use frameworks like Gustavo Razetti's Culture Design Canvas and invite department employees to participate and contribute. That's better than top-down mandates.

Even better: you could think about workplace community instead of work culture entirely.

Start with purpose, not vision.

Why are we working together and what are we working towards?

Then build community principles around that shared purpose. Principles that everyone helps to create and agrees to uphold. Define the principles and parameters for how you show up in the world together. Develop the authentic rituals and practices that emerge from your shared values, not from imposed team-building exercises.

Most crucially: do this with the people who are part of it. The community defines itself. Leadership can facilitate, but they can't dictate the outcome.

Here's what I've observed after years of comparing the ethos of real communities versus workplace cultures.

Real community v Workplace culture

The impact of these differences is significant and measurable. A strong sense of community is a critical driver of employee engagement. Gallup consistently reports on the notable business outcomes of highly engaged teams and the 23% difference in profitability compared to less engaged teams. (Source: Gallup's Q12® Employee Engagement Survey.) This is especially important in the Creative Industries.

When people have genuine agency, two powerful things happen: they stay engaged even when working remotely or across different locations, and they bring diverse perspectives that drive breakthrough thinking.

How community actually works: Group Of Humans – a real-world example

Group Of Humans operates as a true work community within the creative industries, although I believe the community approach can (and should) be applied to any industry vertical. When I joined GOH, my first experience was being dropped into a project with people I’d never met, across multiple time zones, building something for a client in just days. Nobody asked for my CV, they asked what I cared about and what I could bring. That set the tone.

There's virtually no hierarchy – we function as a holacracy where members have agency to start their own subgroups, called Tribes. These tribes are self-organized, and everyone contributes to their business development. For example, in my first Tribe we spotted an opportunity in a brief that wasn’t obvious at the start. Because there was no rigid process to ‘get permission,’ we acted on it. That idea ended up being the core of the final delivery.

During projects, it’s our individual traits that make the Tribe heterogeneous and stronger and our multitude of perspectives that drive innovation and creativity.

When a brief lands, HUMANS with the right experience and passion for the work will raise their hands, with organic team formation. During projects, it’s our individual traits that make the Tribe heterogeneous and stronger – our multitude of perspectives drive innovation and creativity.

Yes, different perspectives aren’t always aligned and can breed disagreement. But because there's genuine trust and psychological safety within the Tribe (and the wider Group) and because we’re united around a common purpose, we handle differences with a growth mindset, not defensive posturing.

I’ve had moments where my perspective clashed hard with another HUMAN’s. Instead of politicking or deferring to a manager, we hashed it out openly. That’s rare in most workplaces, but here it’s expected. It elevates the work and – according to Google’s Aristotle Project – makes it more innovative.

Outside of work projects, the community connects online and in real life across all corners of the world. We exchange knowledge, stories, news and inspiration daily simply because we can. The results? People keep showing up, even when there’s no active project for them. They join ALL HANDS and MEET THE HUMANS calls just to swap ideas or share an article. And that creates a real sense of belonging.

Flip your thinking

Current theory implies that “work culture” describes an organization's foundational operating system and values, while “work community” describes the felt experience of connection and belonging among its members.

I believe that's backwards. The foundational operating system and values should be built from community principles, not developed separately with the hope that community will follow.

Communities create autonomy, psychological safety, a sense of belonging and genuine empowerment – all things that directly improve creative output and business results. Culture, at best, creates compliance.

If you want employees to really bond, create community not culture. If you're still trying to “fix your culture,” you're solving the wrong problem. Stop trying to culture your way to better work and consider building a community instead.

The ping pong table can stay, but only if the community actually wants it there.