Culture Club #9 – Make It Obvious: How to Turn Culture Into Clarity

Today we’re talking about how your operating principles form the backbone of your operating system, its how you turn your values into reality.

Every startup has a way it runs—officially, and then… the way things actually work.

You know what we mean.

You say flexible working but people still apologise for leaving the office to collect their kids.

You state that no one is expected to work at the weekend but the founder still messages everyone on Sunday evening.

You’ve got a decision-making flowchart buried in Notion, but most things still go through the founder’s WhatsApp.

This is where Operating Principles come in.

Not the high-minded “we value integrity” sort.

The real stuff:

• How do people book a holiday?

• When are they expected to be online?

• What’s the rule when childcare falls through?

• Do you reimburse that train ticket without a receipt?

These are the nuts and bolts of your business culture.

Your operating principles are the bridge between your values and your daily decisions. They tell your team: this is how we work here.

And if you haven’t written them down, people fill the gaps with guesswork.

Which leads to frustration, resentment, or everyone secretly asking the same Slack question in different channels.

At Trove, we work with founders to build this early, before someone gets upset that their parental leave isn’t “standard,” or realises their role isn’t scoped for hybrid working, even though the company says it is.

Here’s how to start writing them:

1. Start with your values. What do they actually mean in real life?

   If you say you value “family first,” what happens when someone needs to leave early for school pickup? Is that built into your working hours? Is it socially accepted, or quietly judged? Your operating principles make the value real.

2. List the questions your team ask you repeatedly.

   If people are always asking how to expense things, book leave, or schedule time off, that’s a sign your principles aren’t clear.

3. Spell out what’s normal in your company. Not what you wish it was.

   If you say you don’t mind people working flexibly, but everyone replies to emails within five minutes, that’s your actual principle. Call it out honestly.

4. Pressure test them.

   Will this still work when you’re twice the size? Would you be happy for a new hire to act on this without asking?

5. Put them somewhere visible. And talk about them.

   They don’t need to be laminated, just lived. If your principles are real, they’ll start showing up in how people behave, not just how they onboard.

Operating principles aren’t just HR housekeeping.

They’re signals of trust, clarity and fairness.

And when you get them right, they do something magical: they make your culture visible..

If you haven’t taken a look already - we’ve built a new Culture Scorecard based on our CORE Operating System. It’s a quick, powerful way to assess the health of your business culture.

Take the Scorecard now →

And here’s a short clip about why presenteeism is the byproduct of a poorly run business.

Another shout out to the CEO and co-founder of beehiiv’s newsletter Big Desk Energy. I like it a lot and its one of the few newsletters I actually open. Take a look.

See you same time next week.

Carl