Michelle: A Harvard study found that companies with strong, healthy cultures see a 756 percent increase in net income over a decade. Mark: Okay, I hear that and my corporate-speak alarm goes off. ‘Culture’ feels like the most overused, meaningless buzzword in business. It’s just posters with words like ‘Integrity’ and ‘Synergy’ while everyone is miserable, right? Michelle: That’s exactly the trap. And a former NFL linebacker argues that thinking is precisely why a giant like Boeing literally fell from the sky. Mark: Whoa, okay. That got dark fast. You have my attention. Michelle: We're diving into Culture Is the Way by Matt Mayberry. And his background is key here—he was a linebacker for the Chicago Bears whose career was cut short by injury. That transition from the hyper-intense, all-or-nothing culture of the NFL to the business world gives him this unique, no-nonsense perspective. The book was a Wall Street Journal bestseller, so it clearly struck a nerve. Mark: So he’s seen what real high-stakes teamwork looks like, not just the corporate retreat version with trust falls. I'm in. Where do we start? With Boeing?

Michelle: We have to start there, because it’s the most terrifying and powerful case study in the book. For decades, Boeing was the gold standard. Its culture was legendary, built by engineers, for engineers. The absolute, number one priority was safety and excellence. It was in their DNA. Mark: Right, they were an American icon. The name itself meant quality. Michelle: Exactly. But then, in the late 90s, they merged with McDonnell Douglas, a company with a very different culture—one that was laser-focused on financial performance and cutting costs. Slowly, the headquarters moved from Seattle, the engineering hub, to Chicago, closer to Wall Street. The focus shifted from engineering to shareholder value. Mark: I can see where this is going, and it’s not good. This is the origin story for a villain. Michelle: It is. Mayberry calls this the "Shiny Object Syndrome." Leaders get distracted by what seems more urgent or rewarding, like boosting the stock price or hitting quarterly targets. For Boeing, the shiny object was profit. They started outsourcing critical engineering work to save money and rushed the development of the 737 MAX to compete with Airbus. Mark: And that’s the plane… Michelle: That’s the plane. Engineers inside Boeing were raising red flags about a critical software system, but they were ignored. The company knew about a serious malfunction but chose to keep it quiet to avoid production delays. The result was two horrific crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people. Mark: That’s just gut-wrenching. They knew. They knew and they let people get on those planes. All because the culture had shifted from ‘safety first’ to ‘profit first.’ Michelle: Precisely. The culture rotted from the inside out. It’s the ultimate example of what’s at stake. Culture isn't a soft, feel-good thing. It has life-or-death consequences. Mayberry contrasts this with the story of Alan Mulally, who took over Ford in 2006 when it was on the brink of collapse. Mark: What did he do differently? Michelle: He didn't start by focusing on the cars or the financials. He started with the culture. He created his "One Ford" plan, which was all about breaking down the toxic, back-stabbing culture of the executives and forcing them to work together as a single team. He made culture the primary focus from day one, and it led to one of the greatest turnarounds in corporate history. Mark: So one company ignored culture and it led to disaster, the other obsessed over it and it led to a historic comeback. That’s a powerful opening argument.

Mark: Okay, the Boeing story is a nightmare scenario of a bad culture. But what does Mayberry say culture is? How do you even define it if it's not just free snacks and ping-pong tables? Michelle: I’m so glad you asked that, because Mayberry spends a lot of time clearing up the confusion. He borrows a definition from the legendary MIT professor Edgar Schein, and it’s brilliant. Culture is the deeper level of basic assumptions and beliefs that are shared by members of an organization, that operate unconsciously. It’s what people do when the CEO isn't in the room. Mark: The unconscious beliefs. So it’s not what’s on the poster, it’s what’s in the air. Michelle: Exactly. And if you don't intentionally define it, a culture will form by default. He tells this great little story about a woman named Cecilia he spoke to. She was frustrated and wanted to quit her job, telling him, "My company has no culture. It's total chaos." Mark: Oh, I know that feeling. The 'culture' is just whoever yells the loudest or replies-all to the most emails. It's organizational quicksand. Michelle: That's it! And Mayberry points out to her, "Cecilia, you just described your culture perfectly. Your company's culture is chaos, a lack of structure, and everyone for themselves. It’s a culture by default, not by design." Mark: Huh. That’s a huge insight. There’s no such thing as ‘no culture.’ There’s only the culture you build, or the culture that happens to you. Michelle: And that leads to the roadblocks he identifies. The biggest one is what he calls "lukewarm leadership buy-in." This is when leaders say they support culture work, but their actions show it’s not a real priority. They don't invest time, they cancel the meetings, they don't model the behaviors. Mark: But what if you're a mid-level manager? What can you do if your own boss is the 'lukewarm' one? It feels like you’re stuck. Michelle: Mayberry’s answer is that leadership has to happen at every level. You can’t change the whole company, but you can become the "Chief Culture Driver" for your own team. You can define what excellence looks like for your small group, you can protect them from the chaos, and you can create a pocket of high performance. His whole point is that culture isn't just a top-down decree. It’s built in the daily interactions between every single person. Mark: So you can be a thermostat for your team, not just a thermometer reacting to the corporate temperature. Michelle: That's a perfect way to put it. You set the temperature. Another trap is "all slogans and no action." A Gallup poll found that only 27% of U.S. employees actually believe in their company's stated values. Mark: Only 27%! That’s an abysmal number. It proves my point about the posters. They’re just corporate wallpaper. Michelle: Because the values aren't translated into specific, repeatable behaviors. And that’s where Mayberry’s playbook comes in. It’s about moving from abstract words to concrete actions.

Michelle: And that's where Mayberry's playbook becomes so powerful. It’s not just for the C-suite. It starts with one simple, powerful act: creating what he calls a Cultural Purpose Statement, or CPS. Mark: Okay, hold on. A "Cultural Purpose Statement." Isn't that just a fancier name for a mission statement or another slogan for a poster? Michelle: It can be, if you do it wrong. But Mayberry argues a great CPS is short, memorable, and action-oriented. It’s a rallying cry that defines how you win. And to make it vivid, he uses these incredible examples from college football, which, given his background, he knows intimately. Mark: Let's hear it. Michelle: He contrasts two of the most successful coaches. First, you have Nick Saban at Alabama. His CPS is simply "The Process." It’s a culture built on relentless, obsessive attention to detail. It’s about forgetting the championship and focusing only on executing the current play perfectly. It’s cold, it’s clinical, it’s brutally effective. Mark: Okay, I get that. It’s a system. It’s about discipline. Michelle: Then you have the complete opposite: Tom Allen, the coach at Indiana University, where Mayberry played. His CPS is "L.E.O." — Love Each Other. Mark: Wait, what? "Love Each Other"? In a Big Ten football locker room, with 300-pound linemen? Come on, how does that actually work? That sounds like something you’d put on a throw pillow. Michelle: I know, it sounds impossibly soft! But Allen defines it with toughness. He tells his players, "What does love have to do with football? Everything. I will love you so much that I won't allow mediocrity from you." It’s about building such a deep bond of trust and respect that you hold each other to the highest possible standard. And in 2020, that "soft" culture led Indiana to its best season in over 50 years. Mark: Wow. So "The Process" and "Love Each Other" could not sound more different. How can both be right? Michelle: That's the entire point! A great CPS isn't a generic, one-size-fits-all statement. It has to be ruthlessly authentic to the leader and the specific needs of the organization. It’s about finding what he calls your "Commercial DNA." For Saban, it was discipline. For Allen, it was connection. For the SGWS-IL beverage company in the book, it became "Get Better Today… Together," which helped them navigate the pandemic and have their best year ever. Mark: So the first step is for a leader to really look in the mirror and decide what their authentic core principle is. What is the single idea that will drive every decision? Michelle: Yes. And then you have to be, in Mayberry's words, "fanatical" about embedding it. It has to show up in how you hire, how you promote, how you run meetings, how you give feedback. It becomes the operating system for the entire organization.

Mark: Okay, this is all making so much sense. It’s stripping away the fluff and making 'culture' feel like a real, tangible tool. If there's one thing a leader listening right now—at any level—should take away from this, what is it? Michelle: I think it's that culture isn't an initiative you launch; it's the operating system you run. It's the invisible force that quietly determines whether your grand strategy succeeds or fails miserably. And building it isn't about grand, expensive gestures. It’s about the fanatical, consistent, daily reinforcement of a few chosen behaviors. Mark: It’s the tiny brush strokes, not the giant paint roller. Michelle: Exactly. Mayberry quotes a former CEO who said, "Culture tells us what to do when the CEO isn't in the room." That’s the ultimate test. Does your team do the right thing, the hard thing, the excellent thing, when no one is watching? That’s culture. Mark: So for anyone listening, what’s the first practical step? Michelle: Mayberry says to start by asking your team two simple questions: "What do we want our culture to be?" and "What does it actually feel like to work here right now?" The gap between those two answers is where the real work begins. Mark: I love that. And we'd love to hear what you discover. Find us on our social channels and share one word that describes your company's current culture. Let's see what's really out there. No judgment! Michelle: This is Aibrary, signing off.