In a recent Fast Company column, Sanger Research Lab member Marcus Collins, Clinical Assistant Professor of Marketing, takes on a familiar business refrain: culture is a company’s greatest “cheat code.” While most leaders agree with the sentiment, Collins suggests the real problem is simpler—and harder to solve. Many organizations are trying to use culture without fully understanding what it is.
Collins argues that culture is often reduced to behaviors, rituals, or values—“how we do things around here.” But drawing on sociological theory, he offers a more complete view: culture functions as a social operating system, shaping how people see the world and, in turn, how they act within it. Behaviors and values matter, but they are expressions of something deeper—the shared assumptions and truths that give those actions meaning. Without that foundation, values may look good on paper while failing to show up in day-to-day work.
When culture is understood this way, it becomes less about messaging and more about perspective. It’s the quiet system beneath the surface that influences decisions, relationships, and norms long before strategy enters the picture. Getting better at culture, Collins suggests, starts with learning to see it more clearly.