Descriptive words don’t tell us anything about a culture.
In IDEOs case study about what makes a creative culture one of the values is “collaborative.” That’s cool. I would agree. It makes sense that creative companies work together. BUT, if you went to the least creative company in the world and asked if they were collaborative, they would say “yes.”
They have teams. They work together. They “collaborate.”
Same holds true with the work “entrepreneurship.” Every company says they’re entrepreneurial and that they love hiring entrepreneurs. But they really don’t. Most companies aren’t entrepreneurial. They like rules and doing things by the book. Some people would call their company entrepreneurial because it was founded once upon a time and the founder still works there.
Descriptive words can never explain a culture. We need stories for that. Stories give the words meaning and bring a culture to life. What story are you creating?