The Culture–Strategy Connection: Planning With Your Values in Mind

When organizations think about strategy, we often picture big plans, bold goals, and the steps that will get us there. But here’s the thing: even the most brilliant strategy can fall flat if it’s built on the wrong foundation.

That foundation?

Culture - the shared values, behaviours, and unspoken norms that shape how your team actually works together every day.

As Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But what if we stopped setting them up as competitors? What if, instead, we invited culture to sit at the planning table from the very beginning?

Culture isn’t a by-product - it’s the heartbeat of strategy

When organizations approach strategic planning, it’s tempting to focus on the what and the how: What do we want to achieve? How will we measure success?

These are critical questions, but they’re incomplete without one more: Who are we, and what do we stand for?

Your organization’s culture is more than a buzzword on your “About Us” page - it’s the lived experience of your values. It’s how people make decisions when no one’s watching, how they handle change, and how they show up for one another and for your mission.

When your strategic plan aligns with those values, your culture becomes the driving force behind progress. When it doesn’t, even the most well-crafted plan will feel like pushing a boulder uphill.

The disconnect we see too often

At Mosaic Engagement, we’ve seen countless organizations create thoughtful, ambitious plans - only to watch them stall out in implementation. It’s rarely because the goals were wrong. More often, it’s because the plan didn’t reflect how people actually work together.

Maybe the strategy called for bold innovation, but the culture quietly rewarded risk avoidance.

Maybe it called for collaboration, but silos were the norm.

Maybe it emphasized equity and inclusion, but the planning process left some voices out.

When culture and strategy are misaligned, energy gets lost in translation. But when they reinforce each other, momentum builds naturally.

Start with values - and mean it

Embedding culture into your planning process starts with a simple (but not always easy) practice: make your values visible and actionable.

Ask questions like:

• How do our values show up in day-to-day decisions?
  
• Which values will help us meet our goals - and which ones might we need to revisit or redefine?
  
• Do our processes, policies, and leadership behaviours reflect the culture we say we want?
  

 These questions spark the kind of honest conversations that build alignment. Because when people can see themselves and their values reflected in the plan, commitment follows naturally.

Culture-driven strategy in action

Picture two organizations.

Organization A launches a three-year strategic plan full of ambitious goals but spends little time discussing how those goals will fit with their people and culture.

Organization B, on the other hand, starts by asking its team to reflect on what kind of workplace they want to build, how they define success, and how they’ll hold one another accountable to shared values.

Both organizations end up with a plan. But only one ends up with alignment - where the how feels as meaningful as the what.

That alignment doesn’t just feel better; it works better. It fosters trust, clarity, and shared ownership. It turns “the plan” from a static document into a living, breathing practice.

Bringing it all together

If your strategic plan doesn’t reflect your culture, it’s just words on paper. But when your values guide your strategy - when culture and plan move together - that’s when transformation happens.

At Mosaic Engagement, we believe the best plans are born from the inside out. They don’t just describe where you’re going - they capture who you are while you get there.

So, as you look ahead to your next strategic planning cycle, ask yourself:
Are we planning with our values, or simply around them?

Because when you build your strategy on the foundation of your culture, you’re not just planning for success - you’re planning for sustainability, connection, and genuine impact.

Ready to bring your strategy and culture into alignment?

Start by completing our quick Intake Questionnaire to help us learn more about your organization’s goals, challenges, and opportunities. It’s the first step in discovering how Mosaic Engagement can help you plan - and grow - with purpose.