What do you want for dinner tonight?

What do you want to watch?

What do you want to do this weekend?

Do you ever feel exhausted by making decisions? More than a few times, Angel and I have come home from hard days at work and looked at each other, “Would you please make a decision about what we are going to eat for dinner?” Researchers note that “by the time the average person goes to bed, they’ve made over 35,000 decisions and all of those decisions take time and energy.”

There’s nothing wrong with displaying your values visually—visibility matters. But this moment revealed a bigger issue: their values hadn’t made it off the wall and into the hearts of the team. They were decorations, not a shared way of life.

Culture is more than just a buzzword; it’s the backbone of your organization. It’s what shapes how your team collaborates, communicates, and works together to fulfill your mission. In other words, culture defines how you achieve your goals.

Building a collaborative culture within any team, workplace, or organization requires intentional effort. Moving from a “me-centered” mindset to a “we-centered” one does not simply happen overnight.  It begins with leadership modeling the behavior they want to see. Here are three practical ways to make that shift and create a culture where collaboration thrives.