Culture doesn’t just happen — it’s built through the daily actions of leaders and teams, especially in hybrid workplaces. The FORRGIVESS framework offers a practical path to shaping culture with values that drive both human connection and organizational success.
Culture doesn’t just “happen.” In every organization, it is shaped by daily choices — how leaders respond to challenges, how teams interact, and how individuals show up for each other. In today’s hybrid workplaces, where employees are split between home offices and traditional work settings, shaping culture has become even more challenging. Distance can blur priorities, silence voices, and create subtle divides between those in the room and those on the screen.
But this complexity also creates opportunity. Leaders and managers have the chance to deliberately influence the way culture is lived. Enter FORRGIVESS, a practical framework for embedding values that drive performance and connection: Focus, Openness, Respect, Results, Growth, Innovation, Visibility, Energy, Selflessness, and Sustainability.
The acronym might be a mouthful, but each element reflects a quality that modern organizations desperately need. And when these values are put into practice, they create cultures that are more resilient, more human, and ultimately more successful.
So how can leaders start applying FORRGIVESS without getting lost in lofty intentions? Below are some practical ideas — not the full playbook, but a taste of how you might bring these values to life.
Hybrid environments breed distraction. Leaders can set the tone by clarifying priorities, cutting back on unnecessary meetings, and modeling deep work time. Even a small habit like beginning team check-ins with “what matters most this week” signals that focus is a shared expectation.
When some people are in the office and others are dialing in, it’s easy for remote colleagues to be sidelined. Leaders can prevent this by making openness a deliberate habit. Ask directly for input from those online. Share decision rationales in writing. When people see that their perspectives matter, openness becomes contagious.
Respect shows up in subtle ways — who gets the floor in meetings, how time zones are considered, whether interruptions are tolerated. Leaders should ensure that respect is modeled equally for in-office and remote team members. Even small gestures, like pausing to let a lagging connection catch up, communicate that everyone’s contributions matter.
Culture drifts when “being busy” is mistaken for adding value. Leaders should emphasize outcomes by aligning metrics with meaningful results. A good practice: in team updates, ask not just “what did you do?” but “what did you move forward?” This shift pushes teams to focus on progress and achievement, not presenteeism.
Too often, professional development is treated as an individual activity. Leaders can cultivate growth by making learning visible and collective. When someone attends a training, invite them to share a short takeaway with the team. Rotate stretch assignments. By embedding growth into team rhythms, leaders normalize development for everyone.
Innovation isn’t just about big breakthroughs; it’s about everyday creativity. Leaders can foster this by framing new ideas as experiments, not final products. Consider dedicating one meeting each month to “what could we try differently?” and celebrating lessons learned even when ideas don’t work. A culture of innovation starts with leaders signaling that experimentation is safe.
Hybrid work can make people feel invisible, particularly those working remotely. Leaders can counter this by creating rituals of recognition. For example, open each all-hands with a “spotlight” moment, celebrating contributions from across the organization. This ensures visibility is not an accident, but a cultural expectation.
Energy is contagious. Leaders can lift teams by bringing positivity, enthusiasm, and humanity into interactions. That doesn’t mean forced cheerleading — it means showing up engaged, acknowledging wins, and breaking up monotony with simple energizers. When energy is modeled from the top, it becomes part of the team’s rhythm.
In high-pressure environments, self-preservation can overshadow collaboration. Leaders who highlight collective wins and encourage peer-to-peer support help shift the culture toward selflessness. Consider pairing employees from different work modes (remote and office) as “culture buddies” — it’s a small structural change that reinforces a bigger value.
Finally, culture has to be sustainable. That means balancing ambition with well-being. Leaders should normalize boundaries — ending meetings on time, respecting offline hours, and pacing workloads to prevent burnout. Sustainability is about ensuring today’s wins don’t come at the expense of tomorrow’s capacity.
The FORRGIVESS framework isn’t magic. Culture doesn’t transform because a list of values is posted on a wall. It takes leaders who are willing to embed these values into daily routines, decisions, and behaviors. What makes the framework powerful is its practicality: each value can be translated into specific, doable actions that ripple across the organization.
For leaders and managers, the opportunity is clear: you are already influencing culture every day. The question is whether you’re doing so intentionally. By choosing to model FORRGIVESS values, you create a culture that is focused, open, respectful, results-oriented, growth-minded, innovative, visible, energized, selfless, and sustainable.
That’s a culture worth building — and one that employees will thrive in.
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