*Brand, culture and space should reinforce each other. Extremis Hopper table, Blu Dot Hot Mesh armchairs, and Extremis Romeo & Juliet bench*

Years ago, we worked with a client whose greatest challenge was its brand. It was a strong, powerful, well-known and incredibly respected brand. Unfortunately, their culture didn’t live up to their brand. In fairness, they were so idealized it would have been tough for any culture to measure up, but they faced the unique problem of a near-toxic culture on the inside of a glimmering brand.

There is an important lesson here, of course, and it’s the relationship between experience and expectation. I originally wrote about this concept in Bringing Work to Life by Bringing Life to Work: When there is a match between expectation and experience (for example, I thought the food at the restaurant would be good and it was), people will generally be satisfied. On the other hand, when experience is better than expectation, people will be delighted (I didn’t expect much from that little diner, but the food and the service were amazing). Worst-case is when we have high expectations and they aren’t met (despite their five-star rating, the place was terrible).

This dynamic between experience and expectation is one of the reasons brand and culture are so connected. Your brand is the promise you’re making and it’s the expectation you’re setting and cultivating. Experience must match or exceed the prospect you’ve established, or your business will suffer.

There are few things more important to get right as a company than your culture, but brand is right there at the top of the list as well. In fact, brand and culture are inextricably linked—and each should enhance the other—and the relationship between brand and culture is a critical dynamic to manage.

Aligning Brand and Culture

Rather than managing brand and culture separately, you must manage them in tandem because (as I wrote in Bring Work to Life by Bringing Work to Life) brand is the outside-in and culture is the inside-out view of the same set of characteristics[ii]. If brand is a promise to your market, culture is “the way things get done around here”—the accumulation of behaviors, norms, assumptions and values that results in “what people do when no one is looking.” How the work proceeds internally influences the external experience, and how employees are treated is mirrored in how they treat customers.

To achieve success, brand and culture must be in alignment. A brand that promises high quality must be supported by a culture of excellence, rigor and constructive feedback—otherwise, how will you deliver quality? A brand which sets the expectation for cutting edge innovation must be matched by a culture of psychological safety in which people feel free to take (appropriate) risks, test new ideas and try novel approaches.