Before You Build Culture, Build a System of Beliefs

What Darwin’s Cathedral teaches us about survival, cohesion, and the real foundations of organisational strength

“The strength of a system lies in what it preserves.”
— Adapted from Donella Meadows

“Religions are not so much about truth as they are about utility.”
— David Sloan Wilson, Darwin’s Cathedral

“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another.”
— Daniel H. Pink, Drive

Culture Comes Later

Every modern organisation wants a strong culture.
But few stop to ask: what is culture built on?

In Darwin’s Cathedral, evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson explores the power of belief systems, not as arbiters of objective truth, but as adaptive tools that help communities align and survive. Shared beliefs, whether religious or institutional, bind groups together. They establish patterns of behaviour that support the collective.

And that is where most companies go wrong. They chase culture as an aesthetic, events, slogans, values on a wall, without first establishing a system of beliefs that helps people know what matters, what does not, and why.

Before you build culture, you must define shared beliefs that orient the group around survival, excellence, and cohesion. Not for branding. For function.

What a Belief System Really Is

A belief system is not a list of aspirations.
It is not a vision slide.
And it is certainly not a feel-good campaign.

A belief system is a deep structure. A set of convictions that:

• Guides how people behave when no one is watching
• Shapes how teams make trade-offs under pressure
• Determines which compromises are allowed, and which are not
• Anchors success in service to the whole, not just individual gain

These beliefs must be lived to have meaning. They must show up in promotion criteria, in code review conversations, in how teams say no, and in what is protected during high-stress moments.

When your belief system is real, it does not need to be shouted. It flows quietly through decisions, trade-offs, and defaults. It is not wallpaper. It is wiring.

Importantly, this goes beyond HR setting up recruitment or promotion systems aligned to values. Those structures matter, but belief touches something more fundamental. It shapes how individuals grow, reflect, and develop themselves. When the system holds a shared sense of purpose and conviction, people unlock internal drive.

Daniel Pink’s Drive reminds us that true motivation rests on three pillars: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. Belief is what anchors purpose. Without it, autonomy feels like drift. Mastery becomes mechanical. Culture collapses into performance.

No Belief, no Drive.

Why Culture Fails Without Belief

When belief is missing, culture becomes decoration.
Teams operate on local incentives. Trust erodes.
Alignment becomes theatre.

Some common failure patterns:

• ❌ Engineering is treated as a delivery service, not a strategic partner
• ❌ Platform work degrades into reactive ticket queues
• ❌ Stakeholder “collaboration” becomes continuous negotiation
• ❌ Teams chase speed, then drown in unmaintainable systems
• ❌ Values are repeated in meetings but contradicted in actions
• ❌ Individuals and teams make unilateral decisions with little awareness of system-wide impact
• ❌ Prioritisation becomes fragmented, with no common lens or framing
• ❌ People work in silos, optimising for local goals instead of shared outcomes

These symptoms are not surface-level glitches, they are systemic consequences of a missing belief core.

When your organisation does not share a belief system that benefits the collective, subcultures form that defend only their own interests. The group fragments. And the system weakens.

The Fluid Organisation: Belief as Architecture

In the Fluid Organisation model, structure and motion are not at odds.
They are co-designed.

Fluidity is not chaos. It is clarity in motion, enabled by a strong internal compass. That compass is belief.

This model only works if it is anchored in a shared belief system, one that supports autonomy without entropy, reuse without centralisation, and speed without fragility.

Here is a practical set of beliefs behind the Fluid Organisation philosophy:

These beliefs are not slogans. They are rules for survival in complex systems. They help people act without waiting for permission and stay coherent without constant oversight.

They let teams move fast and stay whole.

Live It, or Lose It

“Writing values on the wall is not enough. You have to live the values.”

Far too many organisations declare values but reward the opposite.
They say they care about sustainability, then celebrate reckless shipping.
They say they value ownership, then strip decision-making from teams.

You cannot fake belief.
You either embed it into the rhythm of your organisation, or you do not.

Your real belief system is revealed not by what you say, but by what you reward, protect, and repeat.

If a belief never shapes trade-offs, it is not a belief. It is a tagline.

6. Design for Cohesion, Not Applause

A well-functioning belief system is not loud.
It does not demand attention. It does not need posters.

Like a well-designed circulatory system, it works in the background, quietly sustaining energy, alignment, and coherence.

So before you write down values, ask:

• What does this organisation believe is worth protecting?
• What behaviours are defensible under pressure?
• What do we refuse to sacrifice, even when it is easy?

If you answer that honestly, and live by it, culture will take care of itself.
If you do not, no amount of slogans will save you.