CHAPTER 4 - PROTOCOL 3

Culture Mapping

TIME75-90 minutes

OWNERPrincipal and leadership team

ARTIFACTCulture-system map + redesign priority

SUCCESS CRITERIA

The map connects cultural commitments to concrete systems and routines.
The team identifies reinforcement, erosion, and absence across systems.
Contradictory messages and inequitable experiences become visible.
One high-leverage system redesign has an owner, evidence, and return date.

IMPLEMENTATION STEPS

Select the cultural promise

Choose one core commitment or desired experience to trace across the school.

Map the touchpoints

Examine instruction, discipline, meetings, hiring, onboarding, recognition, communication, and resource decisions.

Mark alignment and erosion

Identify which systems reinforce, contradict, ignore, or unevenly deliver the intended culture.

Redesign one system

Select one leverage point, define the smallest coherent change, and schedule an evidence review.

WORKING ORGANIZER

Run the protocol.

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01Select the cultural promiseChoose one core commitment or desired experience to trace across the school.What cultural promise are we testing against the system?02Map the touchpointsExamine instruction, discipline, meetings, hiring, onboarding, recognition, communication, and resource decisions.Where should people encounter this promise?03Mark alignment and erosionIdentify which systems reinforce, contradict, ignore, or unevenly deliver the intended culture.Where does the system make the desired behavior easier—or harder?04Redesign one systemSelect one leverage point, define the smallest coherent change, and schedule an evidence review.What system change could alter the lived experience most meaningfully?

Evidence to bring backReturn date

Your protocol can be complete here. Save or share the artifact and use it for the need in front of you.

REFLECTION PROMPTS

Which routine teaches the opposite of what we say?
Where does culture depend on individual goodwill rather than design?
Who experiences the system differently?

EQUITY GUARDRAILS

Do not mistake additional messaging for system redesign.
Study differential impact across race, disability, language, role, and other identities.
Remove redundant requirements when adding a cultural reinforcement.