Culture Design: How to Build a High-Performing, Resilient Organization with Purpose

·
· Harvard Business Press
Ebook
256
Pages
This book will become available on November 11, 2025. You will not be charged until it is released.

About this ebook

It's time to get intentional about your organizational culture.

How would you describe your organization's culture? Are you happy with it? Do you think you fully understand it? Do you know the risks and opportunities it creates?

Most important, have you done anything to shape or change that culture, by design?

If you haven't, you must. Business leaders are at a crossroads, pulled into a divided world and expected to take a stand, and they face real economic and social consequences when they don't. They are struggling to stay aligned to their true north while catering to employees, shareholders, and consumers. Gen Z has entered the workforce with new expectations. AI is a looming specter. In this climate, a weak culture will lead to a lack of trust and a lack of commitment from workers and customers. And a weak culture leads to weak results.

It's time to get intentional about your organizational culture, to shape it yourself and make it strong. This book shows you how, with a proven framework and deeply practical advice for doing the work. By combining design-thinking principles with inclusive-leadership best practices, Culture Design teaches you how to shape a culture that is resilient, inclusive, powerful, and effective.

Culture Design combines James D. White's expert perspective, informed by more than thirty years of operating experience across sectors and in the boardroom, with daughter Krista White's millennial perspective on which leaders are best suited to build cultures that work for all.

Together they've created an essential book, a clarion call to leaders to make culture design central to their job and their organization's success.

About the author

James D. White is the founder and chair of Culture Design Labs. He has overseen the evolution and growth of some of the world's most iconic brands in the consumer products, retail, and restaurant industries. Most recently, as the former chair, president, and CEO of Jamba Juice, he led the successful turnaround and transformation of the company from a smoothie shop to a leading global, healthy active-lifestyle brand. He has also held senior executive roles at Safeway, Gillette, Nestlé Purina PetCare, and Coca-Cola.

Krista White is the CMO of Culture Design Labs, a writer, and the founder of Kiki For The Future, a platform that connects LGBTQIA+ people with sexual health resources.

Reading information

Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.