The "Tuesday Afternoon" Test for Company Culture
Is your culture just a poster on the wall? Nick Clift shares why real MSP culture is defined by how people act when the boss isn't looking.
Nick Clift
3/10/20262 min read
I was walking through an office recently and saw one of those classic corporate posters. You know the ones—a high-res photo of a mountain climber with the word INTEGRITY in bold, white letters.
It looked great. But as I watched the team scramble through a chaotic afternoon of tickets, I realized the poster was just wallpaper. Nobody was looking at it, and more importantly, nobody was acting like it.
I used to believe culture was this mystical thing that just happened if you hired good people. But I’ve learned, sometimes the hard way, that if you don't define the culture yourself, your loudest or most frustrated employee will happily define it for you.
The Long-Haul Test
When we were building out our team, I started using what I call the Aeroplane Test.
Imagine you’re stuck on a 14-hour flight from Denpasar to London. You’re in a middle seat, the Wi-Fi is down, and you’re sitting next to a job candidate. Would their values make that trip better, or would you be looking for the emergency exit by hour three?
Technical skills are a baseline, but values are the fuel.
Finding the Real Values
We didn't find our core values by scrolling through a dictionary or picking words that sounded professional. Instead, we looked at our best people. The ones who showed up when things got messy and stayed calm when a client's server went dark on a Friday evening.
We looked at their consistent behaviors and realized that was our culture. We started hiring for those traits. We started rewarding them. And, perhaps most importantly, we started firing for the lack of them.
Alignment over Perfection
Leadership isn't about being a perfect example 100% of the time. It’s about being steady.
When the leadership team is grounded in the same set of values, the rest of the team finds their footing much faster. It creates a calm that filters down. People stop guessing how they should behave because they see it lived out every day.
A Small Nudge for Your Tuesday
Take a look at those official values pinned to your kitchen wall or buried in your handbook. Do they actually describe how your team behaves on a random Tuesday afternoon?
If there’s a gap between the poster and the reality, it might be time for a refresh.
I’m still figuring out the best ways to keep culture alive in a remote or hybrid world, but I’d love to hear how you’re doing it. What’s the one value your team actually lives by?