As workplace trends continue to evolve, Jason identifies 4 foundational habits that every culture needs to be intentional about to create their future.
SHOW NOTES
Jason introduces Season 10 episode 7 of the podcast, 4 Habits Your Culture Needs. Welcome back to the podcast on corporate culture and leadership and thank you for listening. We engage thought leaders like CEOs, CFOs, managers, VPs, directors, and more for this podcast. We wish to create content that engages your mind and heart and allows you to step back and think and add some positivity to your life. We deep dive into today’s topic.
We can’t control everything but what we can control is our response. Still a lot of work to do but wanted to remind the audience what is within our control is the temperature we create in the organizations and teams we work with.
Please leave a review for the podcast It really helps the podcast to spread these messages out into the world. Please share this podcast with your organization, on your team, or in your life to help spread these messages. Thank you!
If any of these topics are interesting to you please or you want a deep dive on any specific topics, please reach out to us at info@jasonvbarger.com
4 Habits Your Culture Needs
Building a high-performing team is not a one-time event; it is the result of intentional, daily actions. In a recent episode of The Thermostat Podcast, host Jason V. Barger shared how organizations can move beyond surface-level trends to build deep-rooted, sustainable success. By focusing on specific, proactive habits, leaders can “calibrate their thermostat” and set a temperature that fosters trust, empathy, and high performance.
Summary: From Trends to Actionable Habits
The modern workplace is evolving rapidly, with 2026 bringing unique challenges in employee engagement and the integration of AI. Jason V. Barger highlights that while technology continues to advance, leadership is becoming more human-centric than ever. Leaders today must prioritize empathy, communication, and adaptability to build trust in a low-trust world.
To bridge the gap between these trends and daily reality, Jason identifies four foundational habits that every culture needs to focus on in the year ahead. These habits—ranging from strategic culture audits to intentional leadership development—provide a roadmap for organizations looking to optimize their environment for their people. Instead of relying on a “magic button,” the best cultures are those that continuously refine these practices to stay aligned with their core values.
4 Habits for a Thriving Culture
1. The Regular Culture Audit
The best organizations make it a habit to “take the temperature” of their culture every two to three years. This isn’t just about another employee survey; it’s a strategic process of listening to people to understand the current state of the organization. Crucially, leaders must communicate what they’ve heard and deploy intentional strategies to “set the temperature” for the future, thereby avoiding “survey fatigue”.
2. Strategic Hiring and Onboarding
For elite organizations, hiring is a two-way street. It is a habit of affirming cultural fit by helping candidates understand the culture they are entering while the organization learns about the person. Onboarding is viewed not as a one-week event, but as a habitual, 365-day roadmap designed to culturally integrate new employees over their first year and beyond.
3. Participatory Alignment of Values
Core values are a tool, not a poster on the wall. A healthy culture habit involves engaging employees in exercises to define what those values actually look like in daily action and behavior. When values are co-created or at least participative, they become the foundation for how a team hires, conducts meetings, and makes difficult decisions.
4. Intentional Leadership Development
You cannot expect people to magically become “human-centered leaders” without a strategy. The best cultures make it a habit to intentionally develop both senior and emerging leaders. Senior leaders must remain committed to their own growth, understanding that they are not a “finished product”. This alignment allows cultural development to “cascade” effectively from senior management to the front line.
Notable Quotes
“The best leaders in team cultures in the world are the ones that make time to step back, breathe in good oxygen, and calibrate their thermostat.”
“AI is moving from a mere tool to a practice that we lean on… the challenge is balancing AI efficiency with human judgment.”
“Work-life rhythm… is now becoming a core business strategy—how do we take care of people in a well-being that’s not just an add-on program, but it’s a strategy for how do we perform better.”
“Values are not meant to just be posters on the wall… the idea is, are your posters in your people?”
Questions to Ponder
To help you reflect on your own leadership journey and the state of your team, consider these questions shared by Jason at the close of the episode:
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What habits do you need to strengthen within your culture in the year ahead?
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What actions and behaviors do you want to strategically develop for your team, your culture, or your own personal leadership in the year ahead?
Links and References
Follow @JasonVBarger on social media for even more insights and new video content.
Jason references this episode on this podcast https://www.jasonvbarger.com/podcast/people-culture-trends-2026/ – Listen here
For more insights and practical tips, be sure to check out Jason V Barger’s book Breathing Oxygen. This book dives deeper into the concepts discussed in this episode and provides additional strategies for fostering a positive mindset and effective leadership.
By incorporating these practices into your summer routine, you can breathe new life into your personal and professional endeavors. Remember, as Jason says, “The best leaders, teams, and cultures on the planet stimulate progress by recalibrating their thermostat together.”
Please leave a review for the podcast It really helps the podcast to spread these messages out into the world. Please share this podcast with your organization, on your team, or in your life to help spread these messages. Thank you!
If any of these topics are interesting to you please or you want a deep dive on any specific topics, please reach out to us at info@jasonvbarger.com
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Remember, the best leaders, teams, & cultures stimulate progress by recalibrating their thermostat together.
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ABOUT THE THERMOSTAT
Conversations and micro-thoughts to engage your mind and heart.
A thermostat is proactive. It sets the temperature in a room. Controls the temperature. Regulates the temperature. But in today’s distracted, fast-paced and digital world, it’s easy for individuals and organizations to act more like thermometers, slipping into reactionary thinking, becoming scattered and inconsistent. The most compelling leaders, teams, organizations, families, or collection of humans of any kind operate in thermostat mode. They calibrate their mind and heart to set the temperature for the vision and culture they want to create. Jason Barger, globally celebrated author, keynote speaker, and founder of Step Back Leadership Consulting, is the host of The Thermostat, a podcast journey to discover authentic leadership, create compelling cultures and find clarity of mission, vision, and values.