Skip to content
06 · WRITING

The Culture Lab.

Field notes on culture, leadership and AI, from the operator's chair. Twenty since October 2025, in Inc., in Forbes and on cultureai.com, and every one of them narrated.

NOTES20TO LISTEN3 HRS 2 MININ INC.7IN FORBES4FIRSTOCT 2025

Start here.

THE FOUNDING ARGUMENTCulture Is Not a Values Poster The founding argument of The Culture Lab: healthcare has mistaken the cosplay of culture for the real thing for too long.Nº 06 · 14 MIN READ · 18 MIN LISTEN
THE NOTE THAT CHANGED THE MISSIONWorking Backwards I run a hospice company, which means my work keeps me close to the end of life. It is the best education I have ever received, it has made me better at nearly everything, and it is the reason I think about healthcare backwards: starting from the last room and designing toward it.Nº 17 · 15 MIN READ · 22 MIN LISTEN
THE NEWESTThe Fourth Lesson From Surfing I published three leadership lessons from surfing in Inc. Then I read the man who wrote surfing into his employee handbook, and met the lesson my article was missing, in the year Patagonia nearly died of growth.Nº 20 · 14 MIN READ · 20 MIN LISTEN

Every note.

Each one is drawn at the length of its narration. The tall marks open a section, the blue ones a paragraph.

  1. Nº 20
    The Fourth Lesson From SurfingI published three leadership lessons from surfing in Inc. Then I read the man who wrote surfing into his employee handbook, and met the lesson my article was missing, in the year Patagonia nearly died of growth. 20 min listencultureai.com/team-work/the-fourth-lesson-from-surfing/
    Field noteSep 17, 202614 min read
  2. Nº 19
    The Permission MachineEveryone in healthcare says the words prior auth. Almost nobody can tell you what actually happens between a doctor’s order and the thing that never arrives. So I traced the machine, all the way back to 1965. 17 min listencultureai.com/team-work/the-permission-machine/
    Field noteSep 8, 202613 min read
  3. Nº 18
    The RocketMy company's logo is a rocket. My battle cry says nobody with a rocket company is coming to fix post-acute care. I paid for one a year before I wrote the other, and never put them together until one late night at my desk. This is a field note about what a company can compress into a flag, with the receipts that make it more than a story. 17 min listencultureai.com/team-work/the-rocket/
    Field noteSep 6, 202611 min read
  4. Nº 17
    Working BackwardsI run a hospice company, which means my work keeps me close to the end of life. It is the best education I have ever received, it has made me better at nearly everything, and it is the reason I think about healthcare backwards: starting from the last room and designing toward it. 22 min listencultureai.com/team-work/working-backwards/
    Field noteSep 6, 202615 min read
  5. Nº 16
    Why I Open-Sourced the Way I Run My CompaniesCulture is a clinical outcome multiplier, which makes hoarding culture practice a patient outcomes decision. Software settled the rest of the argument decades ago. So I open-sourced how I run my companies. 15 min listencultureai.com/team-work/why-i-open-sourced-how-i-run-my-companies/
    Field noteSep 6, 202612 min read
  6. Nº 15
    The YieldI spent a year learning how Elon Musk runs a factory. Then I asked what healthcare manufactures, and the answer rearranged how I run my company. 13 min listencultureai.com/team-work/the-yield/
    Field noteSep 6, 202610 min read
  7. Nº 14
    294 ViewsSeventeen years on YouTube. 294 views. The whole SpartX story, told in receipts, and the timing lesson it left behind. 5 min listencultureai.com/team-work/294-views/
    Field noteSep 20264 min read
  8. Nº 13
    Three SeptembersThe internet opened in 1993. Facebook opened in 2006. Healthcare AI opened this month. What the gated phase teaches, with the receipts and a dated prediction. 12 min listencultureai.com/team-work/three-septembers/
    Field noteSep 5, 202610 min read
  9. Nº 12
    Culture Isn't A Speech, It's A Habit You Prove Under PressureThe organizations that build real, lasting culture are not the ones with the best-written values statement. They are the ones where someone can point to a specific Tuesday and say: that is the day I knew it was true. 5 min listencultureai.com/team-work/culture-isnt-a-speech-its-a-habit-you-prove-under-pressure/
    ForbesAug 6, 20264 min read
  10. Nº 11
    How Scale Can Break Everything (And How To Prevent It)Culture does not scale on its own. It either gets built intentionally or gets replaced quietly by whatever behaviors growth introduces. 5 min listencultureai.com/team-work/how-scale-can-break-everything-and-how-to-prevent-it/
    ForbesJun 17, 20263 min read
  11. Nº 10
    Why Your Best Managers Are Your Most Valuable Data SourceCulture influences employee experience, but manager behavior is what drives retention or turnover. 7 min listencultureai.com/team-work/why-your-best-managers-are-your-most-valuable-data-source/
    Inc.Jun 10, 20264 min read
  12. Nº 09
    The Metric Of A Great Team: Recovery SpeedWhy the best teams are measured not by the setback, but by the speed of what comes next. 6 min listencultureai.com/team-work/the-metric-of-a-great-team-recovery-speed/
    ForbesApr 28, 20264 min read
  13. Nº 08
    Pay Attention to the Quiet OnesThe best leaders right now are not the loudest ones. They are the ones watching, testing, and asking questions most people are not ready to answer yet. This piece is about why that quiet signals something important about the leadership that actually compounds in disruption. 4 min listencultureai.com/team-work/pay-attention-to-the-quiet-ones/
    Inc.Apr 28, 20263 min read
  14. Nº 07
    Financial Disruption: 20 Early Warning Signals To Watch ForA Forbes expert panel on the earliest warnings of financial disruption. Steven's signal: listen to the frontline conversations before the spreadsheets. 4 min listencultureai.com/team-work/financial-disruption-20-early-warning-signals-to-watch-for/
    ForbesApr 9, 20263 min read
  15. Nº 06
    Culture Is Not a Values PosterThe founding argument of The Culture Lab: healthcare has mistaken the cosplay of culture for the real thing for too long. 18 min listencultureai.com/team-work/culture-is-not-a-values-poster-2/
    The manifestoApr 3, 202614 min read
  16. Nº 05
    The Capacity Illusion: Why High Performers Burn OutYour highest performers are not leaving because they lack grit. They are leaving because you built a system that rewards their overextension until they break. A reframe of burnout as a design failure, not a people problem. 2 min listencultureai.com/team-work/the-capacity-illusion-why-high-performers-burn-out-published-in-inc-march-2026/
    Inc.Mar 20262 min read
  17. Nº 04
    In a High-Tech World, Presence Matters More Than PolishAI can write the memo. It cannot replace the meeting. As communication becomes more automated, the leaders who win will be the ones who show up with real curiosity and genuine attention. 2 min listencultureai.com/team-work/in-a-high-tech-world-presence-matters-more-than-polish-published-in-inc-february-2026/
    Inc.Feb 20262 min read
  18. Nº 03
    Certainty Is Overrated. Presence Is Underrated.In volatile environments, leaders instinctively reach for certainty as a stabilizing force. This piece argues that is the wrong instinct. What teams need most is not certainty: it is consistent, visible, human leadership. 2 min listencultureai.com/team-work/certainty-is-overrated-presence-is-underrated-published-in-inc-january-2026/
    Inc.Jan 20262 min read
  19. Nº 02
    The Most Undervalued Leadership Skill: ListeningMost leaders are hired to have answers. The best ones are distinguished by their questions. The case for listening as a structural leadership advantage, not a soft skill. 2 min listencultureai.com/team-work/the-most-undervalued-leadership-skill-listening-published-in-inc-november-2025/
    Inc.Nov 20252 min read
  20. Nº 01
    3 Leadership Lessons From SurfingThe ocean does not negotiate. Neither does change. Three surfing principles that translate directly into how the best leaders navigate AI disruption, generational shifts, and a workforce that keeps moving. 2 min listencultureai.com/team-work/3-leadership-lessons-from-surfingpublished-in-inc-october-2025/
    Inc.Oct 20252 min read

Twenty notes, about three hours of listening. Every narration plays on cultureai.com, with the words following along.

Where it runs.

MEMBER · CONTRIBUTOR · COLUMNISTForbes Business Council Essays on culture as infrastructure, leadership from the bedside to the boardroom, and building organizations people don’t want to leave.4 IN THE LAB · FORBES ↗
MEMBER · CONTRIBUTOR · COLUMNISTInc. Leadership Forum The Culture Lab series: practical frameworks from two decades of operating, tested in companies that live or die on their people.7 IN THE LAB · INC. ↗
THE HOME OF THE LABcultureai.com Every note lives here first, narrated, with the words following along, search across all of them, and Ask the Lab.ALL 20 · CULTUREAI.COM ↗

Also on cultureai.com: From Scrubs to Strategy, by Monica D. Cutia, VP of Clinical Operations at HealthView.

THE CULTURE LAB

We publish when it’s true, not when it’s Tuesday.

No schedule, no spam. Leave an email and the next note finds you, in text and audio, when it’s worth your time.

UNSUBSCRIBE ANYTIME · OR FOLLOW BY RSS