There seems to be a lot of talk about company culture these days. Several builders I've spoken with are trying to define or improve their firm's culture.

With all of the culture talk, I decided to do my usual exhaustive research (sending out a plea for help to people smarter than me) and see what I could find. Here's what I uncovered.

Culture is more than just a word; it embodies several ideas:

• Culture refers to the perspectives, practices and products of a social or professional group.
• Culture is the personality of an organization, comprised of the attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and values of a company.
• Culture is a group's particular ideas about authority, hierarchy and communication styles.
• Culture is shared values across an organization, along with consistent business-related (and to some degree social) ways of behaving that express those shared values.
• Culture is the collective conduct of an organization "when outsiders are not watching."

At San Diego-based Newland Communities, culture translates into caring about quality-of-life issues for its customers and team members. Tim Durie, vice president of human resources at Newland, explains: "Our customers told us health is more than physical — it also relates to their sense of mental and emotional well-being; spiritual and financial health; and freedom from stress." Those sentiments became a cornerstone by which Newland operates its business internally and externally.

"Without a doubt, it starts with the observable values and behaviors of an organization's leaders," says Jay Mason, COO of Texas-based Antares Homes. "HR 'architecture' is a secondary but also critical piece of shaping a culture; a company's systems, policies, practices and 'rules of engagement' become the field of play within which a culture grows and thrives (or not)."

Gary Williamson of PSP Metrics in Pittsburgh describes it this way: "I think of culture as the unspoken rules of a company; a simple way for everyone to understand those rules is by playing Fill in the Blank."

For example:

• The way our company shows how much quality matters is to ___________.
• The way we show respect for each other at our company is to ____________.
• The way we make decisions at our company is to __________________.
• We show our compassion for the community by ___________________.

Whether you call it shared values, attributes or characteristics, these are some of the more common descriptions of positive culture. How many reflect the flavor of your organization?

• Authentic
• Loyal
• Fair
• Honest
• Empathetic
• Committed
• Caring
• Collaborative
• Rewarding

Mason says it's "being honest and personally concerned with the experience and well-being of customers, trade partners and co-workers." Break that statement down and you realize how rarely it applies to most businesses.

The behavior of your organization today becomes the culture others describe tomorrow. It is not retroactive; you can't go back and change it. It starts with you. As Williamson notes, culture always manifests itself in observable behavior that is repeated over and over again throughout a company, top to bottom."