Dear reader,
I feel we need to disambiguate the word "culture".
Colloquially, when people talk about culture, they often mean visible expressions of a group’s identity: things like food, clothing, holidays, traditions, language, music and so on. It’s the surface-level stuff that’s easy to observe and describe, often tied to national or ethnic identities. This version of culture helps us recognize differences between groups, and it's usually what comes to mind first when the word is used casually.
But there’s a deeper, more structural meaning of culture that’s just as real, even if it’s harder to see. This kind of culture isn’t about visible traditions or rituals: it’s the shared mental models, assumptions, values, and norms that shape how people think, interpret, and act.
In this sense, culture functions as a kind of semiotic engine: it assigns meaning to the raw signs and signals of the world. The world itself doesn’t come pre-labeled with significance; it's culture that tells us what things mean, what they imply, and how we should respond: culture provides the interpretive layer that turns neutral or ambiguous signs into something meaningful.
Although this process usually happens unconsciously, it has a direct and powerful impact on how we behave. We don’t act based on the world as it is; we act based on what we think we’ve understood about it. And what we think we understand depends on the meanings we've assigned to things, through our culture. In that sense, culture doesn’t just influence how we see the world: it determines what we see in the first place, what we value, and therefore how we respond.
In a sense, we inhabit a version of the world that exists first in our minds. There’s always a small but crucial gap between raw reality and the version of it we perceive; and it's often within this space, I believe, that much of our confusion and frustration arises.
This happens because we act based on the interpretations shaped by our culture, while reality operates independently of our perceptions. When culture is aligned with the demands of reality, this alignment creates an invisible advantage: our behavior fits the environment naturally, without friction. But when culture is misaligned, it quietly sets us up for mistakes, inefficiencies, missed opportunities. And because this process is largely unconscious, we may struggle to realize that the root of the problem isn't our effort or intelligence: it's the invisible framework we're operating within.
This becomes particularly evident when people face new technologies or systems that are built on different assumptions than those they are used to. Take, for example, engineers trained in the Waterfall model of project management. In Waterfall, projects are seen as predictable sequences: requirements are gathered upfront, designs are fully planned, development follows in distinct phases, and everything proceeds step-by-step toward a final delivery. Success is defined by sticking to the plan.
When these engineers enter Agile environments, they may feel disoriented or even resistant. Agile expects constant adaptation based on feedback; it values short development cycles, continuous reassessment, and evolving goals.
Agile is not just a different toolset for managing projects: it’s a fundamentally different way of thinking about software development altogether. It requires a shift in mindset, not just in practice. When organizations adopt Agile tools and ceremonies (like sprints, stand-ups, and retrospectives) without embracing the deeper cultural change, the underlying Waterfall mentality often persists. Teams end up doing "Waterfall with sprints": rigid planning masked by Agile terminology. This leads to frustration, confusion, and impractical processes, because the new tools are being used to prop up an outdated worldview, rather than enabling the fluid, adaptive approach Agile was designed to support.
This difficulty in adapting stems from the fact that the cultural framework we operate within is largely subconscious. We usually aren't aware that our assumptions are shaping our interpretation of reality, we just act on what seems "natural" to us. This makes it hard to tell whether our struggles come from genuine errors or from outdated cultural models that no longer fit the environment.
Adding to the challenge, culture itself is a form of technology; yet we are trained to think about technology mainly as physical tools or explicit processes, things we consciously use to achieve goals. We rarely think about the hidden mental frameworks that these tools often embed and enforce. As a result, when culture becomes a mismatch, we are not attuned to spotting it. We tend to blame the tools, or ourselves, rather than questioning the deeper assumptions that guide how we use them.
Which is why, I think, it is fundamental that we shift focus onto our culture. We need to develop the habit of thinking critically about the worldview our culture suggests to us, consciously keeping what works and letting go of what doesn't. Since culture operates at a lower, often unconscious level, we want to ensure that the current flows in the right direction. It's much easier to act effectively when our culture naturally supports our goals, rather than constantly having to fight against ingrained assumptions.
Vale,
Davide