If you’re like many others in America, you watch CSI (Crime Scene Investigators). My wife and I are hooked on the show. I could go without some of the gory scenes, but the combination of evidentiary crime solving and character development is apparently appealing to many more people than just me.

The investigators process every crime scene with a fine-toothed comb. Many times there is one miniscule scrap of evidence that breaks open the case for them. Sometimes it is a fingerprint. Other times it may be a DNA laden hair left behind. Sometimes it might be a fiber transferred from someone’s clothing or carpet in a car.

I was thinking about fibers earlier. How they transfer from one person to the other. Also, we talk about fibers as things that characterize us… something essential (i.e. with every fiber of my being).

Don’t ask my why, but this whole thought process developed as I considered Andy Law’s book Creative Company : How St. Luke’s Became “the Ad Agency to End All Ad Agencies”. One of the elements St. Luke’s developed was called the QUEST.

The QUEST is the cultural barometer of the company. It contains a cross-section of people ( all voted in by the employees). Their watchful eye on the culture of the company is not forced upon them from a ‘top-down’ perspective. They are the culture.
(p. 159)

The QUEST set about delivering something tangible and started with a maternity policy that would reflect our belief in the value of home-life and would stand as a shining example of how to treat your human capital with decency and respect.
(p. 204)

Now bear with me here as I’m pretty much just sharing a brainstorming session with you.

Think of a company’s culture as a collection of fibers. Each fiber is an idea or belief. Maybe it’s the belief in the value of home-life. Another fiber could be a belief in self-discovery as an integral element of leadership development. These are inspiring beliefs. They show that there is more to life at work than just the surface.

These “fibers” are what help make up some of the more inspirational businesses today. They are companies that look beyond the surface, and people are drawn to them. Their business model reads more like a book of proverbs than like a book of laws, and through it people learn greater lessons in business and life.

How do you develop these fibers? Simplistically, here is an acronym to help:

Find
Inspiration in
Beliefs
Experiment with it
Ratify an idea
Share with others

I’d love to get additional ideas and opinions on this. Like I said, this is a brainstorming session. I’m not laying out case studies and statistics to support this. This is an idea in its earliest stages. Let’s see if it’s worth growing.