Culture isn't what you write down, it's what you do.

Companies often write down what their culture ought to be. And just as often forget that it is something that 'ought to be' and confuse it with what already is. 

It is quite rare that what you do matches exactly or even comes close to what you write down. 

Ben Horowitz wrote an entire book that is very interesting, elaborating on this topic, called 'What you do is who you are'. 

As individuals, we often write down (or think to ourselves) what we ought to do and how we ought to live our lives, but the reality of what we do often doesn't match up to it. 

We have to constantly remember that what we do is who we are. And that writing down our values or our culture is only to remind ourselves to reconsider when what we're about to do is not in line with what we ought to do.

Culture is what exists. What we write down (or think it should be) is the direction in which we want to shape it.