tbc News - What if...

Hello Reader,

We’re midway through the year. Feels like a good moment to take a breath, check in, and ask the quiet questions. What are we building here? How does it feel? For me, this reflection hits a little deeper. I’m going through a transition of my own right now, and it’s made me think more deliberately about how culture lives not just in teams, but in people. This piece is a look back, a look in, and a look ahead.

We’ve talked a lot this year.

Buzzwords? Could be. Depends on how you use them. When we kicked off the year, these were more like themes. Focus areas. Stuff we wanted to see more of. But now, looking back, they’ve actually shown up. Not as slogans, but as choices. And in this transition I’m in personally and professionally I’ve found myself noticing these things more. Noticing who makes room in the middle of the noise. Who follows through. Who lifts others quietly. These are the moments that shape how it feels to be here.

Take collaboration. It’s easy to say we work together. Harder when timelines clash, egos get in the way, or someone’s fourth Zoom of the day is running over. And yet, we’ve seen people jump into the mess and say, “Let’s figure this out.” Not to be heroes. Just to keep things moving.

Commitment isn’t about staying late or saying yes to everything. It’s about showing up with care. Following through. Like that person who quietly fixed something no one asked them to. Or the one who kept a project on track while juggling ten other things and somehow didn’t make it anyone else’s problem.

Intent vs action? Classic trap. We all mean well. We all have calendars that lie to us. But there’s a big difference between saying “I’ll get to it” and actually getting to it. And the folks who deliver consistently even when no one’s watching well, they’re the ones people trust.

Appreciation gets mistaken for fluff. But a team that knows how to give a solid “Hey, that was great” is a team that doesn’t take each other for granted. Doesn’t mean you need to write a poem. Just means you noticed, and said something. That counts.

And listening. Real listening. Not “uh huh” while you scroll emails. The kind where someone asks a question, and then actually sits in the silence to hear the answer. That’s the gold. That’s where ideas shift. That’s where culture builds.

Because that’s the thing we’re not just working in a culture. We’re making one. Every day. In tiny, mostly invisible ways. So if there’s one thing to hold onto mid-year, it’s this:

Culture is a verb

Culture is a verb. Not a brand. Not a feeling. Not a policy. It’s how we behave when no one’s writing a newsletter about it. And if this year is anything to go by, we’re headed in a good direction.

One way I’ve been checking in with myself lately is through a reflective journal that I designed last year. It’s become a small but steady rhythm. The artist featured in it, whose work you might recognize from Zarf, is a thoughtful traveller. His reflections and the journaling prompts I wrote have been helping me stay anchored, especially in the middle of change.

Sometimes I just open a page at random and let my heart set the tone. Today, it landed on What If. A simple prompt. But it shifted something. It pulled me out of a loop I didn’t realize I was in - that skeptical, low-key suspicious mindset that shows up when energy is low and pressure is high. The prompt nudged me into counterfactual thinking. Instead of spiraling through what could go wrong, I started to ask:

What if this works? What if this moment is exactly where something new begins?

I realized I wasn’t being a blind optimist but I was loosening the grip of fear so possibility can get a word in. That little shift made me see my next meeting differently. It reminded me that my next meeting isn’t just a meeting. It’s a moment to create culture. Because I do create it. So do you. One decision at a time. One interaction at a time.

See you out there, culture vultures.

Anjani

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