Coffee, Culture, and Coaching: Why Shifting Culture Starts with Strategy and Coaching.

What Does This Picture Tell You About Culture?

Before a word is spoken, before a menu is read, before an order is placed, culture has already been communicated.

In this space, culture is immediately evident.

Soft, comfortable seating that invites people to linger rather than rush.Natural light that makes the room feel open and calm. Throw blankets within reach, an acknowledgment that bodies are different, that comfort matters, that people deserve warmth. Muted colors and layered textures that signal rest rather than urgency.A layout that prioritizes conversation, not extraction.

This is culture by design, and I love it!

Having the opportunity to work with this local coffee shop on their organizational culture, and this image capture many of their strengths. Through environmental observations, staff handbook reviews, compensation analysis, hiring and retention data, and interviews with both staff and customers, a clear picture emerged.

This organization already excelled at:

• Creating a space that felt emotionally safe and welcoming

• Valuing comfort over turnover

• Designing for connection rather than speed

• Building loyalty through atmosphere, not just product

At the same time, leadership named a goal: they wanted to welcome a more diverse customer base and increase revenue.

That’s where strategy mattered.

We didn’t start with décor or marketing tweaks. We started with coaching the leadership team around inclusion, because before you can invite others in, you have to understand your own assumptions, blind spots, and defaults. Coaching helped the leadership team examine assumptions about who the space was “for,” how welcome is communicated, and where unintentional exclusion might exist.

From there, the team decided to make strategic shifts like redesigning touchpoints that shape belonging:

• The books on the shelves

• The music playlist

• The menu language and offerings

• The social media calendar

• The artwork and visual storytelling throughout the space

Coaching provided the leadership and team a roadmap to continually assess their gaps and think through strategies for how to make the enviornment more welcoming for diverse customers.

This is why culture needs a strategy. And why that strategy starts with coaching.

Culture is the meaning people make the moment they walk through the door.