In a fast-moving world, project success hinges not just on processes, but on a strong, adaptable culture.

Ask someone to describe their company’s culture, and you’ll often hear about open-plan offices, casual dress codes, or maybe a few phrases from the intranet homepage. But these signals rarely capture the real story – especially in organizations where work gets done through projects, not hierarchy.

Culture doesn’t live in the walls. It lives in the spaces between people – in how quickly trust forms, how decisions get made, and how teams behave under pressure. Project teams don’t have the luxury of time to slowly absorb cultural norms. They form, execute and disband at speed – often across functions, locations and leadership lines, or even without ever sitting in the same room. 

That makes culture both harder to build and more critical than ever. In all my work, I’ve seen one truth again and again: process is visible, but culture is what holds everything together – or lets it fall apart. So the question isn’t whether your organization has a culture. It’s whether that culture shows up in the right way when teams are under pressure to deliver. Let’s explore what that takes.

The hidden driver

Ask most organizations how they manage projects and they’ll point to tools, frameworks, or methodologies. But beneath these processes lies a hidden driver: culture. Culture determines how quickly decisions are made, how openly feedback is shared, and how willing people are to challenge ideas. A strong project culture doesn’t just make teams more pleasant to work with – it makes them faster, more resilient, and more effective. Engagement rises, even in remote or short-term setups. Decision-making accelerates because people trust each other. Collaboration improves, reducing cross-functional friction. And resilience increases as teams adapt and recover more quickly from setbacks. On the flip side, I’ve seen high-skill teams underperform because they lacked a shared cultural foundation. No amount of process can compensate for an absence of trust, purpose and cohesion.

Five cultural pillars for fast-moving teams

Based on the best-performing teams I’ve worked with, across industries and continents, getting great results comes down to five core cultural pillars.

1. Shared values that travel across teams
When teams are constantly changing, culture can’t rely on informal norms or personality-driven leadership. It needs to be anchored in clearly defined values. Think of these as “portable principles” – values that move with people from project to project. They offer consistency amid the churn.

For example, in one global services company I supported, each project team began with a 30-minute conversation: what values matter to us? What do we expect from each other? Within 24 hours, teams co-created three to five working principles to govern how they would collaborate, such as: “We make decisions within 48 hours,” or “Transparency over hierarchy”. It created instant alignment. Values, when made explicit, create both cohesion and clarity. Without them, culture resets to zero every time a new project begins.

2. Trust and psychological safety as default settings
Project teams don’t have time to build deep familiarity over months. They need to establish trust quickly, often in days, which means psychological safety is key. Google’s Project Aristotle study famously found that psychological safety was the strongest predictor of high team performance – not technical skills. People must feel able to speak up, admit mistakes, ask questions and challenge assumptions without fear.

Pixar institutionalized this through its “brain trust” model – open feedback sessions where candor was expected, and egos were checked at the door. It’s no coincidence that this culture produced some of the most successful films in animation history.

A team doesn’t have to wait for a postmortem to reflect. The best teams build feedback into the rhythm of their work. Regular retrospectives, done well, become moments of collective learning and trust-building.

3. Empowered teams over controlled processes
Micromanagement is the enemy of agility. Fast-moving teams need ownership and autonomy – the freedom to make decisions, adapt plans, and solve problems in real time. This doesn’t mean chaos. Autonomy works best when supported by lightweight decision-making frameworks. The goal isn’t to remove structure: it’s to remove bottlenecks.

Take Spotify’s squad model. Teams are treated like mini-startups with the authority to make product and process decisions. Leaders support, guide, and remove blockers – but don’t dictate. Empowerment isn’t a soft idea. It’s a strategic necessity in project environments where speed and accountability matter.

4. Collaboration that cuts through hierarchy
Project teams are, by definition, cross-functional. But if functional silos or rigid hierarchies dominate, collaboration slows and politics creep in. High-performing teams build what I call a “one-team mindset.” Regardless of department, level, or background, the team rallies around the mission, not the org chart.

When Nasa built the Mars Rover, scientists, software engineers, and hardware experts had to work as one. Success depended not on technical brilliance alone, but on their ability to collaborate under pressure.

Running collaboration sprints at the start of key projects brings together diverse roles to problem-solve early. It creates shared context, builds alignment, and often preempts weeks of rework.

5. A learning culture that outlives the project
Project teams often disband quickly, but their learning shouldn’t disappear with them. Organizations that win long-term are the ones that capture, share, and apply knowledge from every project. Amazon Web Services does this brilliantly. Every major initiative is debriefed, documented, and shared, so that the next team doesn’t start from scratch.

In my work, I’ve helped teams build living playbooks – centralized digital spaces where lessons learned, templates and real stories are stored. These aren’t just compliance-oriented reports, but human insights: what worked, what failed, what we’d do differently. Yes, this takes time. But it’s time well invested. In project-based work, your last project is your best training for the next one.

Remember to celebrate

Finally – don’t forget to celebrate. In project-heavy cultures, teams often roll from one deadline to the next with barely a pause. But celebration creates meaning, reinforces belonging, and prevents burnout. Simple things like end-of-project shoutouts, recognition walls, or informal demos, can completely shift a team’s energy. It’s not about ego. It’s about culture – because when people feel seen, they show up stronger, every time.

For fast-moving project-based organizations, culture must be clear, intentional and agile – just like their teams. It must travel with people, scale across functions, and survive change. No matter how advanced your tools, frameworks, or plans may be, it’s culture that determines whether your teams just deliver, or truly excel.