Co-creating culture: What HR can learn from open source principles

A great culture isn’t something that appears overnight.

It takes shape and evolves through the way people work, interact and make decisions, day in and day out.

It’s the result of thousands of daily actions, the intended and unintended behaviors that leaders demonstrate.

While many organizations publish their values and mission statements, those alone don’t create alignment or engagement. What really matters is how those values are understood and lived by the people behind them, at every job level.

Everyone plays an equal part in shaping and living culture.

That’s where the concept of co-creation comes in. And for companies familiar with open source development, the connection is a natural one.

In open source, communities build together. Code is continuously improved through contributions, collaboration and transparency.

No single person owns the full outcome. Instead, progress is based on trust, and the same can apply to culture.

When people are invited to shape the environment in which they work, they’re more invested in helping it grow.

Aligning with open source principles: a new way to build culture

Open source is the principle we applied at SUSE.

As a global company with over 2,500 employees and inspired by open source principles – shared ownership, openness and community input – we reimagined how to define our mission and values.

The initiative invited employees from over 30 countries to participate. Over the course of nine weeks, over 65 in-person global workshops and virtual workshops with 1,000 people joining were held.

The majority of SUSE employees chose to participate, contributing to over 7,500 data points, from descriptors they felt reflected our company as input into what the values should be, and drafting their own company mission statements.

Leaders shouldn’t impose a mission; they should facilitate discussions. We used gamification to encourage innovation, including flashcards, group think, and shortlists, which encouraged honest and open feedback.

Employees then voted on the proposed mission, and their input was used to inform the design of the new values. In total, more than 4,000 unique comments helped shape the final values.

Every step was designed with openness in mind, echoing how open source communities gather, shape and implement ideas together.

Timing cultural work for greater impact

Our initiative’s timing was no accident – we deliberately planned it just before our annual goal-setting cycle.

By shaping the mission and values ahead, we gave our employees a clear foundation to build on.

It meant that when teams sat down to plan their objectives, they already had a shared sense of purpose to guide their thinking, making our company direction and values part of the process.

To keep the momentum going, managers received toolkits to help embed those values into everyday conversations, from team standups and one-to-ones to development discussions.

Just as open source projects rely on ongoing community engagement, culture too needs constant reinforcement to stay relevant and strong.

The results spoke volumes.

Within six months, our company recorded a five-point improvement in the employee engagement score. Voluntary attrition dropped to its lowest rate in five years.

Within a year, the employee Net Promoter Score rose by a further seven points to 57, placing SUSE in the top 5% of benchmarked technology organizations.

Perks or benefits alone can’t contribute to a healthy culture. It should come from people feeling heard and respected.

When employees see their input shaping something as fundamental as company culture, they’re more motivated to stay, contribute and drive progress.

Indeed, Gallup reports that organizations with engaged employees perform significantly better: 21% higher profitability, 17% greater productivity, fewer quality issues and lower absenteeism.

An engaged workforce drives business outcomes, especially when they’ve played a role in defining the company’s direction.

Co-creation as a philosophy

For HR leaders looking to bring this thinking into their organizations, the mindset shift is key.

Trust is the foundation of co-creation because it is about opening up the process and guiding it with intention.

Therefore, HR leaders shouldn’t be handing over the responsibility.

Here are five lessons from an open source approach:

1. Engage early and often – invite employees to contribute before decisions are made. Co-creation requires involvement from the beginning
2. Keep the process credible and visible – transparency builds trust. Share how input is being used, publish updates of progress, and acknowledge contributions. Much like open source changelogs and roadmaps, visibility turns a conversation into a shared project.
3. Focus on usability – cultural values must be easy to use, not just inspiring to read. Use simple language that teams can adopt in daily decision-making. Practicality creates traction. Memorability is essential.
4. Equip local leaders – culture is experienced in teams. Give managers the tools to reinforce it consistently. Templates, talking points and flexible formats allow local adaptation while preserving shared meaning.
5. Revisit and refine regularly – don’t set values once and hope they stick. Create moments to reflect, gather feedback and adjust. In the same way that open source code improves through iteration, so too does culture.

Culture as a shared project

One of the core tenets of open source is freedom, not just in the ability to use something, but in the ability to contribute to it. That’s what makes the model so powerful and enduring.

Applying that same thinking to organizational culture makes space for innovation and resilience. It ensures the system grows with its people rather than around them.

This approach also helps align a globally and functionally distributed workforce. When contributions are welcomed across regions and levels, cultural consistency doesn’t come from a single voice – it’s shaped through a chorus of perspectives. That makes it far more durable over time.

And just like open source, the real value isn’t in the framework itself. It’s in how people choose to build on it.

A co-created culture invites ownership at every level, encouraging teams to adapt values to their context while staying aligned on purpose.

For teams, embracing co-creation doesn’t require abandoning structure. On the contrary, it calls for well-designed systems that support participation. Open forums, feedback loops, transparent communication and empowered facilitators all play a role.

The difference is in tone and intent.

Forget about the old days when culture was declared and distributed. Today, it has grown, been edited, tested, and strengthened together.

The result is a workplace where values are understood and upheld, where people are committed rather than simply compliant, and where progress feels shared, because it actually is.