Over the past 12 years, our CEO, David Friedman, has written 3 books, published scores of articles, and given more than 1,000 keynote talks and workshops on the profound impact that culture has on influencing the way people behave in any type of organization. His methods have been used in businesses, non-profits, churches, athletic teams, youth sports leagues, and on occasion – families. His company, CultureWise, has worked with more than 800 organizations across the globe, helping them to implement his culture-building system.

The cornerstone of that system begins with a process for articulating a set of desired behaviors; we call them “Fundamentals.” The next step is implementing a structured, systematic way to focus on one Fundamentals each week.  Over time, with repetition, the Fundamentals become ingrained in the daily culture of the group. It’s a simple process that produces extraordinary results.

Enter Nancy Shapiro Rapport and her brother, Steven Shapiro, two lifelong educators from Columbus, OH. They each spent over three decades working with children and families, Nancy as a middle school counselor and Steven as a high school teacher and program director. They observed the mounting challenges parents face today, competing with so many outside influences, as they struggle to build stable families and raise emotionally healthy kids.  Determined to do more than sit on the sidelines, Nancy and Steven went to work developing a curriculum to help parents build powerful and  intentional family cultures to help their children develop a clear sense of who they are and what it means to be part of their family.

Intrigued after reading David’s last book, Culture by Design, Nancy and Steven reached out to him for advice on their work. Coincidentally, David had recently begun seriously considering his lingering desire to bring his system to families. After a brief series of calls and meetings, they began to formulate a plan for combining the parenting work Nancy and Steven were doing with David’s culture-building expertise. With the addition of CultureWise Chief Marketing Officer, Sean Sweeney, the group gave birth to Our Family Culture!