Supporting Creative Teams Through Culture Shifts in 2026: An End-of-Year Guide
TL;DR: As the year winds down and budget season ramps up, creative leaders and operations directors are looking beyond project plans – they’re scrutinizing team culture. The end-of-year reflection and planning period is a prime time to reset or strengthen how your creative team works together. This isn’t a “soft” exercise; it’s a strategic investment. Research from Google’s Project Aristotle found that how a team collaborates (its culture) matters far more than who is on the team – with psychological safety emerging as the top factor for success (Google re:Work). In fact, Google saw that teams with a strong, safe culture had lower turnover, shared more ideas, and even generated more revenue (Google re:Work). A 2024 BCG study echoed that all teams benefit from a culture of safety and belonging, noting it “gives them the power to be more creative and to focus on learning” (Nadjia Yousif). For creative teams, where innovation and risk-taking are daily requirements, a healthy culture is the backbone of high performance.
This guide is framed for in-house creative leaders and agency directors aiming to intentionally build team culture going into 2026. It outlines best practices – backed by recent research – to foster belonging, clarity, mentorship, and resilience on your team. From weekly rituals that reinforce psychological safety, to mentorship programs that grow talent, to quarterly reviews that celebrate wins and lessons, these approaches will help your team thrive through any culture shifts ahead. Let’s explore how creative operations (Gonzalez) leaders can be human-centered, systems-savvy, and pragmatic in shaping a culture that carries your team confidently into the new year.
Foster Safety and Learning with Regular Team Rituals
One of the most effective ways to shape culture is through regular team touchpoints – the recurring meetings or rituals that create a shared rhythm. Weekly design critiques, daily stand-ups, Friday wins shares, team retrospectives – these moments might seem routine, but done right they become the bedrock of psychological safety and continuous learning.
Teams that meet frequently in a safe, structured way tend to communicate better and innovate more. Google’s research famously revealed that psychological safety – feeling safe to speak up or make mistakes – was the common thread among its highest-performing teams. Google reinforced this finding by implementing structured team check-ins and open conversations about how the team works (Google re:Work). The result? A workplace where ideas flowed freely and no one “had to hold their breath before speaking”. In other words, regular forums to voice thoughts or concerns created an environment of trust. For creative teams, this trust is vital – when designers, writers, and strategists feel safe, they’re more likely to pitch bold ideas or give honest feedback without fear.
What do effective rituals look like? Research and industry examples point to a few best practices:
- Keep it Frequent and Predictable: Regularity builds trust. Harvard Business School’s Michael Norton found that even simple rituals (like a weekly coffee chat or starting Monday meetings with personal highlights) lead teams to find more meaning in their work (Blanding). The consistency – every week, same time – sends a signal that learning and connecting are priorities. Over time, these rituals become “how we do things,” giving team members a stable platform to share and learn.
- Make Feedback a Ritual: Create a recurring feedback forum where egos are checked at the door. For instance, Pixar’s famous “dailies” sessions – daily reviews of in-progress creative work – allow anyone, from interns to directors, to weigh in with constructive input. Pixar considers these meetings a cornerstone of its culture, “creating space for honest feedback without ego” and a regular cadence that has shaped some of their most beloved films (Offsite). The lesson: a weekly design critique or creative review can normalize feedback as a growth tool, not a personal attack. When feedback becomes routine, team members are less likely to feel defensive and more likely to learn from each other.
- Embed Learning and Improvements: Rituals like retrospectives (post-mortems or after-action reviews) help teams learn from both wins and failures. In fact, retrospectives are a foundational practice for psychological safety – they require honesty and, when facilitated in a blameless way, they build even more safety over time (Geraghty). One psychological safety expert notes that by regularly looking back on what worked and what didn’t, and by ensuring no one is punished for candor, teams “exercise the group learning muscle” and get better at turning lessons into action (Geraghty). The key is to hold these retrospectives frequently (e.g. at the end of each sprint or project) so issues are fresh and improvements can be made quickly. Teams that do this often become more resilient – they’re not thrown off by setbacks because they’ve built a habit of treating mistakes as data for improvement rather than crises.
- Promote Equal Voice: Great team rituals create an equal playing field for sharing. Encourage “conversational turn-taking” in meetings – research shows teams where everyone speaks roughly equally have higher collective intelligence than teams where a few voices dominate (Lodwick). Something as simple as a round-robin check-in (“everyone share one highlight or hurdle this week”) ensures even quieter team members contribute. This not only boosts psychological safety (people feel heard) but often surfaces ideas that would otherwise be missed.
- Celebrate and Have Fun: Rituals can also serve to bond the team and recognize effort, which feeds a sense of belonging. Whether it’s a five-minute “win of the week” shout-out in your team call or a monthly virtual toast, these practices reinforce positive feedback and gratitude. Atlassian, for example, encourages teams to celebrate wins and failures as learning moments, which fosters a culture of respect, growth, and continuous improvement (a practice common among successful agile teams) (deBara). By routinely acknowledging accomplishments and openly discussing experiments that didn’t pan out, you signal that the team is safe to take risks, and that both triumphs and setbacks are valued for the insight they provide.
Above all, make sure these touchpoints are intentional and tied to your team’s work. Avoid meetings that feel like time-fillers. Design rituals that have purpose. As one team culture study noted, the best team practices “repeated, evolved, and earned their spot in the rhythm of work” – nothing was done for fluff (Offsite). For example, if creative briefs often get lost, make a “Work Showcase Friday” where the team quickly shares current projects – this makes work visible and reinforces clarity. Or if people are siloed, start a 15-minute weekly “design huddle” to cross-pollinate ideas. When rituals align with real needs, buy-in rises (Offsite).
Why it works: Over time, regular rituals knit the team together. They “weave an intangible fabric of trust, collaboration, and passion” that makes the whole greater than the sum of the parts (Williams). Teams that habitually share and learn become more innovative and adaptable – exactly what creative organizations need in times of change. These practices also directly impact retention and well-being. Google’s data showed team members in high-trust environments were less likely to leave, and BCG found that psychological safety boosts motivation and even reduces attrition risk for diverse groups (Nadjia Yousif). In short, a cadence of open communication keeps people feeling valued and “in it together,” which is the essence of a strong creative team culture.
Enable Growth with Mentorship and Peer Coaching
Culture isn’t only built in groups; it’s also reinforced one-on-one. Mentorship pairings and peer coaching systems are powerful tools for developing talent and strengthening your team’s operational maturity. In creative teams – often a mix of seasoned experts and fresh junior hires – mentorship creates a bridge for skills transfer, support, and belonging. It ensures newcomers are nurtured (not lost or alienated) and that veterans are engaged in teaching (not just executing).
The business case for mentoring is compelling. Employees with mentors are significantly more engaged and more likely to stay. One Gallup study found 76% of employees who have a mentor are engaged, versus only 59% of those without a mentor (Vorecol). Similarly, research summarized in Harvard Business Review shows mentored employees are about 20% more likely to remain at a company than those not in mentorship programs (Holmes). And according to the Association for Talent Development, organizations with formal mentoring programs have much higher retention (72% on average) compared to those without (49%) (Vorecol). In an industry where creative talent is in high demand, these are numbers you can’t ignore – mentorship can literally cut attrition in half by fostering loyalty.
So how can creative operations leaders build mentorship into the culture? Consider a few approaches:
- Onboarding Buddies: Pair each new hire with a buddy (not their manager) from day one. This experienced colleague can act as a friendly guide to the team’s processes, tools, and unwritten rules. Studies show onboarding buddy programs can boost new hire retention by 52% and ramp up their productivity 60% faster (Dagli). The reason is simple: the new creative gets a go-to person for questions and feels welcomed into the “tribe” instead of feeling like an outsider. For example, tech companies like Microsoft and Google have long used new-hire buddies to integrate engineers – in a creative team, a buddy might walk a junior designer through how your review rounds work or introduce them to key stakeholders in marketing. This accelerates the junior team member’s confidence and sense of belonging.
- Structured Mentor-Mentee Pairings: Go beyond onboarding and establish a formal mentoring program for career development. For instance, you might assign each junior designer or copywriter a more senior mentor from another team or department for a 6-month period. They can meet biweekly to discuss goals, give feedback on work, or navigate challenges. This kind of program not only builds skills but also spreads institutional knowledge (reinforcing operational standards across the team). Importantly, it benefits the mentors too – serving as a mentor builds leadership skills and reinforces the values of the organization. In creative operations, mentors can impart crucial “operational maturity” lessons (like how to scope work, handle client feedback, or present creative ideas effectively) that are usually learned only through experience. By coaching others, your senior creatives codify best practices, making your whole team more consistent.
- Peer Coaching Circles: Mentorship doesn’t always have to be top-down (senior to junior). Peer-to-peer support is equally valuable. You could set up a peer critique buddy system where pairs of designers review each other’s work informally each week, or a writer’s peer edit swap. Another idea is monthly small-group coaching sessions: e.g., three creatives meet to share one challenge and solicit ideas from peers. Google’s internal research emphasizes that a positive team climate – where members value each other’s contributions and feel cared about – is a key driver of psychological safety (Smet). Peer coaching builds exactly that climate: it shows people that their colleagues are invested in their growth. It’s also a way to democratize knowledge (a junior might share a new social media trend while a senior shares an old campaign war story – both learn something).
- Support Underrepresented Talent: A mentorship culture can particularly help junior team members from underrepresented groups, who might otherwise lack informal networks. BCG’s 2024 study highlighted that psychological safety acts as an “equalizer,” enabling women, people of color, LGBTQ+ employees, and others to reach the same levels of satisfaction and performance as their peers (Nadjia Yousif). Mentors can actively reinforce inclusion by validating new voices and modeling that everyone’s contributions matter. For a creative team, this could mean pairing, say, a new hire from a non-traditional background with a leader who can champion their ideas. The payoff is a team where diverse perspectives feel not just accepted but truly leveraged – and such teams tend to be more innovative, as long as they have a safe environment (Lodwick).
Why it works: Mentorship feeds two cultural needs at once: growth and belonging. On the growth side, employees get direct guidance, which keeps them challenged and progressing in their careers (reducing the frustration that leads to turnover). A report by Deloitte found 83% of mentored employees are satisfied with their career progression (Vorecol) – a sign that they’re being given a path to advance. On the belonging side, having a mentor or buddy signals to a team member, “We care about you and your success.” People who feel someone at work cares about them are far more engaged. Unfortunately, Gallup surveys in recent years show many employees lack that feeling – in 2023 less than one-third strongly felt their company cared about their well-being (Blanding). A mentorship program directly addresses this gap by forging personal connections and a support system. When creative employees feel anchored by these relationships, they are more resilient under pressure and more committed to the team’s mission.
For creative leaders, there’s an added benefit: mentorship cultivates the next generation of leaders and upholds your standards. It’s essentially a human knowledge-management system. Instead of relying on process documents alone to drive operational maturity, you have people teaching people – which is far stickier. Junior creatives pick up not just how to do a task, but why it’s done a certain way, and how to think about problems. That nuance is what turns good teams into great, self-sufficient teams.
Make Work Visible with Quarterly Reviews and Retrospectives
In the hustle of deadlines, creative teams can lose sight of the forest for the trees. That’s why it’s crucial to build in moments for the big picture – to make work visible, celebrate wins, extract lessons, and ensure everyone sees how their efforts align with strategy. Enter the quarterly business review (QBR) or team retrospective: a dedicated forum each quarter (or each major project) to reflect and realign.
Many creative operations leaders have adopted internal QBRs as a way to reinforce clarity and strategic alignment. One leader recounts running “Creative Quarterly Business Reviews” at a large tech company, where at the end of each quarter the creative team would gather to share the business impact of their work – complete with metrics. By routinely spotlighting how many campaigns were delivered, what results they drove, and how they tied to company goals, the team created a culture of transparency and purpose. The creatives “got accustomed to it” and began to see these reviews as part of their normal workflow, not a one-off meeting. This kind of practice makes each team member’s contributions tangible and appreciated by the group. It also answers that critical question, “Why does our work matter?” – which fuels motivation. (Recall that in Google’s five keys to effective teams, “meaning” and “impact” were two core ingredients (Google re:Work). People perform best when they find purpose in the work and see its impact on organizational goals.)
Key elements of effective quarterly reviews or retrospectives:
- Show the Work and the Results: Make it visual and concrete. For an in-house team, you might present the quarter’s portfolio – major campaigns, design outputs, content created – and pair each with a metric or anecdote of its performance (e.g., “Project X delivered 20% more sign-ups” or “Our rebrand won a design award”). This visible scoreboard not only gives the team a sense of accomplishment, it also educates newer members on what success looks like. It reinforces standards and priorities (for example, if one of your pillars is quality, showcase how a focus on craft led to a better outcome; if speed, highlight a quick turnaround win). By making creative work and its business impact visible, you foster clarity – everyone understands how their role connects to larger objectives.
- Reflect on Wins and Lessons: Dedicate time to discuss What went well? and What could be better? Recognizing wins is important – it boosts morale and confidence. But equally, examining mistakes or misses in a blame-free way is how a team grows. The U.S. Army’s After Action Reviews popularized the “wins and lessons” approach, and many creative teams adopt a similar retrospective style. Atlassian’s team playbook, for instance, encourages celebrating both wins and failures, because doing so “fosters a culture of respect, growth, and improvement” (deBara). When your team sees leaders openly discuss a failed pitch or a campaign that underperformed (without finger-pointing), it normalizes healthy risk-taking. It says, “We win or we learn – either way, we advance.” That attitude is core to a resilient creative culture that can handle industry shifts or tough quarters.
- Reinforce Strategic Alignment: Use quarterly reviews to connect the dots to strategy. Revisit the year’s goals or OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) and assess progress. For example: “Our goal was to enter a new market segment. This quarter we produced 3 localized campaigns towards that. Next quarter, based on what we learned, we’ll double down on the channel that worked best.” These discussions ensure the creative team isn’t operating in a vacuum – they’re part of the business engine. It also highlights any misalignments early. Perhaps the team spent a lot of effort on something that didn’t move the needle; a QBR is the time to acknowledge that and pivot focus. The transparency of these check-ins builds trust with executives too, positioning the creative team as a strategic partner rather than a black box. As CreativeOps, when you communicate successes and shortfalls candidly, you earn credibility and make it easier to advocate for resources or process changes.
- Involve the Whole Team: Make retrospectives inclusive. Just as weekly rituals should give everyone a voice, the quarterly review should solicit input from all levels. You might have junior team members present a highlight of their work, or invite cross-functional partners (like a marketing manager) to share feedback. When people actively participate rather than just listen to leadership talk, they feel ownership of the culture. It’s their wins and their lessons on display. Some teams even rotate who leads parts of the retro, to build leadership in junior folks and variety in perspective.
- Close with Action Items: A culture of continuous improvement means each review leads to tangible next steps. Identify 2-3 “experiments” or changes to implement based on the quarter’s learnings. For instance, if bandwidth issues caused slips, one action might be “improve our project scoping template” or “hire a freelancer bench for peak times.” If collaboration with another department was a pain point, an action could be “set up a monthly sync with Marketing to align on briefs.” Assign owners to these actions. This shows the team that talking about problems leads to solving problems – which in turn increases psychological safety (people see that it’s not only safe to admit issues, it’s rewarded through improvements). It also demonstrates operational rigor, closing the loop between reflection and execution.
Why it works: Regular big-picture reviews address two human needs: recognition and meaning. Celebrating achievements sends the message, “We see you. Your efforts count.” This boosts morale and loyalty. (Gallup has noted that employees who feel recognized are far less likely to be disengaged or job-hunting.) And discussing the “why” behind the work – linking tasks to strategy – gives creative staff that sense of meaning which is a known driver of performance (Google re:Work). Particularly during end-of-year, when people naturally reflect on career and purpose, reinforcing meaning can re-energize your team for what’s ahead.
Importantly, these reviews also build resilience. By regularly confronting both successes and failures, the team becomes more comfortable with change and challenge. They know they can adapt because they’ve built a habit of learning continuously. McKinsey research during the pandemic found that teams with higher psychological safety were far better at adapting to change (Smet) – they could innovate and adjust quickly in the face of uncertainty. A quarterly cadence of reflection essentially institutionalizes adaptability. Your team won’t wait for an annual post-mortem to course-correct; they’ll be iterating and improving in real-time, which is critical in the fast-moving creative industry.
Finally, consider measuring your team’s health over these cycles. Some creative ops teams track team health metrics alongside project KPIs. For example, you might run a quarterly pulse survey asking, “I feel safe to speak up on our team” and track that percentage. Other metrics could include participation rates in rituals (did everyone contribute in the retro?), or learning hours invested per person. By treating culture with the same rigor as deliverables, leaders signal that team dynamics are a priority. “What gets measured gets managed,” as the saying goes. If your psychological safety score dips or retrospective attendance falls, that’s your cue to dig in and address the underlying issues sooner rather than later.
Conclusion: As you head into 2026, remember that culture is the system you build for your people. It’s as critical as any workflow or creative brief template. In this end-of-year and planning season, take the opportunity to intentionally design how your team operates on a human level. Establish the weekly and quarterly rituals that will reinforce an inclusive, learning-oriented environment. Double down on mentorship and coaching to lift up your talent and solidify belonging. Commit to making your team’s work visible and aligned with strategy, so every creative understands their impact and the value of collaboration.
Leading a creative team through times of change (new client demands, organizational shifts, hybrid work models – you name it) is much easier when the cultural foundation is strong. Psychological safety, clarity in roles and goals, and a supportive network are the glue that holds together resilient, high-performing teams. And these don’t happen by accident – they happen by design, through the consistent practices and priorities you put in place.
So as a creative operations leader or agency director, ask yourself: What kind of culture do I want my team to experience in 2026? Then plan for it with the same intention as you plan your projects and budgets. The companies and teams highlighted here (Google, Pixar, Atlassian, and others) didn’t achieve strong cultures with slogans or one-off workshops – they did it through ongoing commitment and pragmatic action: weekly check-ins, honest feedback sessions, learning from each project, and investing in people. The reward is a team that feels confident and connected, ready to produce their best creative work.
In the year ahead, the most successful creative teams will be those whose leaders actively shape a culture of belonging, clarity, mentorship, and resilience. By implementing some of these research-backed practices, you can strengthen your team’s culture now – and ensure that as you move into 2026, your creative team is not just surviving changes, but thriving through them. Here’s to building a creative culture that inspires your people and powers your best work in the new year!
Blanding, Michael. Why Work Rituals Bring Teams Together and Create More Meaning. 9 April 2024. 18 November 2025.
Dagli, Kinjal. How To Create an Engaging Onboarding Buddy Program + Benefits. 29 April 2022. 18 November 2025.
deBara, Deanna. Why and how successful teams celebrate wins and failures. 13 August 2020. 18 November 2025.
Geraghty, Tom. Retrospectives. 1 December 2023. 18 November 2025.
Gonzalez, Tim. creativeopsalliance.com. 27 August 2025.
Google re:Work. Understand team effectiveness. n.d. Web page. 18 November 2025.
Holmes, Andy. Unlocking Potential: How Mentoring Programs Drive Success in Today’s Workforce. 30 October 2024. 18 November 2025.
Lodwick, Anna. How Psychological Safety Helps Creative Teams Thrive. 14 November 2023. 18 November 2025.
Nadjia Yousif, Ashley Dartnell, Gretchen May, and Elizabeth Knarr. Psychological Safety Levels the Playing Field for Employees. January 2024. 18 November 2025.
Offsite. 7 Real-Life Team Building Examples from Successful Companies. 6 May 2024. 18 November 2025.
Smet, Aaron De. Psychological safety and the critical role of leadership development. 11 February 2021. 18 November 2025.
Vorecol. Measuring the Impact of Mentorship Programs on Employee Engagement. 28 August 2024. 18 November 2025.
Williams, Rick. The importance of habits, routines and rituals for product teams. 22 February 2024. 18 November 2025.
CreativeOps Alliance 