It is precisely this sentence that causes unease in management circles and is therefore justified: Corporate culture is the worst behaviour that the organization accepts.
It’s not what’s in the mission statement, it’s not what’s taught in management training and it’s not what’s happened since the HR department was renamed “People & Culture”.
Culture is not created on paper
We have invested a lot of energy in formulating values in recent years. We have held workshops, designed posters and sent out newsletters and yet, quite honestly, we often feel a discrepancy between what we communicate and what is actually practiced.
Why is that?
Because attitude = behavior = culture. A seemingly simple equation. However, attitude and behavior are not (only) shaped by words, but above all by consequences. By what we let slide. By what we overlook. By what we live with because it doesn’t seem like the right time to say something.
It starts on a small scale
- Meetings that start five minutes late, again and again, with the same people. Waiting signals: “My time is worth less than yours.”
- The email that is sent after 10 p.m., not as an emergency, but as a routine. Without talking about it, we determine that there are no limits.
- The colleague who is constantly interrupting meetings and nobody dares to say anything because “that’s just the way he is”. We tolerate the fact that some voices are given more space than others.
All in all, these are not dramatic incidents. They are small cracks through which a little more culture seeps through day by day and then usually not the kind we want.
So often, however, it ends in the big one
- The top performer who destroys teams but whose numbers add up. So dysfunctional behaviors go uncommented while people around him quit.
- Misconduct that has consequences for one person but not for another because status, seniority or popularity protect them. We are creating two classes of responsibility.
- The overload that everyone sees, but no one addresses because “we are in an important phase right now”. What we don’t address, we declare acceptable.
The inconvenient truth
Here again is the uncomfortable truth: Every organization has exactly the culture that its leadership has defined through its actions and inactions.
Please, this is not and should not be an accusation, but rather an invitation. An invitation to look, to be honest and to ask questions:
- What do we let pass?
- Where do we look away?
- What exceptions do we make, and for whom?
- What behavior do we model ourselves when we are under pressure?
Consistency is the key
Real cultural work begins with consistency and not with punishment. In particular, it begins with clarity and the courage to address things when they happen. With the willingness to have unpleasant conversations that make us “sick to our stomachs”. With the insight that silence is a form of consent.
Consistency means:
- Set boundaries: Friendly but unmistakable
- Addressing behavior: Promptly and directly
- Be role models: Especially in challenging moments
- Enabling learning: Permanent and sustainable
The path to a harmonious culture
Cultural change is not a project with a beginning and an end, it is a continuous practice. It is the sum of thousands of small decisions that we make every day.
Developing a culture that is authentic and sustainable requires courage, clarity and sometimes also a mirror from the outside. As a transformation consultant and coach, I support managers and organizations in taking an honest look at the discrepancy between aspiration and reality and closing it step by step.
Because in the end, the question is not which culture we want to have. It is:
What kind of culture are we creating through what we tolerate today?
