Introduction: The Culture Illusion
You’ve probably heard it before. Maybe you’ve even said it:
“We’ve got a great culture. You can feel it when you walk in the room.”
It’s meant as a compliment. A point of pride. The team seems upbeat. People smile in meetings. The walls have inspirational quotes and the Slack channel lights up with GIFs and #wins.
But culture – real culture – isn’t just the energy in the room.
It’s what gets reinforced when no one’s looking.
I’ve sat across from executives who proudly point to team spirit, Friday happy hours, and branded hoodie giveaways as evidence that their culture is thriving. But when you dig a little deeper, the story changes. Teams are burned out. Turnover is quietly climbing. And the values on the wall don’t show up in performance reviews or decision-making.
As leadership expert Dr. Edgar Schein famously said:
“The only thing of real importance that leaders do is to create and manage culture.”
-Dr. Edgar Schein
And that means being willing to look beneath the vibe.
Culture isn’t a marketing line. It’s a mirror. And in times of stress, change, or scale, it shows you exactly what you’ve built, for better or worse.
In this article, I want to challenge the idea that culture is just something you “feel.” Instead, we’ll look at how a clear culture strategy drives what actually happens day-to-day, and how it’s shaped, shifted, or sabotaged by the systems leaders build (or overlook) across the organization.
The Myth of “Feel-Good” Culture
I once walked into a company that looked, on the surface, like a case study in culture strategy done right.
The walls were covered in vibrant visuals. There were framed team values in every conference room. They had a wellness stipend, branded hoodies, and catered lunches. Everyone I met was friendly. Optimistic. Polished.
But when I asked a few quiet questions…
“How are tough conversations handled?”
“What happens when a top performer is out of alignment?”
“What does accountability look like here?”
the tone shifted.
One leader leaned in and said, “We like to keep things positive here. We don’t want to disrupt the vibe.”
Here’s the problem: culture isn’t a vibe. It’s a system.
And when positivity is prioritized over honesty, alignment quietly starts to break down.
A feel-good atmosphere can mask a lot. Unspoken conflict. Undervalued contributions. Fear of dissent.
And eventually, teams start adapting to what’s really rewarded: silence over feedback, speed over depth, likability over leadership.
The late Peter Drucker said,
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
But what he didn’t say, and what I’ve seen, is that the wrong kind of culture can eat trust for lunch. And customers for dinner.
Leaders who mistake surface energy for deep alignment often miss the quiet signals of dysfunction until
A strong culture isn’t one where everyone’s always happy.
It’s one where truth can be told.
How Leaders Drift From Their Own Values
No one sets out to create a misaligned culture.
But I’ve worked with enough leadership teams to know that drift doesn’t come from bad intentions, it comes from unchecked momentum.
You’re scaling fast. You need to hire quickly. You’re dealing with pressures from above, below, and all sides. And in the name of urgency or efficiency, little compromises start to creep in.
You make an exception for a high-performer who’s out of sync with your values.You reward speed even when it costs clarity.
You sidestep a hard conversation to avoid “rocking the boat.”
And before long, the values you once claimed start collecting dust…in your onboarding materials, your slide decks, your culture videos. The daily realities of work tell a different story.
This isn’t hypothetical. According to a 2022 report from the MIT Sloan Management Review, toxic workplace culture, not compensation, was the single biggest predictor of employee attrition during the Great Resignation.
In fact, it was 10.4 times more predictive than pay.
(Source: MIT SMR, Jan 2022)
And that “toxicity” often starts small.
It starts with what’s overlooked. What’s tolerated. What’s whispered about but never named.
It starts when leadership values become aspirational instead of operational.
You can talk about culture strategy all you want, but unless your systems and leadership behaviors reinforce it, you’re just branding, not building.
The question isn’t: “Do we have values?”
The question is: “Are we living them…especially when it’s inconvenient?”
Because real culture doesn’t show up in your all-hands deck.
It shows up when a decision needs to be made under pressure, and you choose to stay aligned anyway.
From Brand Promise to Lived Experience
One of the fastest ways to see if culture is truly aligned is to look at the space between what a brand promises and what its employees and customers actually experience.
I worked with a company that had “customer obsession” plastered on everything…from recruiting materials to keynote stages. But inside the org, departments operated in silos, service teams were under-resourced, and customer feedback was treated like a formality instead of a signal.
They didn’t have a culture problem.
They had a credibility problem.
Because here’s the hard truth:
If your internal culture can’t deliver on your external promise, trust erodes—fast.
Customers can feel it. Employees can feel it.
And eventually, even the best messaging falls flat.
According to Gallup, only 2 in 10 employees feel connected to their company’s culture. That disconnect isn’t about bad intentions. It’s about systems that don’t reinforce what the brand claims to care about.
You can’t create culture alignment by telling a better story.
You create it by building the infrastructure to make that story true.
That’s the real work.
And it happens in job descriptions, performance evaluations, onboarding processes, decision-making protocols, and even hallway conversations.
Culture isn’t what you say in a team meeting.
It’s what people believe when no one’s prompting them.
Culture Strategy: Three Questions Every Leader Should Be Asking
We’ve established that culture isn’t just about the energy in the room. It’s about the systems and behaviors that are consistently reinforced. But recognizing this is only the first step. The real challenge lies in identifying where misalignments exist and taking corrective action.
This underscores the pivotal role leaders play in shaping and sustaining organizational culture.
Here are three critical questions every leader should regularly ask to ensure their organizational culture aligns with their stated values:
- What behaviors are being silently rewarded?
It’s easy to articulate desired behaviors, but what truly shapes culture are the actions that are rewarded, even implicitly. Are employees recognized for collaboration or for outshining their peers? Is risk-taking encouraged, or is conformity the safer path? Reflecting on these questions can reveal discrepancies between stated values and actual practices.
- Who gets a pass, and who doesn’t?
Accountability is a cornerstone of a healthy culture. When high performers are excused for toxic behavior, it sends a message that results trump respect. Conversely, holding everyone to the same standards reinforces fairness and integrity. Leaders must examine whether their actions uphold or undermine their organization’s values.
- Where are we designing for trust, and where are we just hoping for it?
Trust doesn’t materialize out of thin air; it must be intentionally cultivated. This involves transparent communication, consistent policies, and mechanisms for feedback and accountability. Relying on hope rather than design can lead to a fragile culture susceptible to breakdowns under pressure.
From Drift to Design: A Culture Built on Purpose
If you’ve made it this far, one thing should be clear:
Culture doesn’t break overnight.
It drifts…slowly, silently, through the choices leaders make every day.
It drifts when values are aspirational but not operational.
When behaviors are tolerated because the outcomes look good on paper.
When leaders confuse emotional comfort with alignment, and energy with clarity.
But drift isn’t inevitable.
Culture can be designed.
And that’s exactly what Culture Agility—the first pillar of the CRAFT Agilities Framework™—is all about.
It’s not just about saying the right things or launching a values campaign.
It’s about building internal systems that reinforce your purpose, reward alignment, and earn trust…day after day, especially under pressure.
Leaders who practice Cultural Agility ask better and more questions.
They don’t just focus on how the workplace feels. They pay close attention to how it actually functions.
And when something feels off, they don’t rebrand.
They rebuild.
💬 Curious where your culture might be drifting?
I’d love to help you look beneath the surface.
Whether it’s a subtle misalignment or something you can’t quite name yet. Let’s talk through it.
📍You can grab time with me here:
👉 Book a Discovery Call
Let’s build something intentional.