You have defined values. Conducted workshops. Formulated mission statements, aligned them, approved them, printed them. “We treat each other as equals.” “We practice open communication.” “We take responsibility.” The sentences hang in the lobby, appear on the website, are shown in onboarding presentations.
And then you observe daily reality. In the board meeting, one person speaks, the others nod. In the department head meeting, problems are only raised when they can no longer be hidden. New employees learn in their first weeks that the official rules and the actual rules are two different things.
Culture is not what’s on the poster. Culture is what happens when no one is looking at the poster. It manifests in behavior, not in declarations.
A CEO I advised was convinced his company had an open error culture. He had commissioned a workshop on it, the values were on the poster. Then I asked three of his department heads individually what happens when someone openly addresses a failed project in the leadership meeting. All three gave the same answer: “You don’t do that. You resolve the issue beforehand.” The proclaimed culture said: Mistakes are learning opportunities. The lived culture said: Admitting mistakes is dangerous. This difference is not an exception. It is the norm. And it is one of the reasons why so many change initiatives fail. Three levers help close the gap.
Edgar Schein, one of the most influential organizational researchers of the 20th century, described culture in three levels. On the surface are the visible artifacts: office design, organizational charts, mission statements. Below that are the espoused values: what the organization officially claims about itself. And at the very bottom, often invisible, are the basic assumptions: the unspoken beliefs about how the world works, what is rewarded and what is punished.
Most culture initiatives operate on the top two levels. They change mission statements, formulate new values, redesign offices. But people’s behavior is not guided by lip service. It is guided by basic assumptions. And these only change through experience, not through communication.
If you want to understand what culture actually prevails, look at five signals: What are people promoted for? These are the strongest cultural indicators, louder than any mission statement. What happens with bad news? Is the messenger heard or punished? How are decisions really made, not in the official process, but actually? How are conflicts handled, openly or avoidantly? And what do new employees learn in the first weeks, the official rules or the unofficial ones? New employees are the best culture sensors because they are not yet operationally blind.
The culture you encounter is not random. It is the result of decisions, rewards, and consequences that have accumulated over years. Every promotion, every termination, every reaction to a mistake has contributed.
A division head I accompanied through a culture change made a critical mistake before finding the right path. She had new team values formulated, with posters and a kick-off meeting. Three months later, nothing had changed. Then she started differently: Instead of announcing new values, she changed a single behavioral rule. At the next bad news in the team meeting, she responded not with “How could this happen?” but with “What do we learn from this?” The effect was slow, but real. After six months, her team leaders escalated problems measurably earlier.
Culture changes through concrete leadership behavior, not through declarations of intent. Identify the biggest contradiction between your official values and actual behavior, and start there. If you preach personal responsibility but must approve every decision, that is your risk-aversion culture. If you demand open communication but react irritably to bad news, start there.
Reward the behavior you want to see, not just in words, but in promotions, project assignments, and public recognition. What you reward, you get more of. What you punish, you get less of. And use key moments: A crisis, a conflict, a public mistake, a difficult personnel decision. In these moments, the organization watches particularly closely. How you act then defines culture more strongly than any initiative.
| Lever | Impact | Time Horizon |
|---|---|---|
| Adjust own behavior | Immediate signal effect | Immediate |
| Eliminate contradictions between words and actions | Credibility increases, cynicism decreases | 3 to 6 months |
| Change promotion and reward criteria | Strongest signal, changes basic assumptions | 6 to 18 months |
| Consciously use key moments | Shapes collective memory | When opportunity arises |
| Consistency over long periods | New basic assumptions solidify | 2 to 3 years |
Culture change takes time. Think in years, not quarters. The organization will test whether you are serious. It will observe whether your behavior remains consistent under pressure. The real test does not come in the first months, but when daily routine returns and the pressure for change subsides.
The most common mistakes are predictable: Management delegates culture to HR, and the organization immediately understands it is not meant seriously. HR designs the framework, feedback systems, onboarding, development programs. But these processes only have an effect if executives bring them to life in daily practice. Too much is wanted at once, three new values, two behavioral guidelines, one culture workshop per quarter. The organization tunes out. Focus on one change that truly matters. Behavior and structures do not align: You demand collaboration, but the performance agreements only reward departmental results. When the structure punishes the desired behavior, the structure wins. And there is a lack of persistence: Many initiatives are discontinued after twelve months because the results are not yet visible. The organization learns: It was just another program. Cynicism grows.
Culture change is not a project with a beginning and end. It is a leadership task that never stops. The greatest danger to your culture initiative is not resistance. It is the exhaustion of the organization from too many half-hearted attempts that are never completed.
First: Can you describe in two sentences what culture is actually lived in your company, independent of official mission statements? If you hesitate, you know your own culture less well than you think.
Second: What was someone last promoted for in your company? Does that align with the declared values? If not, you know where the strongest culture signal sits that you can change.
Third: This week, ask an employee who has been with the company for less than six months what stood out to them in the first weeks. Listen without justifying yourself.
You have the culture you deserve. Not the one you ordered. Not the one on the website. But the one that has emerged through years of decisions, rewards, and consequences.
Culture does not emerge from what you announce. It emerges from what you do tomorrow. And the day after. And still in a year.
Learning from mistakes – Psychological safety is the prerequisite for proclaimed error culture to become lived culture.
Breaking through risk-aversion culture – When the lived culture says “just don’t make mistakes,” no new mission statement will help.
All Insights can be found in the overview.
Proven tools and models for self-application are available under Solutions.
If you want to take these thoughts further for your company, a no-obligation initial conversation is worthwhile.
