Workplace Culture
I’ve walked into organizations where the mission, vision, and values were beautifully displayed in the reception area.
Words like:
Respect.
Integrity.
Collaboration.
Innovation.
They looked impressive, and they reflected exactly the kind of organization anyone would want to work for.
Then, thirty minutes later, after sitting through a leadership planning meeting, I realized those words weren’t influencing how people treated one another.
People interrupted one another. Decisions contradicted the organization’s stated values. Difficult conversations were avoided. Unsustainable workloads were accepted without question. Recognition was almost non-existent.
The values weren’t missing. They simply weren’t being lived out loud.
And that’s a common challenge I see when I work with organizations.
Most leaders genuinely want to create a workplace where people feel respected, supported, and motivated to do their best work. They’ve invested time developing a mission, a vision, and a set of values that reflect what they want the organization to stand for.
Somewhere between selecting those values and the reality of everyday work, important steps were missed.
Culture, however, doesn’t wait for values to come alive.
It is being shaped every day by what leaders say, what employees experience, what colleagues tolerate, what customers expect, and the decisions everyone makes along the way.
After working with leaders and teams for more than three decades, I’ve come to believe one thing with absolute certainty:
Culture is not declared. It is demonstrated daily.
What Workplace Culture Really Is
Workplace culture is often described as “the way we do things around here.” While that’s a useful starting point, it is not enough.
Workplace culture is the lived experience employees have every day. It reflects what people consistently see, hear, experience, and come to expect from the leaders, colleagues, customers, conversations, decisions, and everyday interactions that shape how work gets done.
Culture isn’t limited to a set of values on a website or framed on the wall in the lobby. It shows up in how meetings are run, how priorities are communicated, how mistakes are handled, who gets recognized, how conflict is resolved, and whether people feel safe enough to speak honestly.
It is influenced by almost everything within an organization. The physical environment. Hiring practices. Policies. Leadership style. Decision-making. Communication. Collaboration. Workload. Recognition. Even the stories people tell one another about “how things work around here.”
Over time, those experiences begin to answer questions employees may never ask out loud.
Is it safe to speak up?
Will people support me when I’m overwhelmed?
Do leaders genuinely care about people, or only results?
Will I be recognized for doing good work?
Do our values actually matter when pressure increases?
Those answers shape attitudes, behaviours, trust, engagement, and ultimately performance.
Culture exists whether leaders intentionally create it or not.
If leaders don’t intentionally shape culture, culture will still develop. It simply won’t develop by design.
Culture Is Not the Same as Employee Engagement
One of the biggest misconceptions I encounter is the belief that culture and employee engagement are the same thing.
They aren’t.
Culture is the environment people experience every day.
Engagement is one of the outcomes that environment produces.
Think of culture as the soil and engagement as the health of the plants growing in it.
Healthy soil creates the conditions for growth. Poor soil makes growth difficult no matter how hard people try.
The same is true in organizations.
When employees know what is expected of them, feel respected, have supportive leaders, experience fairness, receive recognition, and believe their work matters, engagement naturally increases.
When those conditions are missing, engagement declines. People become frustrated, disconnected, burned out, and eventually begin looking elsewhere.
This is why I developed the 10 Essential Employee Engagement Needs™. Those needs don’t create culture by themselves; they help leaders understand whether the culture they’re creating is meeting the fundamental conditions people need to thrive.
A strong culture supports engagement. A weak culture erodes it.
Why Values Alone Don’t Create A Positive Workplace Culture
Nearly every organization has values.
Respect.
Integrity.
Teamwork.
Innovation.
Accountability.
Customer Service.
The challenge isn’t selecting the right words, (though that is an important step, and it shouldn’t be top-down)
The challenge is helping everyone understand what those words look like in everyday behaviour.
Ask ten people what respect means in the workplace and you’ll likely receive ten slightly different answers.
Does respect mean arriving on time?
Listening without interrupting?
Responding to emails within twenty-four hours?
Giving constructive feedback directly instead of talking behind someone’s back?
Respect may include all of those behaviours.
Unless those expectations are discussed and agreed upon, people interpret values through their own experiences, personalities, and assumptions. That inconsistency creates confusion. It makes accountability difficult and leaves leaders wondering why employees aren’t living the organization’s values.
Values tell us what matters.
Rules of Engagement tell us what those values look like on an ordinary Tuesday morning.
That is the bridge many organizations never build.
Mission explains why the organization exists.
Vision describes where it wants to go.
Values define what matters.
Rules of Engagement explain how people agree to work together every day.
Without that bridge, values remain aspirations rather than expectations.
Introducing C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. the Culture™: A Leadership Operating Model
Over the years, I’ve had countless conversations with leaders who knew their culture wasn’t where they wanted it to be.
Some described increasing negativity and toxicity. Others talked about poor communication, growing silos, declining trust, or difficulty holding people accountable.
Many had even tried updating their mission, vision, and values, yet little seemed to change.
Their challenge wasn’t a lack of commitment or intention.
Most leaders and teams simply hadn’t been shown how to intentionally build culture.
That’s why I developed C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. the Culture™.
Rather than treating culture as something that develops on its own or as an initiative owned by Human Resources, C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. views culture as primarily an ongoing leadership discipline.
It provides leaders with a practical way to move from broad organizational values to the everyday behaviours, conversations, and decisions that employees experience.
It helps leaders close the gap between what the organization says it believes and what people actually experience every day.
At its heart, the model is built on a simple principle:
Values become culture only when they are translated into everyday behaviours, reinforced consistently, and supported through accountability.
Or, even more simply,
Values + Rules of Engagement + Reinforcement + Accountability = Culture
Culture isn’t built during annual strategic planning sessions.
It isn’t created by posters, newsletters, or branded coffee mugs.
It is built one conversation, one decision, one recognition, and one leadership response at a time.
Every interaction either strengthens the culture you want or quietly reinforces the culture you already have.
The Leadership Operating Model
C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.A.T.E. the Culture™ is built around nine intentional leadership practices that help move culture from an inspiring idea to a consistent daily experience.
Rather than trying to change everything at once, leaders begin by understanding where they are today and then intentionally reinforce the behaviours they want to become part of everyday work.
Let’s look at each step.
C — Clarify Your North Star
Every healthy culture begins with clarity.
Mission, vision, and values should never exist simply because every organization is expected to have them.
They exist to help people make decisions.
When priorities compete, resources become stretched, or difficult choices have to be made, these become the organization’s compass.
Yet many statements and values remain so broad that employees struggle to know what they actually mean.
Words like respect, integrity, and collaboration sound wonderful, but unless people understand how those values influence daily behaviour, everyone interprets them differently.
One team may believe collaboration means involving everyone in every decision.
Another may believe collaboration means respecting decisions once they have been made.
Neither interpretation is wrong.
That’s why the first step is to ensure your mission, vision and values are clear, meaningful, and realistic enough to guide everyday decisions.
I often encourage leadership teams to narrow their list to five to eight core values and then put each one through a simple litmus test.
- Would we still hold this value if it cost us money?
- Would we still hold this value during a crisis?
- Would we still expect leaders to model it when they’re under pressure?
- Will this still matter five years from now?
If the answer isn’t yes, it probably isn’t a core value.
Once your values are established, ask an equally important question:
If this value truly mattered, what would we do differently tomorrow?
That question begins moving values from aspiration to action.
U — Understand Your Current Workplace Culture
Before leaders can improve culture, they need an honest picture of the culture that already exists.
One of the biggest mistakes organizations make is assuming they already know how employees experience their workplace.
Leadership meetings often produce one perspective.
Employees sometimes experience something very different.
Culture can only improve when leaders are willing to look beyond assumptions and become genuinely curious about what employees are experiencing.
One of the simplest ways to begin is by asking questions such as:
- What’s working well?
- What’s making it difficult to do your best work?
- What behaviours are helping our culture?
- What behaviours are quietly being tolerated that shouldn’t be?
- If you could change one thing about how we work together, what would it be?
Simple Start, Stop, Continue discussions can also reveal valuable insights.
So can reviewing absenteeism, turnover, engagement survey results, exit interviews, psychological safety, customer feedback, and recurring workplace frustrations.
This is also where the 10 Essential Employee Engagement Needs™ become a valuable diagnostic tool.
Rather than guessing what employees need, leaders can evaluate whether people genuinely experience respect, role clarity, belonging, psychological safety, leadership support, recognition, opportunities for growth, manageable workloads, meaningful work, and hope for the future.
When several of those needs are consistently missing, the issue is rarely engagement alone.
It is often a signal that the culture itself needs attention.
L — Listen and Label the Gaps
Listening is one of the most underused leadership skills when it comes to culture.
Leaders often hear concerns without fully acknowledging them.
Or they notice unhealthy patterns but struggle to put them into words.
Naming the issue matters.
When leaders avoid difficult conversations because they feel uncomfortable or messy, employees often assume the behaviour is acceptable.
Culture quietly shifts through what leaders choose not to address.
Instead, learn to describe what you’re observing objectively.
- “I’ve noticed…”
- “I’m concerned because…”
- “The impact this is having is…”
These simple phrases create the space for honest conversations without immediately becoming accusatory.
As leaders listen, they begin identifying recurring cultural hot spots.
- Confusion.
- Silence.
- Disrespect.
- Work overload.
- Blame.
- Poor communication.
- Cynicism.
- Lack of accountability.
These aren’t isolated problems, but valuable information about where culture needs strengthening.
Only when leaders clearly identify the gaps can they begin intentionally building the culture they want instead of continually reacting to the culture they have.
T — Translate Values into Rules of Engagement
This is where culture-work becomes real.
Most organizations spend considerable time choosing their values. Hopefully they have held workshops, gathered employee input, and refined wording.
Once they launch these words, they wrongly assume everyone understands exactly what those values mean.
In reality, they don’t.
Take a value like Respect.
One employee believes respect means arriving prepared for meetings.
Another believes it means listening without interrupting.
Someone else believes it means responding to emails within twenty-four hours.
A supervisor may believe respect means giving honest feedback rather than avoiding difficult conversations.
All of those behaviours could reflect respect.
The problem is that unless those expectations are discussed, people are left to interpret the values through their own experiences, personalities, and previous workplaces. What one person considers respectful, another may see as dismissive or even disrespectful.
That’s often why culture doesn’t shift.
People simply aren’t working from the same definitions.
That’s why I believe Rules of Engagement are the missing link between values and culture.
Rules of Engagement are the shared behavioural expectations that translate organizational values into everyday actions. They answer the question:
“If we truly lived this value, what would people see us doing?”
For example, instead of simply saying “We value respect,” define what respect looks like within your organization.
In our meetings, we…
- arrive prepared.
- allow people to finish their thoughts.
- challenge ideas without attacking people.
- silence our phones.
- avoid side conversations.
When we disagree, we…
- remain curious before becoming defensive.
- focus on solving the problem instead of blaming people.
- assume positive intent until proven otherwise.
- speak directly with the person involved rather than talking about them.
When mistakes happen, we…
- address the issue quickly.
- focus on learning before assigning blame.
- look for solutions together.
- share lessons that help everyone improve.
When work becomes urgent, we…
- communicate priorities clearly.
- avoid creating unnecessary emergencies.
- respect people’s time outside of work whenever possible.
- discuss workload before simply adding more.
Notice that none of these behaviours are revolutionary.
Clarity removes assumptions.
And when expectations become clear, accountability becomes much easier.
People no longer have to guess what good behaviour looks like.
They’ve agreed to it together.
That’s when values stop being inspirational words and become everyday habits.
I — Implement Through Everyday Leadership Habits
Once Rules of Engagement have been established, the real work begins.
Culture isn’t sustained because everyone attended a launch meeting.
It’s sustained because leaders reinforce it every day.
Every conversation becomes an opportunity to strengthen or weaken the culture.
Culture grows through dozens of ordinary moments that often seem insignificant at the time.
- Clarifying priorities.
- Checking in with an employee who’s unusually quiet.
- Asking whether workloads remain realistic.
- Taking a few minutes to explain the “why” behind a decision.
- Following through on commitments.
- Helping people understand what matters most this week.
These everyday leadership habits gradually become the rhythm of the organization.
For example: I’ve often found that leaders assume they have communicated expectations because they announced them once.
Employees, however, experience communication very differently. They need clarity reinforced regularly, particularly during periods of change, growth, or uncertainty.
Simple questions can make a remarkable difference.
- “What should our team be focused on this week?”
- “Is anything getting in your way?”
- “What support would help you succeed?”
- “What are we overlooking?”
These types of conversations don’t simply improve communication, they reinforce culture.
This is also where my C.L.E.A.R. Conversations™ framework naturally complements C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. Clear, respectful conversations help leaders reinforce expectations before misunderstandings become conflict. Culture is carried through conversations, and the quality of those conversations determines whether trust grows or gradually erodes.
V — Validate Through Recognition and Reinforcement
One of the simplest ways to strengthen culture is also one of the easiest to overlook.
Recognition.
Employees naturally repeat behaviours they know are valued.
Unfortunately, many organizations unintentionally recognize only outcomes like sales achieved, projects completed, or deadlines met.
Those accomplishments deserve recognition.
But if culture matters, leaders also need to recognize how those results were achieved and when the values were lived out loud.
- Did someone demonstrate exceptional collaboration?
- Did a supervisor show compassion during a difficult situation?
- Did a team member model accountability by admitting a mistake and helping solve it?
Those moments deserve to be noticed because they reinforce the behaviours that define culture.
I often encourage leaders to “catch people living the values’ with specific recognition tied directly to a value.
Instead of saying,
“Great job.”
Try saying,
“I appreciated how you invited everyone’s perspective before making that decision. That’s exactly what collaboration looks like here.”
That small difference helps employees connect behaviour with values.
Over time, those moments accumulate and recognition becomes more than appreciation. It becomes culture reinforcement.
A culture of appreciation also contributes to stronger engagement, greater trust, and healthier workplaces. It reminds people that they matter, not just for what they accomplish, but for how they contribute to the team. That’s why recognition appears throughout many of my articles on gratitude, leadership, and employee engagement. It isn’t simply about making people feel good. It’s about reinforcing the behaviours that help organizations thrive.
A — Address What You Won’t Tolerate
This is where leadership credibility is either strengthened or lost.
Every organization says certain behaviours are unacceptable. Far fewer consistently address them.
When disrespect, blame shifting, gossip, bullying, or chronic negativity continue without consequence, people begin drawing their own conclusions.
“Maybe those values don’t really matter.”
“Maybe accountability only applies to some people.”
“Maybe performance matters more than behaviour.”
Culture is influenced just as much by what leaders tolerate as by what they encourage.
That’s why one of my favourite leadership reminders is:
Everything a leader says, does, ignores, rewards, and allows shapes workplace culture.
Addressing behaviour doesn’t require confrontation or humiliation.
It requires consistency.
- Describe the behaviour.
- Explain the impact.
- Reconnect to the agreed-upon Rule of Engagement.
- Clarify the expectation moving forward.
- Document recurring patterns before they become larger issues.
When leaders respond consistently and respectfully, accountability feels fair rather than punitive.
People know the standards apply to everyone and that consistency builds trust.
It also prevents many of the behaviours that eventually lead to conflict, disengagement, and burnout.
In fact, many of the workplace hazards associated with burnout: unclear priorities, poor communication, unfairness, excessive workload, lack of recognition, and unresolved conflict—are culture issues long before they become wellness issues. Addressing them early protects both people and organizational performance.
T — Track and Troubleshoot
One of the misconceptions about workplace culture is that once you’ve defined your values and established your Rules of Engagement, the work is finished.
In reality, culture requires ongoing attention.
Just as organizations monitor budgets, productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction, they also need to monitor how well their culture is supporting both people and performance.
Culture is maintained, not announced.
One of the simplest ways to do that is by building regular reflection into existing team meetings.
I often encourage leaders to hold short WoW (Way of Working) and Glitch conversations.
The purpose isn’t to criticize or assign blame. It’s to create opportunities for continuous improvement.
A WoW Huddle asks questions such as:
- Where did we do a great job of living our values this week?
- What behaviours strengthened our team?
- What should we continue doing?
A Glitch Huddle asks:
- Where did we miss the mark?
- What got in our way?
- What can we do differently next time?
These conversations reinforce an important message.
Culture isn’t about perfection. It’s about paying attention, learning, and making small adjustments before small issues become larger problems.
Leaders who create space for these conversations build teams that become more adaptable, accountable, and resilient over time.
E — Embed Culture into Everything You Do
The true test of a healthy workplace culture isn’t whether employees can recite the organization’s values.
It’s whether those values consistently influence the decisions leaders make.
Culture shouldn’t appear only during orientation or annual planning sessions. It needs to be woven into every stage of the employee experience, from the moment someone applies for a position until the day they leave the organization.
Embedding culture means ensuring it is reflected consistently throughout the employee lifecycle—from hiring and onboarding, to coaching and development, to promotion, recognition, accountability, and, when necessary, respectful separation.
Hiring
Hire for both competence and cultural contribution.
Technical skills matter, but so does the way people work with others. Interview questions should explore not only what candidates have accomplished, but how they communicate, collaborate, solve problems, and demonstrate the values your organization has identified as important.
A talented employee who consistently undermines trust or ignores your Rules of Engagement can quickly influence the culture of an entire team.
Onboarding
Don’t assume new employees will absorb the culture simply by watching those around them.
Introduce your mission, vision, values, and Rules of Engagement from the beginning. Help people understand not only what they are expected to do, but how they are expected to work with colleagues, customers, and leaders.
The earlier expectations are made clear, the easier they become to live.
Performance Conversations
Performance should never be evaluated solely by results.
How those results are achieved matters just as much.
Performance discussions should recognize employees who consistently model the organization’s values while also addressing behaviours that weaken trust, collaboration, or accountability.
When values become part of regular coaching conversations, they remain relevant long after orientation has ended.
Leadership Development
Every leader, whether newly promoted or highly experienced, plays a significant role in shaping workplace culture.
Leadership development should extend beyond operational skills and include communication, coaching, psychological safety, conflict resolution, accountability, recognition, and creating healthy workplace relationships.
After all, employees don’t experience leadership through organizational charts. They experience it through everyday interactions.
Promotions
Promotions send one of the strongest messages about what an organization truly values.
When leaders consistently promote people who demonstrate both strong performance and behaviours aligned with the organization’s values, employees see that culture matters.
When promotions are based solely on technical expertise or results while unhealthy behaviours are overlooked, people receive a very different message.
Every promotion either strengthens or weakens the culture you’re trying to build.
Difficult Decisions and Exiting Employees
Culture is also revealed in the decisions leaders find most difficult.
Addressing persistent behaviour that violates the organization’s Rules of Engagement requires courage, consistency, and fairness.
When coaching, support, and accountability have not resulted in meaningful change, leaders sometimes need to make difficult decisions.
How those decisions are handled matters.
Treating people with dignity and respect, even when employment is ending, reinforces the values the organization claims to uphold.
Equally important is recognizing that failing to address behaviours that repeatedly undermine trust, respect, or collaboration sends a message to everyone else that the values are optional.
Sometimes the most culture-building decision a leader can make is addressing behaviour that no longer aligns with the organization they are intentionally creating.
When culture influences who you hire, how you onboard, how you coach, who you recognize, who you promote, and, when necessary, who you part ways with, it becomes far more than a statement on a wall.
It becomes part of the way the organization makes decisions every day.
Five Common Myths About Workplace Culture
Myth #1: Culture belongs to Human Resources.
Reality: Human Resources can support culture, but leaders shape it every day through the conversations they have, the decisions they make, and the behaviours they reinforce.
Myth #2: Values automatically create culture.
Reality: Values only influence culture when everyone understands what those values look like in everyday behaviour.
Myth #3: A positive workplace culture means everyone agrees.
Reality: Healthy teams still disagree. The difference is they have clear Rules of Engagement that allow people to challenge ideas respectfully while maintaining trust.
Myth #4: Culture is difficult to measure.
Reality: Employees experience culture every day through trust, recognition, fairness, communication, workload, accountability, and psychological safety. Those experiences can absolutely be observed and measured.
Myth #5: Culture is built through major initiatives.
Reality: Culture is built through hundreds of everyday leadership moments that either reinforce—or quietly weaken—the organization’s values.
How C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. Connects to the WorkSmartLiveSmart™ Leadership System
Although C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. the Culture™ stands on its own, it also serves as the foundation that connects many of the leadership models I’ve developed over the years.
Culture is the environment in which every other leadership strategy either succeeds or struggles. While each framework addresses a specific workplace challenge, together they provide leaders with an integrated approach to creating healthier workplaces where people and performance can thrive together.
10 Essential Employee Engagement Needs™
Employee engagement doesn’t happen by accident. It grows when employees consistently experience the conditions that allow them to do their best work.
The 10 Essential Employee Engagement Needs™ identify those conditions—from respect and psychological safety to role clarity, leadership support, recognition, belonging, and opportunities to contribute. C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. helps leaders intentionally create those conditions rather than hoping they happen naturally.
B.U.R.N.O.U.T. Leadership Keys™
Burnout rarely begins as a wellness issue.
It often begins as a workplace culture issue.
Unsustainable workloads, unclear priorities, role ambiguity, poor communication, unfairness, insufficient recognition, and lack of support are all cultural conditions that increase burnout risk. The B.U.R.N.O.U.T. Leadership Keys™ help leaders recognize and reduce these workplace hazards, while C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. creates the healthy organizational conditions that help prevent burnout before employees reach a crisis point.
H.U.M.A.N.I.Z.E. Change Pathway™
Organizations with healthy cultures are far better equipped to navigate change.
When trust, communication, psychological safety, and employee involvement already exist, people are more willing to ask questions, share concerns, learn, and adapt.
The H.U.M.A.N.I.Z.E. Change Pathway™ helps leaders support people through the human side of change, while C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. provides the cultural foundation that makes successful change far more likely.
Adaptability Quotient System™
Adaptability doesn’t develop because leaders tell people to “embrace change.”
It develops in workplaces where learning, curiosity, flexibility, experimentation, and continuous improvement are encouraged every day.
The Adaptability Quotient System™ helps individuals and teams strengthen their ability to respond effectively to change. C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. creates the kind of culture where adaptability becomes part of everyday work rather than something employees only practice during times of disruption.
C.L.E.A.R. Conversations™
Culture travels through conversations.
Every conversation either strengthens trust or weakens it.
The C.L.E.A.R. Conversations™ framework equips leaders with practical communication skills for creating clarity, building understanding, addressing difficult issues, and reinforcing expectations. Because conversations are one of the primary ways culture is experienced, C.L.E.A.R. helps leaders consistently reinforce the behaviours they want to see.
RESET™: Responding to Toxic Workplace Behaviours
Even strong workplace cultures occasionally experience behaviours that threaten trust, collaboration, and psychological safety.
Left unaddressed, toxic behaviours such as bullying, manipulation, incivility, gossip, chronic negativity, or blame can quickly erode morale and influence the culture of an entire team.
The RESET™ Model provides leaders with a practical, step-by-step approach for recognizing, addressing, and responding to these behaviours before they become normalized. Rather than allowing toxicity to quietly spread, RESET™ helps leaders intervene consistently, respectfully, and effectively.
While C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. focuses on intentionally building a healthy culture, RESET™ provides leaders with the tools to protect that culture when unhealthy behaviours emerge.
R.E.S.I.L.I.E.N.C.E.™ Roadmap
Even in the healthiest workplace cultures, people will face setbacks, uncertainty, change, and difficult seasons.
Resilience isn’t about avoiding challenges. It’s about developing the capacity to recover, adapt, and continue moving forward.
The R.E.S.I.L.I.E.N.C.E.™ Roadmap helps individuals strengthen the attitudes, habits, and skills that support long-term resilience, while C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. ensures the workplace itself provides the support, connection, trust, and psychological safety that allow resilience to flourish.
Together, resilient people and healthy workplace cultures create organizations that are better equipped to handle both everyday pressures and unexpected challenges.
The S.O.S. Principle™
When difficult situations arise, people naturally ask themselves three questions:
- What am I going to do about it?
- How am I going to take care of myself?
- Who is there to support me?
The S.O.S. Principle™ provides individuals with a practical framework for responding to stress, setbacks, and adversity. C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. complements that approach by helping leaders create workplaces where people feel safe asking for support, confident discussing challenges, and empowered to navigate adversity together.
The WorkSmartLiveSmart™ Leadership System recognizes that no single leadership tool solves every workplace challenge. Healthy workplace cultures are created through intentional leadership, clear communication, resilient people, supportive workplaces, and consistent accountability. Together, these evidence-informed frameworks provide leaders with an integrated roadmap for creating workplaces where people and performance thrive together.
Workplace Culture Is Never Finished
I’m often asked is, “When do we know we’ve built a strong culture?”
You don’t finish building culture.
You continue cultivating it.
Every new employee, every leadership decision, every difficult conversation, every change initiative, and every challenge your organization faces presents another opportunity to strengthen or unintentionally weaken the culture people experience.
That’s why I chose the word C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E.
Gardeners don’t prepare the soil once and expect everything to flourish forever.
They pay attention and remove weeds before they spread.
They nurture healthy growth and adapt to changing conditions.
And they understand that the best results come from consistent care over time.
Workplace culture is no different.
It doesn’t happen by accident and it grows through intentional leadership.
When leaders are clear about what they value, define what those values look like through Rules of Engagement, reinforce them consistently, and hold themselves accountable for living them every day, culture becomes much more than words on a wall.
It becomes the lived experience of every employee, every customer interaction, and every leadership decision.
Because in the end, people won’t remember what your values said on that wall in the entrance way.
They’ll remember what your culture felt like while they were working there.
Where to Start
If your workplace culture isn’t where you’d like it to be, start a conversation.
The people who experience your culture every day are in the best position to help you understand what’s working, what’s getting in the way, and what needs to change. Inviting their perspective not only provides valuable insight, it also creates ownership. People are far more likely to support a culture they helped define than one that was handed to them.
Ask questions such as:
- How would you describe our workplace culture today?
- When we’re at our best, what behaviours make this a great place to work?
- What behaviours are getting in the way of us doing our best work together?
- What five to eight values should define how we work together, especially when we’re under pressure?
- If we chose those values, what would they actually look like in our everyday behaviours?
- What Rules of Engagement would help us consistently live those values?
Listen carefully to the conversations that follow.
You don’t have to agree with every suggestion, but patterns will begin to emerge. Those patterns reveal the culture your employees are experiencing.
From there, you have an opportunity to clarify expectations, define meaningful Rules of Engagement together, and consistently reinforce the behaviours that will move the culture in the direction everyone wants to go.
Those conversations can start the transformation.
Contact Beverly about hosting a mental health workshop for your teams on how to build resilience and engagement. Learn strategies, and discover coping tips to deal with stress, change and crisis!
If you have some strategies to share – comment on this posting!
Additional Postings:
The Power of Values: Building a Positive and Productive Workplace Culture
Building a Culture of Gratitude: The Leadership Advantage That Transforms Teams
Creating an Inclusive and Trusting Culture: Essential Strategies for Effective Leadership
Psychological Safety Is Not a Program: It Is the Result of Healthy Workplace Conditions
Celebrations And Social Gatherings Are An Important Part Of Workplace Culture
Recognition That Boosts Workplace Culture
Breaking the Blame Cycle: Building a Workplace Culture that Embraces Responsibility
Positive Leaders Connect Before They Correct: Why Relationships Make Feedback Work
Embracing the 9 Key Behaviours of Exceptional Leaders
What Is Adaptability Quotient (AQ)? A Leadership System for Navigating Change
Effective Communication For Leadership Success
What Is the S-O-S Resilience Principle ™ – A Practical System for Managing Stress in Real Time
7 Reality Anchors™ for Dealing With Difficult People
Dealing With Difficult People At Work: A Leader’s Guide to Toxic Behaviour and Conflict
Frequently Asked Questions About Workplace Culture
What is workplace culture?
Workplace culture is the lived experience employees have every day. It reflects what people consistently see, hear, experience, and come to expect from the leaders, colleagues, customers, conversations, decisions, and everyday interactions that shape how work gets done. While mission, vision, and values provide direction, culture is ultimately demonstrated through behaviour.
Why is workplace culture important?
A healthy workplace culture influences employee engagement, trust, retention, collaboration, innovation, customer service, and organizational performance. When employees experience respect, fairness, psychological safety, and clear expectations, they are more likely to contribute their best work and remain committed to the organization.
What is the difference between workplace culture and employee engagement?
Workplace culture describes the environment people work within. Employee engagement reflects how employees think and feel about working in that environment. Culture creates the conditions that either strengthen or weaken engagement over time.
Can workplace culture be changed?
Yes, but meaningful culture change takes time and intentional leadership. Culture changes through consistent behaviours, clear expectations, ongoing communication, accountability, recognition, and involving employees in defining how they want to work together. Sustainable change happens through daily actions rather than one-time initiatives.
What are Rules of Engagement?
Rules of Engagement are the shared behavioural expectations that translate organizational values into everyday actions. They define what values such as respect, collaboration, accountability, or integrity actually look like in meetings, communication, decision-making, conflict resolution, and day-to-day work.
Who is responsible for workplace culture?
Everyone contributes to workplace culture, but leaders have the greatest influence because employees watch what leaders say, do, reward, ignore, and tolerate. Human Resources can support culture initiatives, but culture is shaped daily through leadership behaviours and employee interactions.
How does workplace culture affect burnout?
Burnout is often influenced by workplace culture. Unsustainable workloads, unclear priorities, poor communication, role ambiguity, lack of recognition, insufficient support, and perceived unfairness all increase burnout risk. By creating healthier workplace conditions, leaders can reduce many of the organizational factors that contribute to burnout before employees reach a crisis point.
How can leaders improve workplace culture?
Leaders can strengthen workplace culture by:
- Clarifying the organization’s mission, vision, and values.
- Involving employees in defining the behaviours that support those values.
- Creating clear Rules of Engagement.
- Recognizing behaviours that reinforce the culture.
- Addressing behaviours that undermine trust or accountability.
- Embedding culture into hiring, onboarding, coaching, promotions, and performance conversations.
- Regularly asking employees for feedback and acting on what they learn.
How long does it take to change workplace culture?
There is no fixed timeline. Small improvements can often be noticed within a few months when leaders consistently reinforce new behaviours. Developing a deeply embedded culture typically takes years of consistent leadership, communication, accountability, and continuous improvement.
What is the C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.E. the Culture™ framework?
C.U.L.T.I.V.A.T.A.T.E. the Culture™ is a leadership operating model developed by Beverly Beuermann-King that helps organizations intentionally build healthy workplace cultures. The framework guides leaders through clarifying values, understanding the current culture, listening to employees, translating values into Rules of Engagement, reinforcing desired behaviours, addressing harmful behaviours, measuring progress, and embedding culture into every stage of the employee experience.