Organizational Culture

If your team isn’t telling you the truth, your business is already in trouble. Alan Mulally saw this at Ford. The company was losing billions, yet every leader reported “all green.” Why? Because under the old CEO, red meant you were out of a job. Mulally changed the culture. He praised candor, not perfection. Red became a chance to rally support—not assign blame. That shift unlocked the truth and helped save Ford. Great leaders don’t demand good news. They create safety so their teams can tell them the truth. Here’s how: 1️⃣ Create safety for honesty. 2️⃣ Keep reporting binary: on track/off track. 3️⃣ Reward the truth, even when it stings. 4️⃣ Rally the team to solve problems together. 5️⃣ Set ambitious goals—some red means you’re pushing hard enough.

When Mary Barra took over GM's HR department, she found a 10-page dress code policy. She replaced all 10 pages with just two words: "Dress appropriately." The HR team panicked. A senior director sent an angry email demanding more detailed rules. But Barra held firm. When the director called to complain that his team wore jeans to government meetings, she didn't cave. Instead, she told him: "Have a conversation with your team." Two weeks later, he called back excited. His team had solved it themselves...they'd keep dress pants in their lockers for important meetings. Here's what happened across GM: 1. Managers started making decisions instead of following rulebooks 2. Employee engagement improved as people felt trusted 3. Bureaucracy dropped as leaders focused on outcomes, not compliance Barra realized: "If they can't handle 'dress appropriately,' what other judgment decisions are they not making?" She built a culture where thinking mattered more than rule-following. Most companies write longer policies to avoid problems. Mary wrote shorter ones to create leaders.

Discourses of Climate Delay 🌎 Discourses of climate delay subtly undermine urgent climate action by framing it as either unnecessary, too disruptive, or impossible to achieve. These narratives don't deny climate change but instead promote inaction through complex messaging, effectively slowing progress toward meaningful environmental goals. One common approach is to redirect responsibility. This discourse suggests that the burden of action lies primarily with individuals or other entities, rather than addressing the systemic changes required from industries and governments. By focusing on personal responsibility alone, broader, impactful initiatives can be sidelined. Another tactic is to emphasize the downsides of change, portraying climate action as a source of economic hardship or social disruption. This discourages support for essential policies by highlighting potential challenges rather than long-term benefits, impeding collective progress. The push for non-transformative solutions is also prevalent. This narrative often suggests superficial fixes, like minor fossil fuel improvements, as adequate steps. By promoting incremental changes rather than systemic transformation, these approaches can delay necessary shifts in energy and resource management. Finally, surrender narratives frame climate change as an unsolvable problem, encouraging resignation rather than action. This viewpoint implies that adaptation is the only feasible response, discouraging mitigation efforts. Addressing these delay discourses requires a clear focus on accountability, transformative solutions, and sustained commitment. Recognizing these tactics is critical to advancing genuine progress in climate action. #sustainability #sustainable #business #esg #climatechange #climateaction

When your best people start to go quiet, it’s not just a silence - it’s an alert.

It means the worst parts of your culture are taking up space, and the voices you need most are pulling back. 

Silence from your core talent isn’t a lack of ideas or effort; it’s a response to a slipping environment.
 For leaders, this is your cue to take real action:
 1. Create Space for Honest Conversations: Set up regular, safe one-on-ones where people can speak openly. Don’t just ask for feedback—listen, act on it, and show that their voices lead to tangible change.

 2. Recognize and Address Toxic Behaviors: Don’t ignore the negativity, micromanagement, or favoritism that might be breeding. Set clear expectations for respect and collaboration, and hold everyone accountable, regardless of title.

 3. Celebrate Contributions Regularly: Acknowledge the work and ideas that come from all levels. Recognition shouldn’t be saved for major milestones; small, genuine appreciation keeps morale alive and reminds people they’re valued.

 4. Empower Decision-Making: Give your team the freedom to own projects and make choices. The best ideas come from people who feel trusted and respected, not micromanaged.

 When the real drivers of your culture stop speaking up, it’s a signal to recalibrate. 

Lead by example, and show that culture is built through daily actions - not just words. ♻️Rob Dance

Here’s 14 things that can be invisible to men in the workplace And they all involve women Men rarely notice That women are more likely To be interrupted To be on the outside of social workplace networks To be judged more harshly and punished for underperformance or mistakes To have their credentials or competence questioned or be expected to provide evidence To be promoted on previous performance rather than future potential To be negatively judged for being assertive or ambitious To be given non promotive tasks and work housework And that women are less likely To be sponsored or given similar progress opportunities To get space to contribute in meetings To be give clear, actionable feedback To be seen as deserving promotion to leadership To be given stretch projects and high profile assignments To be consider for promotive work when they are mothers To have airtime with those most senior in their organisation I can honestly say I wasn’t noticing these in my early career. A lot of my focus went on following the advice of working twice as hard, as a young Black lad from a lower socioeconomic background. My own microaggressions blurred my vision of gender biases. And if you can’t see them, and they don’t happen to you, how can you challenge them? Studies show that men’s awareness and ability to act is four times higher after they partake in allyship training which highlights gender biases and microaggressions. Suddenly they see inequity they couldn’t see before. And they can’t unsee it. The opportunities to tackle them increase, practicing the skills of allyship. Having been through that process myself I can say that taking the blindfold off is an uncomfortable reality check But it is also empowering, and makes your curious about what else you might not be seeing. A world that was black and white, suddenly was a world full of colour And this is just one of the reasons why I’m passionate about bringing allyship to organisations and stages across the country Becoming accomplices, rather than opposition Because everyone benefits when we shine a light on each others blind spots What would you add to the list?

Apathy at work is not always laziness. Sometimes, it is a perfectly rational response to a broken system. This Office Space scene still hits because it explains something many companies refuse to admit: People do not stop caring randomly. They stop caring when the system teaches them that caring changes nothing. Work harder? No upside. Make a mistake? Eight people show up to discuss it. Take initiative? You inherit more work. Create value? Someone else captures the reward. At some point, people do the rational thing: They work just hard enough to avoid pain. That is not laziness. That is a badly designed operating system. For me, this is one of the biggest leadership lessons in the future of work: 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗶𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴. You have to connect effort to ownership, reward, trust, and purpose. Fear can create compliance. Pressure can create activity. Surveillance can create the appearance of productivity. But none of them create commitment. The best organizations do not ask, “Why don’t people care?” They ask: 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗽𝗼𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀? Because apathy is rarely born in people. It is built into systems. Where do you see companies accidentally designing apathy into the workplace? #FutureOfWork #Leadership #WorkplaceCulture #Management #EmployeeEngagement #Productivity #HumanCenteredWork #OrganizationalDesign #Workplace

Interviewers treat female job candidates in a systematically different way than male job candidates: 🔹harsher 🔹with less patience 🔹more interruptions 🔹less respectful 🔹more condescending Most of these interviewer behaviors go hand in hand with lower subjective ratings of the candidate by the interviewer. On average, women get lower subjective ratings, even though they perform as well as men according to objective measures. These are among the key findings of a paper by Abdelrahman Amer, Ashley Craig and Clémentine VAN EFFENTERRE titled "Decoding Gender Bias in Interviews". The context is a platform for software engineers where job candidates can practice for technical interviews. The above results are based on an analysis of thousands of videos of mock job interviews and code quality tests. The paper considers several possible explanations of the key patterns in the data and concludes that "stereotypes come into play during personal interaction, in a manner consistent with unconscious bias". In line with this, the study finds that "the gender gaps in ratings on the platform are twice as large among evaluators who graduated from an institution in geographic areas with more prejudice towards women in science". Read the full paper here: Abdelrahman Amer, Ashley Craig and Clémentine VAN EFFENTERRE (2025), "Decoding Gender Bias in Interviews", CESifo Working Paper (open access): https://lnkd.in/ewv83myu

A learning culture is not built by offering more training. It emerges where curiosity, connection, and purpose intersect. Andrew Barry, in The Curious Lion, describes learning culture as a lotus where several forces overlap. I find this framing helpful because it moves the conversation beyond HR programs and into the fabric of the organization. At the individual level, there is curiosity. People must feel invited to ask questions, challenge assumptions, and explore. Without individual curiosity, learning remains compliance. At the organizational level, there is mission. Learning needs direction. When people understand what the company stands for and where it is going, their curiosity becomes focused rather than scattered. At the relational level, there is human connection. Learning accelerates in environments where people feel safe to speak, experiment, and reflect together. The fourth circle is continuous learning. Learning must be ongoing, not episodic. Not a workshop, but a way of operating. Continuous learning ensures that curiosity, mission, and connection reinforce each other over time rather than fading after the latest initiative. When these circles overlap, deeper elements emerge: Shared vision aligns effort. Shared experiences create collective memory. Shared assumptions shape how reality is interpreted. Shared stories transmit meaning across generations. At the center sits what we call learning culture. Not an initiative, but a pattern of how people think, relate, and evolve together. The question for leaders is not, “Do we offer learning opportunities?” It is, “Do curiosity, mission, and connection truly reinforce each other continuously in our organization?” That is where learning becomes cultural rather than occasional.

"It was just a joke". How many times have those in powerful positions used this phrase to excuse misogyny and sexism? Again, we have another example. This time from the current UK Home Secretary, James Cleverly. The Home Secretary has apologised after joking about putting a date rape drug in his wife's drink in comments made at a Downing Street reception within hours of the Home Office announcing plans to crack down on spiking. You know, the Home Office he is in charge of. It's been reported that the Home Secretary told female guests; "A little bit of Rohypnol in her drink every night" was "not really illegal if it's only a little bit". Mr Cleverly also laughed that the secret to a long marriage was ensuring your spouse was: "someone who is always mildly sedated so she can never realise there are better men out there". ... Unbelievable. Shocking. Disgusting. Male violence against women and girls is a spectrum, we can all understand perhaps more easily the most serious end which results in the murder of women by men. But that spectrum starts with the culture created which allows the normalisation of treating women like this. It involves banter. It involves jokes. All which create the conditions of acceptance for this sort of misogyny and sexism because lets be clear here- that is exactly what the Home Secretary revealed with these awful"jokes". When I worked in the policing system, men making comments like these was normally a red flag to other more troubling behaviour. This sort of " joking" or " banter " is something we really need to be vigilant on, and continue to call out. And look, this wasn't something I intended to speak on just as I take a mini break from LinkedIn and I have no idea how many people will see this... ...but it turns out misogyny doesn't take any time out for Christmas. So why should I ? Male violence against women and girls is a male problem. As men, we need to change. #WeRiseByLiftingEachOther #MVAWG #Culture

As we edge closer to the 2024 election I want to share what I see in my emergency room. In my emergency room, I often encounter a striking reality: many of my patients, young, lower-income, frequently without a primary care doctor, are not just there for medical emergencies. They need work notes, prescriptions, a place to sleep, a warm meal, basic care – services that unveil a deeper issue in our healthcare system and society. To me, these visits reveal something more – a glaring gap in our democratic process. There are over 60 million eligible but unregistered voters in the U.S., a number equal to the population of Spain. Turns out, they’re the same folks I see in my emergency room. When I ask these patients if they're registered to vote, most often, the answer is no, and the reason? No one ever bothered to ask them. This isn't just a missed opportunity for civic engagement; it's a reflection of a system that often overlooks the most marginalized. That neglect has consequences on the laws that make up our healthcare system. But here lies a unique chance. Our healthcare system, an intersection where various overlooked demographics converge, can be a powerful platform for civic integration. By integrating voter registration into the healthcare setting, we engage with these individuals in a trusted space, through respected figures like doctors and nurses. This is the heart of Vot-ER. In the lead up to the 2024 election, we're not just registering voters; we're inviting them into the democratic fold, a democracy that works for and represents everyone. The progress? 80,000 patients helped to vote and counting across the country. This is more than healthcare; it's about empowering voices, one patient, one voter at a time. #civichealth #2024