Culture breaks in silence

A company’s culture breaks first in silence: when leaders stop listening, when fear replaces transparency, when people learn it is safer to stay quiet.

Everyone talks about caring for culture, but few want to face what really happens.

1️⃣ Talk about what’s uncomfortable: many leaders confuse listening with performing monologues. When someone speaks up, they are often labelled: “they don’t see the full picture”, “they’re too junior”, “they lack context”. That’s how culture goes quiet.

2️⃣ Decide in front of people, not for them: some decisions are top down and that’s fine. The problem is when leaders hide them under the illusion of collaboration. Others could be made with the team, but never are. Letting go is hard. So is tolerating mistakes. The solution is to design a clear system: which decisions belong to the team, which require alignment, and how much autonomy is real.

3️⃣ Review the processes that create noise: it takes effort. Nobody has time. It gets delegated. But if the process keeps failing and no one fixes it, waste spreads everywhere. Getting off the moving train to check the tracks is uncomfortable. Until the train derails.

Caring for culture isn’t about happiness at work.

It’s about responsibility.

It’s telling the truth when it’s easier to pretend everything’s fine.