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011 | Culture Under Construction: How We Build Everyday

Workplace culture isn’t just about corporate policies or glossy mission statements—it’s a reflection of the collective behaviors, values, and emotional energy of the people who make up the organization. In this episode, we dive into the dynamic interplay between internal culture (the emotions and values we carry) and external culture (the workplace dynamics we experience).

We explore how personal actions ripple through an organization, the role of trust and integrity, and why addressing systems—not just people—is the key to creating meaningful and lasting cultural change. This episode offers actionable insights for leaders, managers, and employees alike, helping you become a more intentional culture shaper from the inside out.

Key Themes and Takeaways:

1. The Emotional Organization: Culture Is Built on Trust

Behind every process, goal, and team dynamic is a web of emotions. Workplace culture thrives on the trust between employees and the organization—a concept known as the psychological contract.

  • The Problem: When organizations fail to align their actions with their values, they break this unwritten contract, leading to disengagement, mistrust, and turnover.
  • Key Insight: Just as organizations can break trust, so can individuals through their daily interactions. This highlights the reciprocal nature of culture—it’s not just something organizations create; we all play a part in shaping it.

2. Internal vs. External Culture: A Personal Reflection

Culture is shaped by how we show up in every interaction. Host Denaige shares a story about consulting for a manufacturing company where a CEO’s visible frustration—symbolized by a hammer hole in the boardroom wall—set the tone for a culture of fear.

  • Key Question: How do your actions, tone, and mood impact the spaces you occupy?
  • Takeaway: Culture isn’t just about leadership or systems; it starts with the energy and behaviors we bring into our workplaces every day.

3. Building Culture With Intention

Culture isn’t simply about empathy—it’s about intentionally balancing trust, accountability, and respect. Edgar Schein’s Model of Organizational Culture provides a framework for understanding how culture is created:

  1. Artifacts and Behaviors: The visible, tangible aspects of culture, such as communication styles and workplace rituals.
  2. Espoused Values: The organization’s stated goals and beliefs, which may not always align with daily practices.
  3. Underlying Assumptions: The unspoken attitudes and beliefs that drive behaviors and decisions.
  • Key Insight: The visible aspects of culture are rooted in deeper, often unexamined assumptions. Without addressing these, culture becomes inconsistent and fragile.
  • Takeaway: True cultural alignment requires operational consistency, emotional self-regulation, and clarity of purpose.

4. The Middle-Management Connection

Middle managers are often caught between leadership’s lofty ideals and the realities of what their teams need. This creates unique challenges:

  • Mixed Messages: Leadership espouses values like collaboration but rewards individual performance.

  • Pressure from Both Sides: Managers are asked to deliver results while maintaining morale, often with limited resources.

  • Emotional Exhaustion: Without alignment and support, middle managers can feel isolated and powerless to create meaningful change.

  • Key Insight: When managers try to take ownership of culture in the absence of top-down alignment, it leads to fragmented subcultures and unequal employee experiences.

5. Why Culture Initiatives Often Fail

Many workplace culture efforts fail because they address symptoms, not root causes. Common missteps include:

  • Leadership training that ignores emotional work and bias.

  • DEI programs that lack structural alignment.

  • Flexible work policies that aren’t equitably implemented.

  • Recognition programs that exclude underrepresented employees.

  • Key Insight: Without integrity—ensuring actions align with stated values—employees become disillusioned, leading to mistrust and disengagement.

6. The Real Solution: Focus on Systems

Improving workplace culture doesn’t have to feel overwhelming. It’s about getting back to basics: efficiency, transparency, and trust.

  • Key Action: Organizations must audit their foundational systems to ensure they support their stated values. This includes examining how work is prioritized, how opportunities are distributed, and how conflict is resolved.
  • Key Insight: Systemic inefficiencies often trigger the emotional stressors employees face. When systems are aligned, employees feel secure, respected, and supported, strengthening the psychological contract.

What Can You Do Today? Two Simple Actions

  1. Audit Your Emotional Ripple Effect
    Every interaction shapes the culture around you. Reflect on how your tone, energy, and behaviors influence others.
  • Actionable Step: Set a daily intention for how you want others to feel after interacting with you. For example, aim to project calmness during challenging meetings.
  1. Take One Aligned Action
    Align your actions with your core values.
  • Actionable Step: Identify one behavior that reflects your values and practice it intentionally. For example, if transparency matters to you, share progress updates openly with your team—even when the outcome isn’t final.

Conclusion: Building Culture From the Inside Out

Culture isn’t created through words alone; it’s shaped by actions, systems, and daily decisions. By being intentional about how you show up, aligning your values with your behavior, and fostering trust, you can start building a culture of trust, alignment, and growth—starting today.

Organizations bear responsibility for upholding effective systems, but we all have a role to play. Culture isn’t “out there”—it’s right here, in the decisions we make and the energy we bring to every interaction.

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