How to know if your culture is working

You know your culture is working when people speak without a filter. Not because they're reckless, but because they trust you'll listen without punishment. Figuring out if your culture actually works isn't complicated—you just have to look in the right places. Not in the framed values on the wall, not in the annual engagement survey, not in what people say at town halls. It's in what people say when they're not thinking, in the small decisions they make every day, in whether they feel safe enough to be honest.

Honest conversations are the real thermometer

Your culture works when people tell you uncomfortable things without fear. This doesn't mean they're confrontational; it means they trust you. You see it in your 1:1s, where people share real concerns instead of what they think you want to hear. You see it in your project retros, where the team talks about what went wrong, not just what went right. And you see it in how fast mistakes get shared: quickly, without defensiveness, with a genuine desire to learn together.

Here's what's interesting: honesty requires trust, and trust requires fair consequences. If sharing a mistake means you're marked forever, nobody shares anything. And if people fear what they say will leak to others, they won't be vulnerable. That's why safe, private spaces where people can be honest without their words getting twisted or used against them are crucial to real culture. When your team knows that mistakes are learning opportunities, that leadership treats them that way, and that privacy is respected, the conversations shift.

• People critique leadership decisions without fear of retaliation
• Someone can say 'I don't know' or 'I need help' without shame
• A mistake gets shared quickly so the team can learn from it
• New people feel safe asking questions without judgment
• The tone in a room with leaders is the same as without them

Watch what people do when no one's looking

Actions reveal values far more than speeches do. If your company says it values work-life balance but punishes people for taking days off, your culture doesn't work. If you say you collaborate but only reward the individual superstar, people will compete in private while smiling in meetings. Real culture shows up under pressure: tight deadlines, money on the line, conflict. That's when you see what actually matters and who's willing to do the hard work or sacrifice something.

Day-to-day behaviors are the most reliable indicators. Not what people say in formal meetings, but what they do in Slack, in the hallways, in casual conversations. Does your team celebrate when someone achieves something? Do they offer help unprompted? Or is it always a competition?

• Would people on your team recommend this place to a close friend without hesitation?
• Would they leave tomorrow for the same pay somewhere else, just for a different environment?
• In Slack, do people celebrate each other's wins and offer help without being asked?
• Do they respect working hours or respond to messages at 11pm like it's normal?
• Do they feel comfortable being vulnerable without it being used against them later?

How to know if your culture is actually working

Almost every company has a values statement: 'We innovate, we're inclusive, we're agile.' But knowing if your culture actually works means seeing whether those values guide real decisions. Your real culture is what you see when something costs. Under pressure, you see who actually matters and what gets sacrificed. This requires closing the gap between what you say and what you do—especially when no one's watching.

For example: if you say you value innovation but punish failure, people won't innovate. If you say you value inclusion but your leadership is homogeneous, people notice. If you say you trust people but you micromanage every task, employees will act cautiously. That gap is where people learn not to trust.

• Have you ever corrected a senior leader for violating your values?
• Do your values apply to everyone or just junior staff?
• Do decisions consider impact on people or just on numbers?
• Do you invest in development even when there's no immediate ROI?

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