Ask a leadership team what the organisation's values are, and the answer comes quickly. Ask whether those values show up in everyday behaviour, and the answer slows down.
That is rarely a failure of culture. It is a failure of sight. Behaviour happens in meetings, handovers and small decisions, far from where leaders sit. What reaches the top is usually a survey score once or twice a year, or a story from one team. Both arrive late, and both are partial.
It cuts both ways
Some organisations live their values better than they realise. The behaviour is there, but nobody notices or recognises it, so it is not repeated. Others are further from their stated values than leadership believes, and nothing surfaces the gap until it shows up in attrition, complaints or a stalled initiative. In both cases, leaders are deciding on an assumption.
Three things to try now
- Pick one value. Ask three people at different levels what they would point to as evidence of it in the last month. Compare the answers.
- Ask where that value is hardest to live, and what gets in the way. The obstacle is often a process or an incentive, not the people.
- Find one team that lives the value well, and find out how anyone knows.
If the answers differ widely, or nobody can name an example, the gap is visibility. Once behaviour can be seen as it happens, the conversation changes from what leaders believe to what people experience. That is the first step from complexity to visibility.
Values you cannot see are values you cannot strengthen, or correct.