Organizational culture
-
The Second Job: Why Hiding Weaknesses Drains Your Team
Kegan and Lahey found most people work a hidden second job: managing impressions. Why it drains teams, how it compounds, and a move to try this week.
• 1 min read -
Schein's Culture Layers: What New Hires See That You Can't
New hires can see your culture's hidden assumptions for about ninety days. Here's how to capture what they see before fitting in trains it away.
• 2 min read -
Hindsight Bias in Postmortems: Why Failures Look Obvious
Once you know the outcome, every failure looks predictable. How hindsight bias corrupts postmortems, and one question that restores real learning.
• 1 min read -
The Progress Principle: Why Small Wins Beat Recognition
Diary research on 12,000 workdays shows progress in meaningful work lifts motivation more than recognition. Why leaders miss it, and one move that helps.
• 1 min read -
Psychological Contract: The Unwritten Deal Employees Sign
Every hire signs a second, unwritten contract. Why its silent breach feels like betrayal, quietly drains effort, and the question that makes it visible.
• 2 min read -
Surrogation: When the Metric Quietly Replaces the Goal
Engagement scores keep improving while teams quietly disengage. Surrogation explains how a measure replaces the goal itself, and how to reverse it.
• 2 min read -
Why Status Updates Get More Confident as They Travel Up
A doubt your team debated for an hour becomes 'on track' two layers up. How uncertainty absorption works, and one sentence that keeps doubt alive.
• 2 min read -
Why Your Team Still Believes Things You've Stopped Believing
Confident opinions outlive the conviction behind them. Why teams keep executing a leader's abandoned beliefs, and a simple audit to close the gap.
• 2 min read -
Cultural Debt: Why Rules Outlive Their Reasons at Scale
Norms no one can explain are organizational debt. How cultural debt accumulates as companies scale, and a simple test to find and repay it this week.
• 2 min read -
Why Reorgs Keep Reversing: Problems vs. Polarities
Centralize, then decentralize, then back. Barry Johnson's problem-vs-polarity distinction explains the reorg pendulum and how to stop swinging with it.
• 2 min read -
Why Praising Talent Makes Your Best People Cautious
Praising people for being brilliant ties their worth to a label they protect. Why process praise builds the risk-taking that talent praise quietly kills.
• 2 min read -
Why Culture Is Set by What Leaders Tolerate, Not Say
Culture isn't built by values statements. It's set by the lowest behavior leaders walk past, because teams calibrate to what's tolerated, not announced.
• 2 min read -
Why Your Best Employees Quit: Boredom, Not Burnout
Your most reliable people rarely leave from overload. They leave when skill outgrows challenge. How flow theory explains quiet high-performer attrition.
• 2 min read -
Why Confident Decisions Often Answer the Wrong Question
When a question is hard, the mind swaps it for an easier one and answers that with full confidence. How substitution quietly distorts decisions.
• 2 min read -
Adaptive vs Technical Problems: Why Fixes Don't Stick
Some problems return no matter how many times you fix them. Heifetz's adaptive vs. technical distinction explains why, and what to do instead.
• 2 min read -
Why Team Culture Is Set by the Manager, Not the Company
Gallup finds 70% of engagement variance traces to the manager. Culture isn't one system—it's micro-climates set by how each leader reacts.
• 2 min read -
Culture Fit vs Culture Add: Why Fit Hiring Backfires
Hiring for 'culture fit' quietly selects for sameness. Here's why belonging isn't fitting in — and the one-word change that builds real range.
• 2 min read