Organisational Culture: Why Values Don’t Change Behaviour (and What Does)

Most organisations can tell you what their culture is.

Or at least, they can tell you what they want it to be.

There’s usually a values statement. Sometimes a culture deck. Often an internal campaign with posters, workshops and messaging that sounds something like:

• We value collaboration

• We encourage innovation

• We are inclusive

• We put people first

• We speak up

• We take ownership

And yet, walk into the organisation and you may experience something completely different:

• people avoid challenging decisions

• teams protect themselves rather than collaborate

• innovation feels risky

• accountability is inconsistent

• truth is diluted

• wellbeing is spoken about, but overload is normalised

This gap — between culture as described and culture as lived — is where many organisations get stuck.

And it’s why culture work often feels frustrating for HR, OD and L&D professionals.

Because the uncomfortable truth is:

Values don’t change culture.
Reinforced behaviour changes culture.

Culture isn’t what you believe — it’s what you repeat

Culture is often described as “how we do things around here”.

That’s a helpful definition because it points to something practical:

Culture isn’t a belief system.
Culture is an operating system.

It’s made up of patterns — repeated behaviours that become normal because they are reinforced by the organisation.

Culture shows up in:

• what gets rewarded

• what gets tolerated

• what gets avoided

• what gets talked about openly

• what gets handled privately

• what people learn to stop mentioning

• what happens after a mistake

• how conflict is dealt with

• how decisions get made

• what happens to people who challenge

That’s culture. Not the statement on the intranet.

Why culture change initiatives often fail

Culture change is frequently approached as a communication project.

Organisations create:

• new values

• new messaging

• new leadership behaviours on slides

• new programmes

• new engagement initiatives

But nothing changes.

Or something changes briefly — and then the old culture returns.

That’s because culture is not shifted by messaging.
It is shifted by reinforcement.

If the system continues to reinforce old behaviours, people will continue to follow old cultural rules — even if they agree with the new values.

Because most employees are not making value-based decisions all day long.

They are making risk-based decisions:

• What’s safe to say here?

• What gets rewarded?

• What gets punished?

• What do I need to do to stay credible?

• What will make my life harder?

These questions shape culture far more than values ever will.

The three forces that shape culture (whether you like it or not)

If you want to understand culture clearly, you need to look at three things:

1) Leadership behaviour

Leaders don’t create culture through what they say.
They create culture through what they reinforce.

A leader might say, “We want openness,” but if someone speaks up and is dismissed or labelled “difficult”, the culture becomes:

don’t speak up.

A leader might say, “We want innovation,” but if mistakes are punished, the culture becomes:

don’t take risks.

A leader might say, “We want accountability,” but if underperformance is tolerated, the culture becomes:

standards don’t really matter.

Leadership behaviour doesn’t just influence culture — it authorises it.

2) Organisational systems

Systems are cultural teachers.

Systems include:

• what gets measured

• what gets promoted

• how decisions are approved

• how workload is distributed

• how performance is evaluated

• what “good” looks like

• how conflict is handled

• how information is shared

If the system rewards speed over quality, culture becomes reactive.
If the system rewards loyalty over honesty, culture becomes political.
If the system rewards compliance over thinking, culture becomes performative.

Systems create culture even when leaders don’t mean to.

3) Social norms (what people learn is “safe”)

Culture spreads socially.

People quickly learn:

• which leaders are safe to speak to

• what topics are risky

• what questions are welcome

• what conflict looks like

• whether it’s safe to admit uncertainty

In many organisations, culture isn’t controlled by the most senior person — it is sustained by the quiet agreement:

“This is how we survive here.”

That’s the culture.

Culture and psychological safety are inseparable

One of the most useful ways to understand culture is through the lens of psychological safety.

Because culture is effectively the answer to:

“What happens to people when they tell the truth?”

In cultures with high psychological safety:

• mistakes are treated as learning

• feedback is normalised

• questions are welcomed

• challenge is not punished

• people feel safe to be “unfinished”

In cultures with low psychological safety:

• people perform competence

• learning becomes risky

• feedback becomes threatening

• silence becomes common

• cynicism grows

You cannot build a learning culture without psychological safety.

And you cannot build psychological safety without cultural coherence.

What culture change actually requires

Culture doesn’t change because people are told to change.

Culture changes when the organisation shifts what it reinforces.

In practice, culture change requires:

1) Clarity about the behaviours you want

Not vague values.

Behavioural clarity looks like:

• “what do we want people to do more of?”

• “what do we want people to do less of?”

• “what should leaders reinforce consistently?”

• “what does good decision-making look like here?”

• “what does constructive conflict look like here?”

Culture cannot shift without behavioural specificity.

2) Alignment between messages and systems

If leaders talk about wellbeing but reward chronic overwork, culture becomes:

performance matters more than people.

If leaders talk about inclusion but tolerate disrespect, culture becomes:

belonging is conditional.

If leaders talk about learning but punish mistakes, culture becomes:

don’t be human.

Culture change requires coherence — not perfection, but a clear commitment to reinforcement.

3) The courage to address what has been tolerated

This is the moment many culture initiatives avoid.

But culture is shaped as much by what is challenged as by what is celebrated.

If certain behaviours have been tolerated for years — bullying, avoidance, blame, poor standards — then culture change requires leaders to address those behaviours directly.

Not harshly. Not performatively. But consistently.

Because silence is reinforcement too.

The culture isn’t “out there” — it’s happening in meetings

One of the best ways to observe culture is to notice what happens in meetings.

Ask:

• who speaks first?

• who speaks last?

• who never speaks?

• what topics are avoided?

• how are challenges received?

• what happens after tension?

• is honesty welcomed or smoothed over?

Culture doesn’t live in your comms plan.

It lives in:

• meeting rooms

• performance conversations

• decision-making dynamics

• what leaders respond to under pressure

If you want to change culture, focus on those “moments that matter”.

A final reframe: culture change isn’t a project, it’s an alignment process

Organisations often treat culture as something to roll out.

But culture can’t be rolled out.

It can only be aligned.

Culture becomes healthier when:

• leaders are consistent

• systems reinforce what is said

• psychological safety supports honesty and learning

• people trust that speaking up won’t cost them

In short:

Culture is the result of repeated behaviour, shaped by reinforcement.

Values matter — but values without reinforcement are simply aspiration.

If you want culture to shift, shift what gets reinforced.

That’s the work.