Culture Check: What's One Thing Your Organization Really Believes?
The simple framework to identify the driving force behind your company's actual behavior—beyond the mission statement
If you could only pick one—what's the thing your organization believes in so deeply that it shows up everywhere?
Not in the posters or onboarding slide decks. But in promotions. In performance reviews. In everyday behavior.
Every company has a culture. The question is whether it's by design—or by default. And in my experience, it's rarely defined by what leaders say. It's defined by what they allow.
Two Cultures, Two Realities
After I left Philly.com, I dipped into consulting. One of my first gigs was with Comcast, working on business and product development for their local sports properties. It was my first time inside a company of that size—and one of the first times I saw what a clearly articulated, lived culture looked like at scale.
Comcast's belief in "connecting people to moments that matter" wasn't just a slogan. It shaped everything: cable products, TV news, even the user experience at theme parks. The teams I worked with were relentlessly focused on the customer. The belief wasn't performative—it was operational.
Contrast that with a place I worked earlier in my career: the Courier-Post, a Gannett newspaper in Cherry Hill, NJ. At the time, Gannett was deep into what I now call "poster culture"—values like:
• Strengthening Local Communities
• Trust & Credibility
• Digital Transformation
These values were everywhere… except the newsroom.
Leaders clung to old workflows. "Digital transformation" mostly meant reorganizing people into new teams with the same mindset. "Strengthening local communities" didn't come up in editorial meetings—but printing press deadlines sure did.
I remember a senior editor scoffing at anything new, dismissing mobile-first stories and audience feedback as "bells and whistles." The mismatch between stated and lived values was obvious. And toxic.
The difference wasn't subtle. At Comcast, "connecting people to moments that matter" shaped daily decisions. At Gannett, stated values were decoration for the conference room wall.
How to Audit What Your Organization Actually Believes
This gap shows up everywhere once you know how to look for it. The real culture check isn't reading the handbook—it's observing what actually gets rewarded, ignored, or excused.
Here's how to spot what your organization truly values:
Follow the promotions. Who gets ahead? The person who embodies stated values or the one who hits numbers regardless of how? If someone consistently undermines "collaboration" but delivers results, and they keep getting promoted, collaboration isn't really a value—it's wishful thinking.
Watch what gets excused. Every organization has someone who's "too valuable to lose" despite behavior that contradicts company values. What you tolerate from your highest performers reveals what you actually prioritize.
Listen to daily language. In meetings, what gets celebrated? What gets criticized? If your values emphasize innovation but people get shot down for suggesting new approaches, you've found your real culture.
Track decision patterns. When resources are tight or deadlines loom, what gets sacrificed first? Customer experience? Employee development? Quality? Your crisis decisions reveal your true priorities faster than any mission statement.
I've since worked with organizations that loudly preached work-life balance while quietly celebrating burnout. Others that talked about transparency while keeping staff in the dark about basic business decisions. The pattern is always the same: what you do consistently matters more than what you say occasionally.
The Culture Reality Check
If I sat in a room with your team and asked: What do we really value here? Would their answers match what's printed in the handbook?
According to research published in the MIT Sloan Management Review across 500 companies, there's "no correlation between the cultural values a company emphasizes in its published statements and how well the company lives up to those values in the eyes of employees."
Your values aren't what you say—they're what you do. And your team is watching every decision, every promotion, every excuse to figure out what really matters around here.
Finding Your Thread
Now that you've audited what really gets rewarded, excused, and celebrated—what pattern emerges?
Thinking about your team, division, or organization, try filling in the blanks:
• "Around here, nothing matters more than ____"
• "When push comes to shove, we always choose ____ over ____"
• "Success here means ____"
If your audit reveals that risk-takers get quietly sidelined while rule-followers get promoted, your real belief might be "predictability over innovation." If customer complaints get ignored while internal metrics get obsessed over, you might really believe "efficiency over experience."
I recently spoke with a developer and asked him what piece of customer feedback he had recently received that was then used to improve their product. His answer? "While we have a good process to get feedback, I don't see that." Later, while talking with another team member, I shared that comment, and they replied that everyone sees the feedback.
This organization, on paper, valued inclusivity, collaboration, and trust. But the real belief seemed to be "information is power"—some people get access, others don't, regardless of what the handbook says about transparency.
Test your answer: Does this one belief explain most of the behavior patterns you observed? If someone new joined tomorrow, would they figure this out within a month?
👀 Over to You
What's one thing your organization truly believes—not because it says so, but because it shows up everywhere? In hiring decisions, in what gets celebrated, in what gets overlooked?
Hit reply and tell me about it. I read every response, and the most insightful observations often become future posts.
The first step to building an intentional culture is acknowledging what you've already built by default.
What's one thing your organization truly believes—not because it says so, but because it shows up everywhere? In hiring decisions, in what gets celebrated, in what gets overlooked?
Comment and tell me about it. I read every response, and the most insightful observations often become future posts.
If this framework helped you see your culture more clearly, share it with a leader who needs this reality check. And if you're not already subscribed, join thousands of other professionals who get these weekly insights on building authentic organizational culture.
The first step to building an intentional culture is acknowledging what you've already built by default.