You Can't Pivot Your Way Out of a Toxic Culture
Hardware upgrades and pizza parties won't fix what's broken at the leadership level
I've seen firsthand that you can change the product, the workflow — even repaint the walls and upgrade every monitor — and still fail. If the vibe was toxic to begin with, it'll stay toxic after all the updates. Culture doesn't change just because your hardware does.
You'll forgive me if I leave names of organizations out of this piece, but I don't want to embarrass leaders or people whom I still call friends.
Here's the biggest mistake I've seen: leaders who believe culture is external. That it's something you fix with perks, events, or a slick internal comms campaign. Or worse, leaders who blame the culture problem on others — "difficult" team members, union "agitators," or folks who "will never be happy." You know the theme: the problem isn't me — it's them.
The Annual Survey Theater
In many organizations, culture is only considered when it's time for the annual employee survey or a Best Workplace competition. I remember one such organization that, before their annual survey, would go out of its way to remind its workforce of everything leadership had done for them. Pizza Fridays. Chair massages. New computers. Lunch with the senior leaders. They would go through the whole list expecting that it would reflect in the survey results.
The results would come in, and leadership would see that their "strategy" barely moved the needle. Employees still felt that managers and senior leaders were disconnected, that they failed to communicate organizational priorities and changes, and that they didn't respect the work that was being done.
Why should leaders care, after all, it's just – at least in this case – survey results. Good leaders, leaders that care, should know that it's much more than that. Culture affects trust, retention, creativity, and especially performance.
Want to launch a new product? Your culture will impact that. Want to improve workflow? Your culture will impact that. Want to lower your turnover rates or attract better talent? You guessed it, your culture will impact that.
When Shiny Objects Backfire
I've been part of leadership teams that have convinced themselves that shiny new objects, a new mission statement, or even a strategic plan can fix their organization's problems. But in many instances, those efforts just exacerbate the situation. The staff may not understand why the organization needs a mobile studio, or the staff wasn't included in developing the new mission statement and wasn't asked to contribute to or provide feedback on the new strategic plan. These may feel like small things to leaders who believe they are doing what they believe is best for their organizations, but to the staff they are just more examples of leaders who fail to communicate organizational priorities and changes, or who don't respect the work that is being done.
At its worst, it all falls apart. I have sat in staff meetings where the team has become so frustrated that they have yelled, screamed and even cursed at leadership. They felt so removed from what was happening to them that, in their minds, the behavior, as awful as it was, was the only option.
What do you think comes from a meeting like that? Morale bottoms out. People who can brush off their resumes and look for new opportunities. Work quality suffers, and innovation and experimentation all but disappear.
Two Paths Forward
What should leaders do? One approach is to hire an external consultant. Bring in an individual or organization whose mission is rebuilding organizational culture.
Many of these organizations offer a variety of specialties, including Culture Transformation—helping organizations embed their Values into their Culture and educating Leaders on modeling those values, coaching others on living them, and requiring that as a condition of employment.
The challenge with that is that those efforts are often costly and lengthy. I've seen such organizations quote in the mid-five figures and a timeline that can easily take up to two years. And a good amount of that timeline requires a serious commitment and investment from senior leaders. That is because senior leaders learn:
Why they are engaging in this project, and what it means to the organization
The way they've agreed to behave, especially when things are getting difficult
And how they will practically go about executing this
So, before you go down that path, be sure you are fully committed; there is no easier way to shoot yourself in the foot than to announce a strategy and then not follow through.
Cross-functional teams are a low-cost option that you can likely institute with existing staff. I have found that this strategy can do a lot of good.
At Lehigh Valley Public Media when we rolled out cross-functional teams, we found that members gained a deeper understanding of team, department, and organizational goals, challenges, and processes which went a long way to improve alignment and mutual respect. People started seeing each other as partners instead of obstacles. The finance team understood why content decisions took time. The content team grasped budget constraints they'd never considered.
The Real Work
Culture change isn't about the pizza parties or the strategic plans. It's about creating spaces where people can actually collaborate and be heard. Sometimes the simplest approaches—like putting your finance person in the same room as your content team—accomplish what expensive consultants can't.
The hardware will never fix what's broken at the leadership level. But when leaders stop looking for external solutions and start building internal connections, that's when real change becomes possible.
What's your experience with toxic workplace culture? Have you seen organizations successfully transform their culture, or watched expensive initiatives fail? Share your stories in the comments—I'm always learning from your insights.
If this resonated with you, hit the heart button and share it with a leader who needs to read this. Sometimes the best culture change starts with one honest conversation.