Have you ever noticed how “Culture” is a word we use to avoid accountability?
We don’t do this intentionally, and culture is certainly an important modern-day buzzword, but when “Something feels off around here,” we too quickly call it culture.
And before you know it, “Culture” becomes a fog machine.
Here’s what I mean by that:
Culture becomes a vague, cloudy, heavy concept that we point to when we struggle to name what we are actually doing, tolerating, or failing to address.
I see leaders do this all the time.
A team misses a deadline. A decision stalls. People avoid conflict. Meetings drag. Performance slips. Morale dips. And instead of naming the behavior that caused the outcome, someone says, “We have a culture problem.”
Maybe you do.
Culture matters, and it shapes people and performance in a thousand quiet ways.
But here’s the problem: culture is too big to fix!
It’s ambiguous and slippery, and it’s one of those words that encompasses too much to act upon.
Because it is so broad, it gives leaders a convenient place to hide. You can talk about “Culture” for years without holding anyone, including yourself, accountable for a single concrete change.
You can even sound wise while you do it.
I’ve heard leaders say things like:
- “We need a culture of ownership.”
- “We need a culture of innovation.”
- “We need a culture of accountability.”
Okay. Great.
Now what?
This is where a subtle shift in attention matters.
Instead of putting your attention on “culture,” put your attention on the elements that actually create culture. Look for the small, repeatable behaviors, decisions, and standards that become the norm over time.
I once heard an interesting statement from Edgar Schein that I’ve never forgotten. He said:
“Culture is not something that you create or want. Culture is the residue of your history so far.”
That’s such a clean reframe.
Culture isn’t your mission statement or the values you hang up on the wall. It isn’t your vision or the other things you say you want.
Culture is what you’ve allowed, rewarded, tolerated, reinforced, and repeated for years. It’s what your organization has been doing long enough that it now feels “normal.”
So if you want to change culture, you don’t start by talking about culture.
You start by asking a more accountable question:
What, specifically, are we doing that is producing the culture we say we don’t want?
Then you break it down into smaller focus points you can actually address and measure.
For example:
If you say you have a culture problem, what do you really mean?
- Are decisions slow or avoided? Let’s speed them up!
- Are commitments made casually and missed routinely? Let’s stick to them!
- Are people unclear on what “good” looks like? Let’s have some conversations to clarify!
- Are you tolerating behavior you privately resent? Do something about it!
- Are meetings full of talk and thin on choices? What’s up with that?
- Are leaders stepping in too fast and creating dependency? Knock it off!
These are solvable problems.
“Culture” is not.
And here’s the accountability piece that a lot of people don’t want to hear: if culture is the residue of your history so far, then the fastest way to change it is to change what happens next. Forget the big, grandiose project that makes you sound sophisticated!
Establish simple, specific standards and behaviors, and stick to them long enough to create a better kind of residue.
So here is the subtle shift for this week.
Stop focusing on culture and start focusing on accountability.
- Name the smallest true thing you can actually name.
- Focus on concrete behaviors you can hold yourself and others accountable for.
- And please stop using the word “Culture” to avoid the straightforward problems you are avoiding.
Replace “Culture” with “Accountability”.
