Introduction
Every organization focuses on culture. Words like teamwork, respect, innovation & transparency are often found in company policies & mission statements. But real workplace culture doesn't live in documents. It lives in people. Culture is shaped by everyday conversations, the energy in the office, how leaders behave when things go wrong, and whether employees feel safe enough to speak up. Understanding the "living culture" is the first step in the improving it (SHRM, 2024).
1. How to Understand What Your Workplace Is Really Like
Listen everyday situations. Culture is evident in the little things.
➤ How colleagues greet each other
➤ Who is involved in discussion
➤ Whether people seem stressed or relaxed
➤ How do managers respond the mistakes?
These human signals often reveal more than any staff survey (Gallup, 2024).
Observes Communication Patterns
Is communication open & supportive, or full of tension & fear?
➤ Are comfortable people asking questions?
➤ Do meetings feel like conversations or lectures?
➤ Healthy communication is the heartbeat of a strong culture?
When employees feel safe to ask questions and meetings feel like conversations rather than lectures, it shows that communication is open and supportive (Paredes-Saavedra et al., 2024).
Pay attention to employee motivation
People may not always say it, but they show it
➤ Quiet frustration
➤ Low motivation
➤ Lack of enthusiasm
➤ Or, sometimes, genuine excitement and pride
Understanding emotional climate reveals the culture beneath the surface (Paredes-Saavedra et al., 2024).
Look at how decisions are made
➤ Are decisions transparent and fair?
➤ Do employees understand why something is done?
➤ Do leaders involve teams or just announce changes?
Decision-making reveals the real values of the organization. Transparent, fair decisions and involving employees indicate a strong culture, while top-down directives often create disengagement (Forbes, 2025)
2. How to improve workplace culture
Once you understand what the culture feels like, you can begin transforming it. A good workplace culture is not built on rules. It's built on consistent human behavior. A healthy culture is built through consistent human behavior rather than written rules (WEF, 2025)
Start with empathy
Leaders & managers start with empathy. Ask employees questions like:
“How are you feeling about your workload?”
“Is something making your job difficult?”
“How can we support you better?”
Encourage open communication
Give employees safe spaces to share ideas, concerns, and feedback without fear of judgment. Providing safe spaces—team discussions, monthly check-ins, anonymous surveys encourage openness. When employees feel heard, they feel respected and committed (Gallup, 2024).
This could be through:
➤ Monthly check-ins
➤ Anonymous surveys
➤ Team discussions
➤ Open-door policies
When people
feel heard, they feel valued.
Recognize effort not, just results
A simple “thank you” or “well done” can change someone’s entire day. Recognition boosts morale and encourages positive behavior across the team (Paredes-Saavedra et al., 2024).
Build a supportive environment
Support comes in many forms:
➤ Flexible work arrangements
➤ Fair workloads
➤ Training and development opportunities
➤ Mentorship and coaching
A supportive
culture brings out the best in people.
Lead by example
Employees
watch what leaders do, not what they say.
Leaders must model:
➤ Respect
➤ Responsibility
➤ Integrity
➤ Positivity
➤ Teamwork
Culture
shifts when leadership behavior shifts.
Conclusion
A workplace culture is not something you can change with one meeting, one policy, or one motivational poster. It grows through daily actions, honest conversations, and genuine human connection. When people feel heard, supported, and appreciated, they naturally work better, and they bring out the best in each other.
Improving culture is a shared responsibility. When leaders listen, employees engage, and teams collaborate with empathy, the workplace becomes more than a job. It becomes a space where people can learn, grow, and genuinely enjoy being part of something meaningful. Culture improvement is a shared responsibility. When leaders listen, teams engage, and everyone collaborates with empathy, the workplace becomes more than a job: it becomes a supportive environment where people grow and succeed together (WEF, 2025).
References
Gallup 2024,
State of the Global Workplace 2024 Report, Gallup Press, Washington DC.
Forbes 2025,
Company Culture Matters More Than Ever in 2025, Forbes Media, viewed 1
November 2025.
Paredes-Saavedra,
M, Vallejos, M, Huancahuire-Vega, S, Morales-García, WC & Geraldo-Campos,
LA 2024, Work Team Effectiveness: Importance of Organizational Culture,
Leadership, Creative Synergy and Emotional Intelligence, Administrative
Sciences, vol. 14, no. 11.
SHRM 2024, The
State of Global Workplace Culture 2024, Society for Human Resource
Management, Washington DC.
World
Economic Forum (WEF) 2025, Thriving Workplaces: How Employers Can Improve
Productivity and Change Lives, World Economic Forum, Geneva.
Eagle Hill Consulting 2024, The State of Organizational
Culture 2024, Eagle Hill, Boston, viewed 1 November 2025, https://www.eaglehillconsulting.com/insights/organizational-culture-hybrid-work/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Gutterman, AS 2024, Definitions and Models of Organizational Culture, SSRN,
viewed 1 November 2025, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4967434&utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Linna Sai, Gao, G, Mandalaki, E, Zhang, LE &
Williams, J 2024, ‘The Problem With Performance-Based Work Cultures’, AACSB Insights, viewed 1 November 2025, https://www.aacsb.edu/insights/articles/2024/08/the-problem-with-performance-based-work-cultures?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Mohammed, AB 2025, ‘Exploring the impact of
organizational culture on employee engagement’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, viewed 1 November 2025, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772503025000258?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Thank you for this exceptionally detailed and thoughtful article on workplace culture. Your analysis demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of the distinction between stated organizational values and the lived experiences that truly define workplace culture. This recognition that culture exists in daily behaviors rather than policy documents is fundamental to any meaningful organizational transformation.
ReplyDeleteIn your view, which of these cultural improvement strategies presents the greatest implementation challenge for organizations? building psychological safety through open communication or ensuring consistent leadership modeling?
Thank you very much for your thoughtful and encouraging feedback. I truly appreciate your recognition of the distinction between stated values and the lived realities that shape workplace culture on a daily basis.
DeleteRegarding your question, ensuring consistent leadership modeling is often the most challenging strategy for organizations to implement. While building psychological safety through open communication is certainly important, it can be developed over time through structured conversations, training, and team practices. However, achieving consistent leadership modeling requires alignment across all levels of leadership, deep self-awareness, and a genuine commitment to behaving in ways that reflect the organization’s values — even under pressure. This consistency is difficult to maintain but has the most significant long-term influence on culture.
Thank you again for raising such an important point. I’d be interested to hear your perspective on which area you believe organizations struggle with the most.
This article offers a concise and useful manual for identifying an organization's "living culture" and enhancing it via constant, people-centered initiatives. It demonstrates that behavior, rather than policy, shapes culture by highlighting routine observations, communication patterns, decision-making transparency, and employee motivation (SHRM, 2024; Gallup, 2024; Paredes-Saavedra et al., 2024). Empathy, open communication, acknowledgment, supportive environments, and setting a good example are all suggested tactics that successfully convert insights into doable actions that improve performance, engagement, and trust (Forbes, 2025; WEF, 2025). All things considered, the paper makes a strong case that changing culture is a shared duty that calls for consistent focus and sincere leadership.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your thoughtful and well-articulated comment. I truly appreciate the way you summarized the key insights of the article and emphasized the importance of understanding an organization’s living culture through everyday behaviors and interactions.
DeleteYour reflection on how empathy, open communication, acknowledgment, and supportive leadership translate cultural insights into practical action is particularly meaningful. As you highlighted, these people-centered strategies are essential for strengthening trust, engagement, and overall performance.
I also agree with your point that culture change is a shared responsibility. Sustainable improvement requires consistent leadership, genuine commitment, and active participation across the organization.
Thank you again for contributing such a valuable perspective to the discussion.
Dear Nilakshi, this article presents a clear and insightful exploration of how “living culture” is shaped through everyday interactions rather than policies. The most compelling contribution is your emphasis on human signals such as communication patterns, emotional climate, and decision making transparency as the most accurate indicators of real workplace culture. This aligns strongly with contemporary organizational behaviour research, which stresses that culture is experienced, not declared. Your practical suggestions on empathy, recognition, and supportive leadership further strengthen the article by linking observation to actionable improvement. Overall, this is a well-structured and meaningful reflection that effectively bridges theory with practical workplace realities.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your thoughtful feedback. I’m happy to hear that the focus on everyday interactions and practical strategies came through clearly
DeleteThis is a sharp piece that correctly shifts the focus from aspirational mission statements to the "living culture"—the everyday reality of the workplace. I particularly appreciate the emphasis on psychological safety and empathetic leadership. Asking questions like, "Are comfortable people asking questions?" and "Do meetings feel like conversations or lectures?" provides an excellent litmus test for genuine open communication. The article's core message that "Empathy creates trust, and trust creates engagement" is an essential takeaway for any leader.
ReplyDeleteThe conclusion—that culture is defined by what leaders do, not what they say—is a powerful call to action. It transforms culture from a set of written rules into a shared, continuous responsibility.
Thank you for your thoughtful and encouraging feedback. I’m pleased that the emphasis on psychological safety, empathetic leadership, and practical questions for gauging open communication resonated with you. Your recognition of the importance of leaders’ actions in shaping culture is greatly appreciated and reinforces the article’s key message.
DeleteThis article highlights that **workplace culture is lived, not written**, and understanding it requires observing everyday interactions, communication patterns, and decision-making processes. By fostering empathy, open communication, recognition, and supportive leadership, organizations can transform culture into a space where employees feel valued, engaged, and motivated. True culture change happens through consistent human behavior, making the workplace a place where people can grow, collaborate, and thrive.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this! I completely agree that workplace culture is not just written in policies but is truly reflected in everyday interactions, communication, and decision-making. When organizations focus on empathy, recognition, and supportive leadership, they create an environment where employees feel valued, engaged, and motivated. Consistent positive behaviors from everyone are what make a culture strong and sustainable
DeleteThis gives a very thoughtful reminder that real workplace culture is visible in everyday behavior and not just polices. I like how you highlight the value of observing communication, reactions and team dynamics. I would like to add that combining these observations with structured tools like surveys or feedback checkins can give an even fuller picture of the workplace climate. Overall, a meaningful reflection on how culture is truly experienced.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful comment! I completely agree that everyday behaviors reveal true workplace culture. I also like your point about combining observations with structured tools like surveys or feedback check-ins—it really provides a more complete understanding of the workplace climate
DeleteThis is an excellent article. You have discussed about finding out what its workplace is really like and how to improve it. And also, you have discussed how to understand what your workplace is really like and how to improve workplace culture.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughtful feedback. I’m glad you found the article useful. It’s true that understanding what a workplace is really like—and identifying how to improve its culture—is essential for building a healthy, high-performing environment
DeleteThe article succeeds in highlighting the fact that the true workplace culture is found in daily interactions and not policies and slogans. More importantly, it points out that examination of the communication patterns, decision-making, and employee motivation shows the real culture that lies under the surface. The practical action strategies, empathy, open communication, recognition, support, and leading by example, are sound, but the systemic reinforcements and follow-through are also necessary to drive the change to sustain the cultural modification not just within an organization but across the board. All in all, it supports the idea that culture-enhancing is a collaborative process requiring continuous work that makes a workplace a supportive and interesting place to work in.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this insightful reflection. You’ve captured the message perfectly—real workplace culture is shaped by everyday interactions, not just policies. I also agree that examining communication, decision-making, and motivation reveals the true culture beneath the surface. Your point about combining practical strategies with systemic reinforcement is powerful. Sustaining cultural change truly requires continuous effort and shared responsibility
Delete