Rethinking Culture: From Abstract Idea to Everyday Practice
Reading time: 2 mins
Many leaders talk about organisational culture as if it’s something you can define, launch, and move on from. In reality, it’s far less straightforward – and far more influential.
Culture is not created through a one-off initiative or a refreshed set of values. It forms gradually through everyday experiences: how decisions are made, how people are treated, and what behaviours are consistently recognised or overlooked. That’s what makes it both powerful and difficult to shift.
One way to make workplace culture more tangible is to think about it through three interconnected elements.
Climate, Core Values, and Conditions
Climate refers to the immediate environment and what people feel – whether individuals feel comfortable speaking up, whether expectations are clear, and whether leaders are consistent. This is the most visible layer, and the one that leaders shape daily through their actions.
Core values sit beneath that. They reflect what people come to believe over time about how things really work within an organisation. These beliefs are not built through statements, but through patterns, such as who gets promoted, or what behaviours are rewarded.
Conditions are the systems that reinforce (or undermine) both your climate and values. Incentives, promotion criteria, workloads, and decision-making processes all send strong signals. When these systems contradict stated intentions, people pay attention to the system – not the message.
Looking at culture this way shifts it from something abstract to something actionable. Instead of broad conversations about change, leaders can focus on a few practical questions:
What are people experiencing right now?
What beliefs are we reinforcing over time?
Do our systems support the behaviours we say we value?
For HR professionals and business leaders, this reframing matters. Organisational culture is not something to “roll out”. It is continuously shaped.
It shows up in everyday leadership choices. Over time, those choices determine whether workplace culture becomes a source of alignment or friction. That’s why culture remains one of the most important responsibilities for leaders.
This write-up is distilled from a LinkedIn post by Norbert Mörtl, owner of Master International, a leading provider of cloud-based HR assessment tools. Read the original post here [1, 2].
To learn more about culture and how to make it actionable, reach out to us today.
