We’ve all seen the “Culture Launch”: the motivational videos, the new office posters, and the CEO email about “living our purpose.” Yet, within months, the slogans usually join the graveyard of forgotten corporate initiatives.
The reason is simple: Culture isn’t a campaign; it’s a consequence.
Many organisations treat culture like marketing, a brand to be managed. But culture doesn’t live in a PowerPoint deck. It lives in the micro-moments: who gets promoted, who gets interrupted in meetings, and how leadership reacts when a deadline clashes with a core value.
I saw the power of “lived” values early in my career at American Express. Their “Blue Box Values” weren’t complex, but they were inescapable. Every activity was filtered through them. It wasn’t a “program”, it was the air we breathed.
The real test of culture is what happens when it’s inconvenient. If you say you “prioritise people” but cut development the moment revenue dips, your “culture” is just choreography.
To build a culture that sticks, stop focusing on buzzwords and start defining behaviours. Reward the people who uphold your principles, even when it’s hard. Because at the end of the day, people don’t resist culture, they resist hypocrisy.
For more insights on aligning leadership behaviour with company values, visit Vani Malik Consulting.
