5 Reasons Your Company Culture Is Confusing
Most leaders understand the importance of workplace culture, but many are frustrated by their inability to create a good culture. These leaders struggle to make meaningful change despite sincere efforts. Perhaps you’ve experienced this yourself—you've talked about values, maybe even posted them on the wall, yet somehow they haven't translated into the thriving culture you envisioned.
If this sounds familiar, you're not alone. Many organizations struggle with a disconnect between their cultural aspirations and daily reality. The issue often isn't a lack of good intentions but rather a lack of clarity.
Clarity is the foundation of effective culture building. Without it, even the most well-meaning cultural initiatives will falter. When team members receive mixed messages about what matters, they default to their own interpretations, creating inconsistency and confusion.
In this article, we'll examine the five primary reasons organizational cultures become confusing and provide practical tools to address each one. By tackling these clarity obstacles, you'll take your workplace culture from a vague concept and turn it into a tangible competitive advantage.
Reason #1: Unidentified/Undefined Culture
The most fundamental clarity problem occurs when an organization hasn't clearly defined what its culture actually is. This goes beyond having a mission statement or listing core values—it's about creating specific, actionable definitions that guide daily decision-making.
Signs Your Culture Is Undefined
Team members give significantly different answers when asked about your core values
Values are expressed in single words without clear definitions (e.g., "Excellence" or "Integrity")
There's a disconnect between stated values and what gets rewarded
Leaders inconsistently reference or apply cultural principles
Why Definition Matters
A clearly defined culture provides a decision-making framework that extends beyond any individual leader. When properly articulated, your cultural values become a filter through which team members can independently make aligned choices.
As one Culture Base client discovered, undefined values create a leadership bottleneck. Without clear cultural guidelines, team members constantly escalated decisions to leadership, creating inefficiency and frustration for everyone involved. After defining their cultural expectations with specific behaviors and examples, decision-making became more distributed and aligned.
Practical Step: The Two-Part Definition Test
For each of your core values, apply this two-part test:
Can each value be defined in a simple sentence? If not, it's too vague to guide behavior.
Can you provide three specific examples of this value in action? If examples don't come easily, the value likely isn't operationalized in your culture.
For example, rather than just "Integrity" as a value, define it: "We do what we say we'll do, even when it's difficult."
Then identify specific examples: "We admit mistakes quickly," "We honor commitments to customers even when costly," and "We give candid feedback directly, not behind people's backs."
#workplaceculture #companyculture #employeeretention #corevalues This week, Dustin & Blake are giving you 5 simple reasons your company's team culture is confusing.
Reason #2: Not Memorable
Even well-defined values fail to impact culture when they're too complex to remember. Cultural principles must be accessible in the moment of decision, not just during formal reviews or training sessions.
Signs Your Culture Isn't Memorable
Team members struggle to recall core values when asked
Values statements are long paragraphs rather than concise principles
You have more than 5-7 core values (exceeding cognitive capacity)
Values use corporate jargon instead of everyday language
Why Memorability Matters
Research on decision-making shows that people can only hold 5-7 concepts in working memory at once. When your cultural framework exceeds this cognitive limit, team members default to their personal value systems rather than organizational principles.
As noted in The Culture Base podcast, "Culture is defined by what you allow to happen." When values aren't memorable, leaders and team members alike struggle to recognize when behaviors violate cultural expectations, unknowingly allowing counterproductive practices to take root.
“Culture is defined by what you allow to happen.”
Practical Step: The Index Card Test
Apply this simple test to assess the memorability of your cultural framework:
Can your core values fit on a standard index card in readable font?
Could a new team member memorize them within their first week?
Do they use straightforward language that resonates across all levels of the organization?
If you answered "no" to any of these questions, your culture may be too complex to be effectively applied in daily decisions.
One manufacturing client reduced their ten paragraph-long value statements to five clear principles that fit on a pocket card. Within three months, survey results showed that value recognition among team members increased from 37% to 92%. More importantly, behavioral alignment improved significantly.
Reason #3: Not Branded
Humans are visual creatures. When your cultural values lack visual identity, they blend into the background noise of organizational life rather than standing out as guiding principles.
Signs Your Culture Isn't Branded
Values exist only as text in the employee handbook
There's no consistent visual system associated with cultural elements
Cultural communications lack distinctive design elements
Team members can't easily recognize cultural materials
Why Branding Matters
Visual identity creates both recognition and emotional connection. When your culture has distinctive visual elements, it becomes more accessible and more valued. This isn't about superficial design—it's about making culture tangible through visual reinforcement.
Consider how the most successful organizations create distinctive visual identities for their values. Companies like Zappos don't just list their values—they create distinctive iconography, colors, and design elements that reinforce cultural principles across all touchpoints.
Practical Step: The Visual Identity Assessment
Evaluate your culture's visual presence:
Does each core value have an associated visual element (icon, color, or symbol)?
Are these visual elements consistently used across different contexts?
Would team members recognize these visual elements as representing specific values?
Do your cultural materials have a distinctive look that differentiates them from regular operational communications?
Creating even simple visual identifiers for each value significantly increases recognition and application. One healthcare organization created icons for each of their five core values and incorporated them into recognition programs, performance discussions, and environmental graphics. Within six months, value-aligned behaviors increased by 41% according to their culture assessment.
Reason #4: Not Attractive
Your culture must be a place where people actively want to be. When cultural initiatives feel like corporate mandates rather than inspiring principles, they generate compliance at best, resistance at worst.
Signs Your Culture Isn't Attractive
Cultural discussions feel like obligations rather than opportunities
Team members view values as restrictions rather than enablers
Cultural language has a negative or constraining tone
Values don't connect to what actually motivates your team
Why Attractiveness Matters
People move toward what attracts them and away from what repels them. If your culture feels like a burden—a set of rules to follow—rather than an inspiring vision, team members will engage only at the minimum required level.
The most effective cultures create a sense of aspiration and belonging. They tap into intrinsic motivation by connecting organizational values to meaningful purpose and personal growth.
Practical Step: The Aspiration Audit
For each core value or cultural element, ask:
Does this value inspire rather than just constrain?
Is it framed as an opportunity rather than an obligation?
Does it connect to meaningful impact beyond compliance?
Would someone be proud to be associated with this principle?
One technology company transformed their "Customer First" value from a mandatory service standard to an inspiring principle by reframing it as "We create customer heroes"—focusing on how their work enables customer success stories. This simple shift increased both customer satisfaction scores and employee engagement with the value.
Reason #5: Not Used for Measurement
The most clearly defined, memorable, branded, and attractive culture will still fail if it isn't consistently used as a measurement framework. What gets measured gets managed—and what gets rewarded gets repeated.
Signs Your Culture Isn't Measured
Performance reviews focus exclusively on outcomes, not cultural alignment
Recognition programs aren't explicitly tied to specific values
Hiring decisions prioritize skills over cultural fit
Promotions go to people who achieve results regardless of how they achieve them
Why Measurement Matters
When you fail to measure cultural alignment, you send a powerful implicit message: these values are nice aspirations, but they don't really matter when it counts. This creates cynicism and undermines all other cultural efforts.
Effective cultures establish clear metrics and consequences—both positive and negative—tied to cultural alignment. This doesn't mean subjective evaluation; it means creating observable, measurable standards for how values manifest in behavior.
Practical Step: The Measurement Integration Checklist
Evaluate how your culture integrates with key organizational systems:
Are specific cultural values explicitly referenced in performance reviews?
Do recognition programs require citing specific value-aligned behaviors?
Does your hiring process include a structured assessment of cultural alignment?
Are promotion decisions influenced by cultural fit as well as performance?
Do you regularly collect and analyze data on cultural alignment?
One education company started doing a quarterly "Values in Action" survey where team members could nominate colleagues who exemplified a specific core value. With the nomination, they had to provide a concrete example. These nominations became part of quarterly awards. They also were mentioned in performance reviews and became influential in compensation decisions. Within a year, they saw dramatic improvements in both cultural alignment and employee satisfaction metrics.
Creating Cultural Clarity: A Five-Step Framework
Now that you understand the five reasons cultures become confusing, here's a practical framework for creating clarity. Start with just one core value and apply this process before moving to others.
Step 1: Define with Specificity
Transform vague values into specific, actionable principles:
Write a one-sentence definition that anyone could understand
Identify 3-5 observable behaviors that demonstrate this value
Create contrast by noting what this value is NOT (e.g., "Respect means X, not Y")
Step 2: Simplify for Memory
Make your cultural elements cognitively accessible:
Reduce to essential words and phrases
Eliminate jargon and corporate speak
Create memorable associations or acronyms if helpful
Test recall with team members at different levels
Step 3: Develop Visual Identity
Create distinctive visual elements for your culture:
Design a simple icon or symbol for each value
Establish consistent colors associated with cultural elements
Create templates for cultural communications
Incorporate these visuals into the physical environment
Step 4: Connect to Meaning
Make your culture intrinsically motivating:
Articulate why each value matters to individuals, not just the organization
Share stories that illustrate the positive impact of the value
Frame values as aspirations that enable greater purpose
Connect values to what your team already cares about
Step 5: Embed in Measurement
Integrate cultural alignment into key systems:
Add specific value-based criteria to performance reviews
Create recognition programs tied directly to values
Incorporate cultural assessment into hiring processes
Regularly measure and report on cultural alignment
The Culture Clarity Assessment
To quickly evaluate your organization's cultural clarity, answer the following questions for each of your core values:
Definition Clarity: Can all team members give a consistent, specific definition of this value?
Memory Check: Can team members recall this value without prompting?
Visual Recognition: Is there a distinctive visual identity associated with this value?
Motivation / Meaning Factor: Do team members find this value personally meaningful and inspiring?
Measurement Integration: Is alignment with this value formally measured and rewarded?
Rate each dimension on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the highest clarity. Areas scoring below 3 require immediate attention to improve cultural clarity.
Moving Forward: One Value at a Time
Cultural clarity isn't achieved through sweeping initiatives but through focused attention on one value at a time. Select the value most critical to your current business challenges and apply the five-step framework.
Once that value achieves clarity across all five dimensions, move to the next most important value. This focused approach prevents overwhelm and allows for deeper integration than trying to clarify everything simultaneously.
Remember, as noted in The Culture Base podcast, "Culture is defined by what you allow to happen." Creating clarity ensures that what happens in your organization is what you intend, not what occurs by default.
Ready to bring clarity to your company culture? Start by selecting one core value to clarify using the five-step framework provided.
Need help improving your company culture? Schedule a call with us at The Culture Base.
Or, enter your information below and grab your free copy of The Scalability Playbook: Proven Methods for Building High-Performance Teams.
