Culture Insights minus the bullshit

Culture is one of those words leaders use constantly—and define rarely. It can mean values, behavior, performance standards, leadership style, psychological safety, collaboration, decision-making, or “how things really get done around here.” When culture stays vague, measurement becomes vague too. And vague measurement creates two predictable outcomes: either a nice-looking report with no next steps, or an action plan that feels disconnected from everyday work.

A strong culture survey doesn’t try to capture “everything.” It turns culture into a clear set of observable experiences that leaders can influence, teams can discuss without defensiveness, and organizations can improve over time. In this article, you’ll learn how to design a culture survey that is specific enough to be actionable, structured enough to create trend data, and simple enough that employees actually want to participate.

Why culture is hard to measure (and why that’s exactly why you should)

Culture is both visible and invisible. You can see parts of it in behaviors, rituals, meeting norms, and decision-making. But you also feel it in the unwritten rules: what’s safe to say, how conflict is handled, how workload is managed, whether leaders keep promises, and whether values show up when trade-offs appear.

Edgar Schein’s classic model is useful here: culture exists in layers—what you can see (artifacts and behaviors), what people say they believe (espoused values), and the deeper assumptions that shape decisions under pressure. If your measurement only captures the “poster values,” you’ll miss the daily reality. If your measurement only captures feelings without context, leaders won’t know what to change.

The goal is not to produce a perfect definition of culture. The goal is to reduce ambiguity enough that your organization can learn: what’s working, what’s drifting, and what to improve next.

What a culture survey is (and what it isn’t)

A culture survey is a structured way to measure employee experiences and perceptions across the cultural dimensions that matter most to your organization. It helps answer questions like:

Do people feel safe to speak up?
Is workload sustainable?
Do teams trust each other and collaborate?
Is leadership consistent and credible?
Do people understand how their work connects to purpose?

A culture survey is not:

A replacement for leadership conversations and team dialogue
A one-time diagnostic that “solves culture”
A generic list of trendy questions copied from the internet
A branding exercise to confirm what leaders already believe

When it works, a culture survey becomes a measurement system: a consistent structure for turning experience into insight—and insight into action.

The biggest reason culture surveys fail: they measure “values,” not lived experience

Harvard Business Review has pointed out a core problem with many traditional culture measurement approaches: surveys can capture what people say they value, but that doesn’t always match what they do or what the organization rewards. This matters because culture isn’t what your organization claims—it’s what gets repeated, tolerated, and promoted.

So instead of asking only broad questions like “Do you like the culture?”, high-performing surveys measure tangible experiences:

clarity of expectations
psychological safety in meetings
trust in leadership decisions
workload sustainability
fairness and inclusion in day-to-day interactions

This shift—away from “vibe checks” and toward concrete experiences—is the simplest way to stop culture measurement from becoming vague.

A practical definition: culture as patterns of behavior, not slogans

If you want a usable definition for measurement, try this:

Culture is the set of shared behaviors, norms, and assumptions that shape how work gets done—especially under pressure.

That one sentence gives you a test for every survey topic:

Can leaders influence it through decisions, norms, and systems?
Can employees answer based on lived experience (not speculation)?
Would improvement show up in daily work (not just in sentiment)?

If the answer is yes, it’s measurable. If not, it’s likely too abstract.

Measuring company culture starts with a model (or you’ll end up with a random question list)

Many organizations jump straight to writing questions. That’s like building a dashboard without deciding what the business is trying to optimize.

A culture survey should be anchored in a measurement model: a small set of dimensions that define “culture” for your organization and allow consistent tracking. Without a model, you’ll collect feedback that is hard to compare over time, hard to explain to leaders, and hard to convert into action.

There are several well-known approaches in the research and consulting world. For example:

The Denison model measures culture through traits like mission, adaptability, involvement, and consistency.
The Competing Values Framework (and its OCAI instrument) maps culture types (e.g., clan, adhocracy, market, hierarchy) across key dimensions.
HBR’s work on corporate culture offers ways to classify and discuss culture patterns at a high level.

These frameworks differ, but they share a message: culture becomes measurable when you break it into a structured set of dimensions.

A modern, action-oriented model: 10 dimensions that make culture specific

A common challenge in measuring company culture is balancing breadth with actionability. Too few dimensions and everything becomes “engagement.” Too many and leaders stop paying attention.

A practical approach is to define a small number of stable dimensions that represent the culture you want to build and maintain. One example is a 10-dimension model that captures wellbeing, trust, belonging, purpose, and the work environment—each tied to experiences leaders can influence.

Culture dimensions (used to calculate an overall Culture Score)

Wellbeing

Stress Management & Workload
Physical Health

Trust & Safety

Psychological Safety
Team Dynamics & Trust
Management

Belonging & Inclusion

Social Community
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI)

Purpose & Growth

Motivation & Personal Growth
Organizational Purpose & Alignment

Work Environment

Physical Work Environment

This structure solves vagueness in a very practical way: leaders don’t need to “fix culture.” They can improve specific drivers—like psychological safety, workload sustainability, or clarity of purpose—and track whether change is happening.

Subscores that leaders actually use (without changing the core culture measurement)

If you only show an overall score, leaders will ask, “What should I do next?” If you show 40 separate metrics, leaders will ask, “Which of these matters?”

This is where subscores help: a small set of “theme views” that provide depth without creating measurement chaos. For example:

Leadership Score: Psychological Safety, Team Dynamics & Trust, Management
Wellbeing Score: Stress Management & Workload, Physical Health
Belonging Score: Social Community, DEI
Purpose Score: Motivation & Personal Growth, Organizational Purpose & Alignment
Engagement Score: Motivation & Personal Growth and Social Community (optionally enriched by participation signals)

The point of subscores is not complexity. It’s decision support. They help leaders see patterns, prioritize action, and communicate clearly.

What a culture survey should measure (and what it should avoid)

To keep your culture survey actionable, measure what employees experience frequently—and what leaders can realistically change.

Strong measurement topics

clarity and priorities
workload sustainability
safety to speak up
trust in leadership decisions
collaboration across teams
fairness and inclusion in daily work
growth and development support
connection to purpose and impact
physical and psychological work environment

Topics to be careful with

personality-based judgments (“Leadership is inspiring” without context)
speculative questions (“The company will succeed long term”)
overly abstract prompts (“Our culture is excellent”)

A good rule: if employees need to guess what you mean, rewrite the question or drop it.

Survey design choices that determine whether you get signal or noise

Even the best measurement model can be ruined by poor survey mechanics. These design choices are where culture surveys often go wrong—and where small improvements create big gains.

1) Decide your purpose before you write questions

Culture surveys usually have one of three purposes:

Diagnostic: understand the current culture and key gaps
Tracking: monitor whether culture is improving over time
Change support: measure culture during transformation or growth

Your purpose determines everything: question selection, cadence, segmentation, and how you communicate results.

2) Keep the survey short enough to respect attention

Culture is important—but attention is limited. If employees associate culture surveys with time-consuming forms, participation falls and feedback quality drops.

Most organizations do best with a short core survey and a rotating module. This keeps measurement consistent while allowing you to explore themes without expanding the survey endlessly.

3) Use “core + rotate” to balance trend tracking and relevance

A simple structure that works across industries:

Core items (stable): the few dimensions you always track
Rotating theme items: a small set aligned to current priorities
One open-text prompt: optional, action-oriented, and easy to answer

This approach prevents measurement drift and protects trust.

4) Choose scales and wording that reduce bias

A culture survey should be easy to answer quickly and honestly. That usually means:

consistent response scales across sections
simple statements that refer to lived experience
avoiding double-barreled questions (two ideas in one)
avoiding emotionally loaded language that pushes people toward agreement

Your goal is not to “get a high score.” Your goal is to get a reliable signal.

Anonymity, trust, and participation: the invisible foundation

Culture surveys are built on trust. If employees doubt anonymity or fear consequences, they either won’t participate or they’ll respond strategically. Either way, your data becomes unreliable.

High-trust programs do three things consistently:

They set clear anonymity thresholds (results only shown when group size is large enough).
They communicate privacy rules clearly and repeatedly.
Leaders behave well after results—no blaming, no witch-hunting, no “I know who wrote that comment.”

This is also where tools matter. Manual survey setups often fail because segmentation and anonymity rules become hard to manage consistently as the organization grows.

How to interpret results without overreacting

A culture survey is not a “grade.” It’s a measurement tool. Interpreting culture data well requires restraint and context.

Focus on trends, not snapshots

Culture is dynamic. One survey round can reflect a product launch, a reorganization, or a seasonal workload spike. Trend data is what tells you whether the organization is drifting or improving.

Look at distribution, not just averages

An average can hide polarization. Two teams can have the same average score while one is aligned and the other is split. Polarization is often where culture problems live: inconsistent manager practices, unequal workloads, or unfair experiences across groups.

Compare responsibly

Benchmarking can be useful, but it can also create unhealthy competition or false confidence. A stronger approach is internal comparison over time: are teams improving after actions? Are gaps narrowing? Are specific dimensions stabilizing?

Pair quantitative scores with qualitative context

Open-text comments and follow-up conversations provide meaning. But don’t treat comments as a second survey. Keep prompts minimal, focus on actionability, and avoid turning every round into a long story-collection exercise.

Beyond surveys: triangulate culture with behavior and systems

One of the most important insights in modern culture measurement is that surveys alone have limitations. HBR has emphasized that culture is continuously evolving and that self-reports can be unreliable in isolation.

The best programs triangulate:

survey signals (perceptions and experiences)
operational indicators (turnover patterns, absence trends, internal mobility)
behavioral evidence (how decisions are made, how meetings run, how conflict is handled)
qualitative inputs (focus groups, interviews, listening sessions)

This isn’t about collecting more data. It’s about increasing confidence. When multiple signals point in the same direction, leaders act faster—and with less debate.

Turning culture insights into action: the loop that makes measurement worth it

A culture survey without follow-through is worse than no survey. It raises expectations and then disappoints.

A reliable system is an operating rhythm—simple enough that leaders can repeat it, strong enough that employees notice outcomes.

A practical 30–60–90 action rhythm

0–30 days: share results quickly, team discussions, choose 1–2 priorities
30–60 days: implement micro-actions that employees can feel
60–90 days: re-measure core signals, evaluate impact, adjust

This rhythm works because it’s realistic. Most teams can’t change five things at once, but they can improve one or two. Over time, small actions compound into visible culture change.

What “micro-actions” look like in real life

Culture change is often less about new programs and more about removing friction:

Workload: clearer priorities, fewer meetings, better handoffs
Safety: meeting norms that invite dissent and reduce blame
Trust: clearer decision rights, transparent trade-offs
Belonging: fair access to visibility, onboarding consistency, inclusive meeting practices
Purpose: better context from leadership, clearer impact stories, alignment on “why”

Micro-actions succeed because they show employees that feedback becomes improvement—not just discussion.

Manager enablement: where culture surveys live or die

Managers are culture carriers. If they don’t know how to discuss results, surveys create defensiveness instead of progress.

Give managers a simple structure:

What did we learn?
What feels most true?
What’s one thing we can improve next?
What will we do in the next two weeks?
How will we know it helped?

The goal isn’t a perfect conversation. It’s a consistent one. Consistency creates psychological safety and builds trust in the measurement process.

Common pitfalls (and how to avoid them)

Pitfall 1: Measuring too much, too often

Fix: keep a stable core, rotate a small module, respect attention.

Pitfall 2: Asking vague questions

Fix: measure specific experiences tied to clear dimensions.

Pitfall 3: Publishing results without context

Fix: coach leaders and managers on interpretation and communication.

Pitfall 4: Taking action on everything

Fix: choose 1–2 priorities per team; focus beats breadth.

Pitfall 5: Treating culture as HR’s job

Fix: define ownership—HR enables, leaders sponsor, managers act.

Pitfall 6: Using surveys to “prove” leadership is right

Fix: measure to learn, not to validate. Curiosity beats control.

A practical launch plan (without turning it into a six-month project)

If you want a culture survey that avoids vagueness and drives action, here’s a realistic sequence:

Step 1: Align on the model

Choose your culture dimensions and define what “good” means in plain language. This is where measuring company culture becomes operational instead of philosophical.

Step 2: Select your core items

Pick a small set that covers the fundamentals you want to track across teams. Commit to keeping them stable for several cycles.

Step 3: Decide cadence and governance

Choose how often you’ll run the survey and who owns which parts: privacy, reporting, team discussions, action tracking, and organization-wide communication.

Step 4: Enable managers before launch

Train managers on interpreting results and leading constructive conversations. This reduces defensiveness and increases action quality.

Step 5: Communicate “why” and “what happens next”

Tell employees what will happen after the survey. Then do it—fast. Nothing builds trust like speed and follow-through.

Why a structured platform approach outperforms DIY measurement

Many organizations start with generic tools or spreadsheets. That can work early, but it breaks down as soon as you need consistent segmentation, anonymity thresholds, trend tracking across dimensions, and action follow-through across leaders.

A structured platform approach helps you:

keep measurement consistent over time
connect results to clear culture dimensions
provide leader-ready insights and subscores
protect anonymity without manual complexity
turn results into action plans and track progress

This is also how you avoid the “vague culture survey” trap. The platform forces clarity: a model, a structure, and a rhythm—so culture measurement becomes a repeatable system rather than a yearly event.

Conclusion: make culture measurable by making it specific

Culture becomes measurable when you stop treating it as a single, abstract concept and start treating it as a set of experiences that leaders can influence. A well-designed culture survey creates clarity, trend data, and a practical path to improvement.

If you want measuring company culture to lead to real change, focus on three principles:

Measure specific dimensions, not broad vibes
Build a repeatable rhythm (measure → act → re-measure)
Protect trust through anonymity, communication, and follow-through

Do that, and your culture survey won’t just describe your culture—it will help you build it.

References

Cameron, K. S., & Quinn, R. E. (n.d.). Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework (Chapter excerpt / OCAI overview). University of Michigan. https://webuser.bus.umich.edu/cameronk/PDFs/Organizational Culture/CULTURE BOOK-CHAPTER 1.pdf webuser.bus.umich.edu

Denison Consulting. (2019). Introduction to the Denison Model. https://denisonconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/introduction-to-the-denison-model.pdf Denison Consulting

Groysberg, B., Lee, J., Price, J., & Cheng, J. Y. J. (2018). The leader’s guide to corporate culture. Harvard Business Review. https://egn.com/dk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2020/01/HBR-The-Leaders-guide-to-Corporate-Culture.pdf EGN - Executives' Global Network

Katzenbach, J., Steffen, I., & Kronley, C. (2020). The new analytics of culture. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2020/01/the-new-analytics-of-culture hbr.org

OECD. (2025). OECD guidelines on measuring the quality of the working environment. https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/publications/reports/2017/11/oecd-guidelines-on-measuring-the-quality-of-the-working-environment_g1g7ca23/9789264278240-en.pdf OECD

Schein, E. H. (n.d.). Schein’s organizational culture model (artifacts, espoused values, underlying assumptions). https://thinkinsights.net/consulting/scheins-organizational-culture-model thinkinsights.net