Leap Towards a Stronger Workplace Culture

Seems like we’re always talking about workplace culture.

It’s one of those topics that feels everywhere and nowhere all at once. Leaders say it’s important. Teams feel it every day. But when things aren’t working—when trust is low, engagement is down, or collaboration feels clunky—culture often gets blamed without a clear plan for fixing it.

And here’s the hard (and somewhat obvious) part: workplace culture isn’t built in a day. It’s built in the tiny moments—the way feedback is given, the manner in which meetings are run, how people are made to feel valued (or undervalued). It’s less about a single grand initiative and more about the small, consistent actions that shape how work feels.

The Challenge: Culture Is Slipping

Right now, workplace culture is in trouble. Gallup’s latest research paints a sobering picture:

• Employee engagement is at an 11-year low.
• Employee satisfaction is at an all-time low.
• Quit rates haven’t increased, meaning unhappy employees are staying put—but are disengaged.

This isn’t just an HR issue—it’s a business issue. Disengaged employees don’t just lower morale; they impact performance, retention, and innovation.

The Leap Approach: Small Experiments, Big Change

At Experience Institute, we believe in Leaps—small, intentional experiments designed to drive change. Instead of trying to overhaul culture all at once, we help individuals identify one focused challenge and design a low-risk, high-learning experiment to address it.

This was the premise of our recent open workshop, Leaps to Level Up Your Culture. We guided participants through our four-step process:

1. Empathize – Understand the real cultural challenges at play.
2. Define the Challenge – Identify one specific shift that would make a meaningful difference.
3. Leapstorm – Brainstorm small, testable experiments (Leaps!) to try.
4. Make a Plan – Choose one Leap, take action, and measure its impact.

During the workshop, participants tackled challenges like fostering more trust between employees and leadership, increasing recognition, and making leadership principles more visible in daily work.

Here’s a great example of a Leap in action:

Challenge: One leader wanted to create a culture of ownership within their team, but their organization was used to a top-down management style.

Their Leap: By Feb 15, they committed to launching a “mentorship minute” video series featuring respected leaders sharing how they embrace ownership in their work. The goal? Expose employees to real examples of proactive leadership and shift mindsets from passive execution to active contribution.

This may sound small, but that’s the point. Tiny, intentional shifts create the momentum that leads to bigger culture change. Here's a case study that illustrates what I mean.

Culture Change in Action: An Experience Institute Shift?

By: Amelia Rosenman, EDirector of Programs

Before I decide to take a job, I look for indicators of a culture I’d like to join. For me, there are certain characteristics that I prioritize:

1. High trust & transparency
2. Autonomy coupled with resources
3. Caring about each other as humans
4. Frequent & productive feedback conversations

When I got to Experience Institute, those first three were abundant, but I noticed there wasn’t a frequent practice of productive 2-way feedback. So, I took a few Leaps to level up our feedback culture by:

• Re-structuring team 1:1s to always start with 2-way feedback
• Creating a positive feedback Slack channel and offering weekly prompts to get the team actively engaged in giving each other specific positive feedback
• Revamping our Growing From Feedback Workshop and leading it internally to give us some shared language and practices around giving and getting feedback

The result? We have a much more robust feedback culture now; in fact, frequent feedback conversations have become the norm. Because no one is simmering on unspoken feedback for weeks on end, we’re able to resolve issues quickly and build on what’s working well.

Your Turn: Take a Leap

Culture doesn’t change overnight, but it does change through action. If you’re feeling stuck, start small. What’s one small shift you could try in the next month?

Grab a partner and Download our Field Guide to repeat the process or, if you’d rather work solo, check out 15 Minutes to Impact Workplace Culture because a thriving culture might just start with your one, small experiment.

Keep Leaping & Happy Wednesday,

Erin & the Ei Team?