When Culture and Climate Clash: The Impact of Misalignment

Now that we’ve discussed organizational culture and climate, it’s time to tackle a crucial issue: what happens when they’re not aligned? Misalignment between culture and climate can have wide-reaching effects, from decreased morale to disengagement to turnover. In this series’s third and final part, we’ll explore the signs of misalignment and discuss actionable strategies to help you bridge the gap. Let’s jump in.?

When Culture and Climate are Misaligned

When cultural values are not upheld, such as saying one thing and doing the opposite, it’s understandable that accountability begins to fall apart. This is particularly problematic if your rewards formally align with values and your incentive system backs this. Yet, the people and systems that get those rewards don’t actually live those values.

You can see the consequences and early warning signs of misalignment with values through pulse surveys, engagement results, and exit interviews. This indicates that the organizational climate does not align with what you’ve espoused you desire in your culture.?

Here are three examples. These are specific situations related to why my Flip Side of Failing keynote or half-day workshop has been a top request in fall 2024 and into 2025 to bring climate more in alignment with espoused culture.?

Scenario 1: Innovation Is Tough

Many organizations have innovation as a core value or use it to describe one, such as values of “Adaptive” or “Resilient.” If leaders encourage risk-taking and creativity and celebrate failures, people will be more likely to embrace innovation, try untested but interesting solutions, and think outside the box. However, suppose employees feel punished for making mistakes, criticized for not following policy, told they’re the “squeaky wheel,” or micromanaged. In that case, they will be hesitant to try new things, weakening the cultural value of innovation.?

Someone might join an organization or team because they value innovation and want to be part of the solution. If that is what they sign on for, but that’s not what they get to be a part of, they may go elsewhere to find somewhere where their personal values align with the organizational values. The climate might catch up to the espoused values in a few years, but many won’t wait that long.

The bottom line is this:

When employees sense dissonance—where the stated ideals fail to match their lived experience—they may lose trust in the organization

When dissonance happens, individuals might disengage. Or leave altogether.??

Scenario 2: Change Feels Uncomfortable

Let’s say an organization is truly leaning into failing forward, taking calculated risks, making small tests of change, and adopting a continuous improvement approach. In other words, they work daily to become more comfortable and proficient at innovation. However, not everyone feels comfortable in that new climate. The climate might be moving faster than folks can adapt, and they’re hanging onto “the way we’ve always done it” and believe there’s no reason to mess with what works.

It’s not that people are necessarily roadblocks or resisters. Maybe they’re hesitant. Should they be shown the door? If behaviour isn’t toxic, then this is a sign the climate is moving faster than folks are ready, so we need to gauge the context and figure out how to keep moving forward while bringing people with the new culture transformation.

The last thing we want is for people to feel ostracized. Given that culture takes seven to 10 years to shift, there’s no reason we can’t be moving the needle in a way where we’re constantly curious to do innovation with not to people. Folks who fit nicely into a culture may need some time and support to shift. The shift that needs to happen is nonnegotiable; how, where, when and with what support is worth ongoing meaningful discussion.?

The bottom line is this:

When people feel pressured to change before understanding why or how, they may disengage to manage the strain or uncertainty.

Before assuming someone is resisting, consider what they need and what their resistance may be signalling about climate readiness.

Scenario 3: Performance Is Redefined

When you’re used to winning, succeeding, and accomplishing, sometimes through sheer grit and perseverance, facing failure as a goal can seem like someone has totally rewritten the rules of work. Everyone can agree that we need to innovate to survive and thrive in changing times; however, human behaviour doesn’t always make sense. If it did, we’d have no reason to keep the word “hypocritical” in the dictionary. People aren’t trying to be hypocrites; sometimes, it’s hard to see the label inside the jar.

When we say we’re about innovation, we put it into our organizational values because the work climate and pace of change demands we must, and you know that you have an incredible bench strength of top performers to rise to the challenge. Don’t forget that those high performers are used to winning games.

Measuring progress and celebrating small wins makes it easier for high performers to be less discouraged and see that progress is the win rather than the goals, milestones, or projects. The recipe for burnout, risk aversion and inner critics gone wild is when there’s no transparent conversation about the journey that high-achieving folks will go on together in rapidly changing times.?

The bottom line is this:

Climate shifts can feel a lot like ‘failing’ to high performers.

Help your best people write a permission slip for the inevitable obstacles ahead. We know intellectually that innovation requires getting outside of our comfort zone; however, how many of us crave discomfort? Let alone wanting to live in it as a day-to-day reality of our professional life.

Is Change Hard?

Change isn’t hard. Unmanaged change is hard.

A lack of empathy or a desire to understand why change is hard makes it even harder.

There are many reasons why failure might be tough to embrace, and therefore, innovation can fall on the values scrap heap. Knowing where and why there are climate indicators of resistance to organization values that make perfect sense can help you keep moving forward in your culture transformation.?

It’s one thing to know we need to innovate, and unless your organization is full of robots, appreciating the experience of living in a time (personally, academically, professionally) of massive change can give us some context for why knowing and pushing innovation through aren’t always in alignment. We need cultural anchoring for innovation.?

Bridging the Gap

To create cohesion between culture and climate, it’s essential to ensure that behaviours mirror values and that the climate reflects the culture the organization aspires to uphold. Having conversations, connecting with employees, and asking for feedback will give you insight into the current state of the climate, allow you to identify any gaps, and create actionable steps to close them.

By addressing discrepancies and fostering alignment, organizations can create environments where employees and leaders feel valued, empowered, and motivated to contribute to the organization’s evolving success.

Is failure resistance negatively impacting your climate? Can we help you build cultural resilience in your organization? Reach out anytime at [email protected].

We are all about creating an aligned organizational culture and climate. Check out the first two articles of this series to get the whole picture:

• The Essence of Organizational Culture: Unpacking Its True Meaning
• Organizational Climate vs Culture: How Misunderstanding the Difference Costs You People and Opportunities

Disclaimer/Humble Brag Moment: 100% of this content was human-generated (by us folks here at Greatness Magnified). We are committed to authorship integrity and will inform you what percent, if any, is AI-generated.