This morning I noticed how often the word *culture* gets used to excuse things leaders don’t want to examine. I heard someone describe their company as having a “strong culture,” and in the same breath complain that people weren’t loyal, didn’t stay late, and didn’t push through hard periods the way they used to. What they really meant was something else: > “We normalized stress, ambiguity, and dependency — and expected gratitude in return.” That isn’t culture. That’s pressure with branding. --- ## Culture Isn’t What You Endure Real culture doesn’t show up when things are easy. It shows up in how an organization behaves when something breaks. Healthy cultures don’t rely on: - Guilt - Heroics - Silent endurance - Unspoken expectations They rely on: - Clarity - Redundancy - Explicit ownership - Respect for human limits If your culture only works when people sacrifice themselves quietly, it’s not strong. It’s fragile. --- ## The Loyalty Misunderstanding A lot of leaders talk about loyalty as if it’s a personality trait employees are born with or without. But loyalty isn’t demanded. It’s *produced*. People are loyal to systems that: - Make sense - Don’t trap them - Don’t punish honesty - Don’t confuse urgency with importance When loyalty disappears, it’s rarely because people suddenly became selfish. It’s because they stopped absorbing unmanaged risk on the company’s behalf. --- ## When Professionalism Becomes a Moral Weapon Listen closely when leaders complain about: - “This generation” - “Work ethic” - “Professionalism” - “People not caring anymore” Those phrases often appear right after something else went unaddressed: - Chronic understaffing - Unclear roles - Competing priorities - Emotional pressure without authority Instead of fixing the system, it’s easier to moralize the behavior. Calling something a character flaw is far more comfortable than admitting a design flaw. --- ## Pressure Is Not Proof of Commitment One of the most dangerous beliefs in organizations is this: > “If people cared, they’d push through.” But pushing through is not a signal of commitment. It’s a signal that someone feels trapped. Cultures that depend on pushing through eventually train their best people to leave — quietly at first, then abruptly. Not because they lack resilience. Because they understand risk. --- ## The Risk Beneath the Culture Talk When culture conversations get vague, what’s usually hiding underneath is unpriced risk. Risk that was: - Shifted onto individuals - Normalized over time - Disguised as dedication - Defended as “just how it is here” And when people finally opt out of carrying that risk, leadership often experiences it as betrayal. From a systems perspective, it’s something else entirely. It’s a fault line becoming visible. --- ## A Different Definition of Culture A healthy culture doesn’t require people to prove themselves through suffering. It proves itself by design. By how well the system: - Absorbs shocks - Handles exits - Redistributes work - Survives change without panic If your culture collapses the moment someone says “no,” leaves abruptly, or sets a boundary, that wasn’t culture. That was compliance. --- ## Still Sitting With This I keep coming back to this thought: Bad culture isn’t loud or obvious. It often looks like normal work — until people stop agreeing to it. And when that happens, the problem isn’t that people changed. It’s that the system was never as strong as it claimed to be.