Culture Habits Will Normalize

by Pamela Coleman

November 2025

Building a world-class culture is tricky and requires a structured approach. A cultural action plan is a crucial strategic tool for leaders seeking cohesion. A wise plan provides guardrails while fostering boldness and individuality. So, how do leaders achieve this balance? 

Cultural systems will evolve and normalize to reflect the organization's core behavioral patterns. As a consultant, I worked with an organization that took pride in its cultural accomplishments. Cultural ideals were a key focus of every team meeting. While this is one way to keep the team mindful of culture, there was a problem. A popular employee was a busybody and gossip, drawing people across the organization into ongoing, harmful drama, which split the team and weakened its ability to function effectively. The CEO chose not to address this behavior, and it became a defining part of the organization’s operating code. 

Having a chatty group of employees might not seem too concerning. However, during the organization’s industry pivot, this behavior became widespread, leading to significant resistance to change and draining the VC seed money. 

Undesirable behaviors can crush leaders’ good intentions for their cultures. Many habits—such as back-channeling, poor listening, lack of accountability, murky messaging, executive infighting, favoritism, misrepresentation of numbers, lack of follow-through, low initiative, and others—can become normalized if left unchecked. When leaders develop a clear cultural plan using tools like the Cultural Coherence Model, they erect the framework for their culture to emerge. With a plan in place, misaligned habits can be readily identified and redirected because how to work and thrive in the environment is clear and consistent. Too often, simply defining core values falls short of providing a useful cultural framework.

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