7 Ways to Improve Company Culture (That Actually Work)

Why 'Culture Fit' Interviews Are Killing Your Company Culture

I once watched a founder reject a brilliant product manager because 'she asked too many questions.' That was a classic culture fit rejection: she is not like us. But what made her not like them was exactly what the team needed. When you hire for fit, you're building a mirror, not a team. Culture add, on the other hand, asks what this person can bring that you don't already have.

To switch from fit to add, change your interview scorecard. Instead of asking 'Will they get along with the team?', ask 'What will disagree with our default thinking?' Look for curiosity over comfort. I worked with a client who replaced their final round with a 'challenge the chart' exercise: the candidate has to find a flaw in your process and pitch a fix. The results? They hired two people who would have been rejected before, and their product quality went up.

What Is Toxic Friction and How Does It Affect Company Culture?

Toxic friction is the small, daily waste that makes people hate their jobs. It's the expense system that needs three approvals. It's the meeting that could've been an email but instead eats an hour every Tuesday. Most of the time, we blame culture for what is actually a process problem.

What Actually Counts as Toxic Friction?

Any policy or process that doesn't serve a clear purpose is toxic. For example, a leave request form that needs three signatures, or a weekly status meeting with 20 people where only five talk. If you ask people what they'd remove, they'll point at these things instantly.

Here's a test: ask your team, 'What's the one thing you'd remove if you could?' Ten times out of ten, someone mentions a policy, an approval step, or a ritual that used to serve a purpose but now only serves bureaucracy. I worked with a 40-person agency where the CEO wanted to boost morale. We found that reimbursements took six weeks and three signatures. We cut it down to one signature and paid within 48 hours. That single change had more impact than any pizza party.

So, how do you find the friction? Start a 'cut the red tape' thread and commit to fixing one friction point per week. You'll be surprised how quickly mood improves.

How to Design Cross-Team Communication for a Better Workplace Culture

When engineers say they don't know what sales promised, that's not a communication style problem. It's a visibility problem. People need to see decisions, not just be told about them.

I helped a remote startup fix this in a week. They created a public Slack channel called #decisions. Every significant decision had to be posted there with a rationale: 'We're changing the onboarding flow because...'. No exceptions. Within two weeks, the blame game stopped because everyone could scroll back and see why things were the way they were.

If your team is in person, apply the same logic to physical space. Is the sales team on a different floor? Have you actually listened to how people talk to each other? Sometimes the fix is as simple as moving a whiteboard to a common area, or scheduling a 'silent co-working' session where people can overhear how other teams work.

The takeaway: communication is a design challenge, not a personality test.

How Do You Make Performance Reviews Improve Company Culture?

Traditional annual reviews are backward-looking, they highlight failures, and they reinforce a power structure that invites defensiveness. Gallup research has been pointing this out for years. Instead, I use what I call 'direction talks.'

Every quarter, a manager and employee sit down for 30 minutes and answer two questions: 'What do you want to be doing this time next year?' and 'What's the smallest step to get there?' The manager's job is to connect that step to a current project. No ratings, no labels.

Try a 'Direction Talk' Instead

I tested this with a 120-person company that was losing mid-level managers. The first quarter, people were nervous. They kept asking, 'But how do I know if I'm succeeding?' That was the clue that they had been conditioned to think in terms of grades. By the second quarter, the mood shifted. People brought ideas to the table instead of waiting for a verdict.

If you're stuck with annual reviews, at least add one forward-looking question: 'What would make this next quarter count?' You'll notice a difference in tone.

Why Your Company Culture Needs a 'Speak Up' Deadline

Every offsite talks about psychological safety, then everyone goes back to the same silence. Safety is not a state, it's a deadline. You have to create an artificial deadline to force the first risky conversation.

For example, announce that for the next 30 days, anyone who raises a flaw in a plan will get $100 if the flaw is real. Or, in every meeting, have the leader stay silent for the last five minutes and ask the most junior person to challenge one assumption.

I did this with a client, and we discovered a bug that would have cost them six figures in a product launch. The CEO was uncomfortable, but the shock of hearing 'I think we're wrong' from a junior engineer was exactly what the culture needed. The deadline made it safe because it made it expected.

Use 'Culture Shock' Moments to Turbocharge Culture Change

Culture change is hardest when everyone is comfortable. So don't waste the moments when everyone is already unsettled. A merger, a layoff, a round of funding, a sudden pivot – these are the moments when people actually expect something to change.

I watched a CEO handle a layoff with radical openness. He showed the exact spreadsheet of who was let go and what severance they got. It was brutal. But the people who stayed became incredibly loyal, because they saw how someone was treated with dignity. Retention after that, against all odds, was the highest in company history.

If you're in a big transition, don't smooth over the rough edges. Use them to set a new precedent. Announce three concrete behavior changes you'll make as a leadership team. That's how crisis becomes culture.

Can You Measure Culture Improvement with Behavioral Data?

Anonymous surveys measure what people think they feel at 3 p.m. on a Tuesday. Behavioral data measures what they actually do. Here's what I tell founders to track: meeting attendance rate, number of questions asked in all-hands, and the ratio of positive to negative language in internal communication.

At one company, we identified three 'silent teams' – teams where less than 10% of people spoke in a weekly meeting. That was a clear sign of low safety. We rotated meeting facilitators and introduced a 'question raffle'. Within a month, participation tripled.

Also look at your retention cliffs. If you notice that people leave at the 18-month mark, don't just count exit interviews. Read them. If they all mention a particular process or a specific manager, you've found your culture wound. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers a culture toolkit with similar advice.