Culture is ROI, Not Rhetoric

The Real Challenge 

In my discussion with leaders I find a concerning pattern. Many leaders still treat culture as something soft, sentimental, or “nice to have.” Culture gets framed as engagement initiatives, staff perks, or the responsibility of HR alone. This mindset persists even while organizations struggle with declining leadership pipelines, shrinking workforces, and rising burnout. The truth is that culture is not abstract or emotional. It is structural, behavioural, and deeply measurable. McKinsey’s research shows that companies with the healthiest cultures deliver three times higher total shareholder returns than those in the bottom quartile (McKinsey, When Building New Businesses, Culture Matters, 2025). Yet too often, leaders invest in the technical side of their strategy while hoping the relational side “sorts itself out.”

“Trust is not a warm and fuzzy 'nice to have.' It is a hard-edged, economic driver that creates a competitive advantage.” - Stephen M.R. Covey Trust & Inspire

The Consequence 

When culture is sidelined, organizations lose far more than morale. They experience real financial erosion: increased turnover, inconsistent performance, inefficient teams, and slow decision making. HR Trends data shows that organizations with strong leadership development and culture capability are 1.9 times more likely to achieve strategic goals and 1.8 times more likely to optimize costs (McLean & Company, HR Trends 2025 Preview). On the flip side, poor culture shows up in safety incidents, rework, communication breakdowns, and talent loss, especially as retirements surge and institutional knowledge walks out the door. These hidden costs quietly accumulate until leaders hit a tipping point.

A New Way to See It 

What if we could reframe healthy culture as a performance system, rather than a soft skill? Culture is the sum of relationships, behaviours, and operating norms that influence every decision, every conversation, and every workflow. It is “how people actually work together,” not the slogans on the wall. As McKinsey’s team effectiveness research notes, four behaviours: trust, communication, decision making, and innovative thinking, predict up to 76 percent of the difference between low- and high-performing teams (McKinsey, Go, Teams, 2024). When leaders treat culture as a strategic lever rather than a morale booster, they unlock the conditions for productivity, psychological safety, and collaboration across generations. 

Culture as a strategic priority is critical because culture must be led by the leaders to impact organizational performance. Dysfunctional culture grows in the gap between what leaders say and what leaders do. - Nicki Straza

A Practical First Step 

As we head into 2026 and new fiscal years for many, a great start would be to name culture development as a business priority rather than an HR one. Choose one operational area—onboarding, safety, leadership development, or communication—and start conversations with both leaders and teams by asking:

 “What behaviours are helping performance here, and what behaviours are making it harder?

This shifts culture from a vague concept to a measurable variable connected directly to outcomes. From there, you can build consistent language, shared expectations, and leader modelling that actually moves the needle. Be sure to include perspectives from across the generations in your discussion to ensure you see the whole picture. Our Culture Change Blueprint Program can help you with this.