How Most Culture Programs Fail—And What Actually Works
The Culture Trap Most Companies Fall Into
Ask any executive about company culture, and they’ll likely agree: “Culture is critical to business success.” But ask them who is responsible for building and maintaining culture, and most will say, “That’s HR’s job.”
This is where most companies go wrong. Culture isn’t an HR initiative. Culture is how leadership drives accountability, decision-making, and execution across the organization. Unfortunately, most culture improvement programs fail because they focus on the wrong things. They look for quick fixes, inspiring words, or personal development solutions, instead of building sustainable accountability and execution systems.
The Three Traditional (and Ineffective) Approaches to Culture Change
Most consultants promise to “fix” culture, but they miss the real issue. Here’s where they go wrong:
1. The "Engagement & Perks" Approach – Surface-Level Fixes Without Accountability
Many organizations start by focusing on employee engagement initiatives. They send out surveys, host team-building retreats, offer wellness programs, and improve office perks. The thinking is simple: If employees feel happier at work, they’ll be more engaged and productive. It’s a logical assumption—after all, engaged employees tend to stay longer and perform better.
At first, these efforts seem to work. The surveys show slight improvement, and employees enjoy the added benefits. Morale lifts temporarily, and HR reports progress in engagement scores. Leaders begin to believe that culture is improving. But over time, the same underlying issues resurface—performance inconsistencies, lack of accountability, slow decision-making, and disengagement from leadership.
The truth is, engagement doesn’t drive accountability. If leaders aren’t modeling the right behaviors, holding teams responsible, and reinforcing execution discipline, no amount of engagement initiatives will fix a toxic or dysfunctional culture. Organizations that rely on engagement tactics alone are often left wondering why their culture hasn’t meaningfully changed despite all their investments.
2. The "Values & Mission" Approach – Words Without Action
Another common approach is to define or refine company values and mission statements. The belief is that when employees and leaders rally around a strong vision and clear values, culture will naturally improve. This often involves leadership retreats, workshops, and company-wide rollouts of refreshed mission statements.
Initially, this feels inspiring. Employees appreciate the effort, and leaders speak with renewed energy about the company’s purpose. Posters go up, new slogans are introduced, and values are repeated in meetings. For a moment, it feels like real change is happening.
But without reinforcement, values become empty words on a wall. If leadership doesn’t hold people accountable for behaviors that contradict those values, employees quickly become cynical. They see that the company says it values “transparency,” but managers still withhold critical information. They hear leadership talk about “accountability,” but poor performers continue without consequence. Eventually, employees disengage because the company’s stated values don’t match reality. Culture isn’t about what an organization says—it’s about what it actually tolerates.
3. The "Leadership Coaching" Approach – Personal Growth Without Organizational Alignment
Many organizations invest heavily in leadership development and executive coaching, believing that if individual leaders improve their skills, the culture will naturally follow. This approach includes emotional intelligence training, communication workshops, and executive coaching to refine leadership behaviors.
This makes sense—after all, strong leadership is essential to any great culture. And at first, the results seem promising. Leaders become more self-aware, communication improves, and some teams begin to feel more supported. However, this approach alone fails to create a sustainable culture shift because it treats leadership as an individual skill rather than a system-wide behavior model.
The problem is, a well-trained leader will still struggle in a broken system. If the organization lacks clear accountability structures, strong performance management, and effective decision-making frameworks, leadership training won’t stick. Leaders may feel more confident individually, but they won’t have the organizational reinforcement needed to drive consistent behavior across the company.
So Here Are The Issues
- Most culture programs focus on symptoms rather than root causes. Many organizations assume low engagement or poor morale is the issue, when in reality, these are symptoms of deeper leadership, accountability, or execution problems.
- Many organizations treat culture as an HR initiative, but HR doesn’t have the power to enforce behavior at the leadership level.
- Engagement tactics, value statements, and leadership training all fail if accountability is missing.
- Many programs fail to integrate culture into daily operations, leading to a short-term improvement that fades over time.
The CLIMB Approach: How Real Culture Change Happens
Here’s how CLIMB is different:
- CLIMB correctly identifies that culture is built through leadership behaviors, decision-making, and accountability—rather than perks, slogans, or isolated training.
- CLIMB shifts the responsibility to leadership, ensuring culture becomes a company-wide priority rather than an HR-driven project.
- CLIMB ensures that leaders hold themselves and their teams accountable for culture-aligned behaviors.
- CLIMB ensures reinforcement through hiring, performance management, and decision-making frameworks, making cultural change stick.
Instead of treating culture as an HR-driven initiative, CLIMB transforms it into a leadership-driven accountability system. Organizations don’t need another engagement strategy, a more inspiring mission statement, or just better-trained leaders. They need an execution framework that aligns leadership behaviors with accountability, performance, and decision-making.
How CLIMB Works:
We focus on courage-based leadership, teaching leaders to make bold decisions, own mistakes, and model trust.
We emphasize peer-driven accountability, shifting responsibility from HR to leadership teams, creating a culture of execution.
We drive systemic reinforcement, aligning leadership behaviors with performance management, hiring, and decision-making processes to sustain cultural change.
Why It Works:
Culture becomes a leadership priority—not an HR project. Accountability is embedded into daily operations. Leaders and teams execute faster, reducing decision bottlenecks.
Unlike traditional culture programs, CLIMB ensures that culture isn’t just a discussion topic in leadership meetings—it’s woven into how the company actually operates.
If your organization is stuck in engagement tactics, values statements, or endless coaching with no real culture shift, it’s time for a new approach. Let’s talk about how CLIMB can help your leadership team build a culture that drives performance, accountability, and real results.
Click HERE to Schedule a CLIMB Strategy Session Today.
