Stop Trying to Fix Culture—It’s a Wicked Problem

Why leaders seek validation instead of focusing on the never-ending challenge

Yaroslav Danylchenko (Ukraine)/Stocksy

When consulting organizations, I sometimes feel like a school teacher facing anxious parents at a parent-teacher conference.

CEOs enter our meetings with that familiar nervous energy—a mixture of hope and dread as they await validation. They want me to affirm that their culture is smart, well-behaved, and making them proud. They're seeking a grade, a ranking, or some sort of external confirmation that they're on the right track.

"How good is our culture?" they ask, just as parents inquire about their children’s performance.

But that's entirely the wrong question.

Culture isn't simply good or bad, just as a teenager isn’t merely smart or not. It's complex, contradictory, and dynamic. It has strengths and struggles, moments of brilliance and frustration. Some days it fills you with pride. Other days, it keeps you awake at night, wondering what went wrong.

Yet most leaders treat culture like a report card, checking if they’ve passed or failed. In reality,…