Diane paced her office, phone pressed to her ear. “Jack, we’ve got a problem,” she said the moment he picked up.
“What’s going on?” Jack asked, a note of concern in his voice.
“Our biggest client just threatened to walk,” Diane said. “Revenue’s already down, costs are up…sheesh everything feels like it’s hitting at once.” She sighed. “And I can already see it happening—our leaders are abandoning the culture we’ve worked so hard to build.”
“Ah,” Jack said knowingly. “The culture crack.”
Diane stopped pacing. “The what?”
“The culture crack,” Jack repeated. “When the pressure’s on, some leaders crack. They stop collaborating, stop listening, stop modeling the behaviors we’ve established. It’s easier to slip back into survival mode than to stay anchored to the culture.”
“So, what do we do?” Diane asked.
Jack smiled on the other end of the line. “We make sure the foundation doesn’t break.”
The Culture Crack
The next morning, Jack sat across from Diane in her office. She looked exhausted. “We’ve spent months getting our leaders to buy into the culture and model it every day,” she said. “I don’t want to lose all that progress just because the numbers aren’t looking great.”
Jack collected his thoughts for a moment. “You won’t,” he reassured her. “But culture is always easiest when times are good. It’s when things get hard that it really matters—and when leaders really show their true colors.”
Diane leaned forward. “Okay. Where do we start?”
1. Treat Culture Like a Business Priority
Jack pulled out his cool Remarkable gadget and drew two columns. In one column, he wrote “Revenue, Profit, Costs.” In the other, he wrote “Engagement, Retention, Performance.”
“You already track these financial metrics religiously,” he said, pointing to the first column. “But what about these?” He gestured to the second.
“We track them,” Diane said hesitantly. “Just… not as often?.”
“That’s the problem,” Jack said. “Culture and workforce vitality drive performance, but most companies don’t regularly track them. If you want to keep your culture strong during tough times, track those metrics the same way you track your revenue.”
“There is that workforce vitality again,” Diane said, nodding.
“Exactly. If engagement is dropping or turnover is creeping up, those are early warning signs that your culture is slipping.”
Diane scribbled down a note. “Okay, so we start measuring culture with the same seriousness we measure profit. What else?”
2. Make Values Operational
“Values don’t matter unless they show up in everyday work,” Jack said. “Right now, your leaders talk about collaboration, innovation, and psychological safety—but are those values really guiding how they make decisions?”
Diane thought for a moment. “I’m not sure. How can we tell?”
“Look for actions and behaviors,” Jack said. “For example, if innovation is really a core value, then mistakes should be treated as learning experiences, not punished. If collaboration matters, then cross-functional meetings shouldn’t get canceled when the pressure is on.”
He flipped to a survey response from an employee:
“We talk about innovation, but when a new idea doesn’t work out, leadership asks why we wasted time on it.”
Diane winced. “That’s not good.”
“No, it’s not,” Jack said. “But it’s fixable. You just have to make the connection explicit. Leaders need to consistently link their decisions back to the values, they need to connect the dots”
3. Hold Leaders Accountable—Especially Now
Diane shifted uncomfortably. “So… what happens if our leaders just keep regressing to survival mode?”
“Then you need to hold them accountable,” Jack said. “Especially now, when things are hard. Culture is easy when it’s convenient. If you want it to last, you need to make sure leaders follow through even when it’s uncomfortable.”
Diane raised an eyebrow. “You mean start writing people up? PIPing them?”
“Not necessarily,” Jack said. “Start with tough conversations. If a leader makes decisions that go against the culture—like hoarding information instead of sharing it—you need to call them out. And if it keeps happening, then yes, you have to consider whether that person belongs in a leadership role.”
Diane tapped her pen against the table. “That’s going to piss some people off.”
“Good,” Jack said. “Culture only becomes real when people know it matters enough to protect.”
4. Over-Communicate When Things Get Hard
Diane sat back in her chair. “I’ve noticed people getting quieter lately,” she said. “Less participation in meetings, fewer ideas being shared. I thought maybe it was just the pressure.”
“It is,” Jack said. “But that’s exactly why you need to communicate more now—not less.”
He went on, “In uncertain times, people start filling in the vacuum with their own worst-case scenarios. If they don’t hear from leadership, they’ll assume the worst, which is almost always much worse than reality.”
“So what do we say?” Diane asked.
“Be honest,” Jack said. “Acknowledge the challenges. Share what you know—even if you don’t have all the answers. And tie every decision back to the culture.”
Diane nodded. “So if we pause a project, we explain why—like, ‘We’re holding off on this launch because we value excellence, and right now we don’t have the resources to do it right.’”
“Exactly,” Jack said. “And then ask for feedback. Make sure people feel heard.”
5. Invest in Culture—Especially Now
Diane rubbed her temples as she took it all in. “Everything you’re saying makes sense. But it feels risky to invest more in culture when we’re already tightening budgets.”
Jack smiled. “That’s what everyone thinks. And that’s why companies who invest in culture during tough times come out ahead.”
“Why?”
“Because when employees see the company investing in them—even when times are tough—they feel valued. And when they feel valued, they work harder, stay longer, and innovate more.”
He slid a sticky note across the table. On it, he’d written three actions:
• Invest in leadership training. (Managers are the culture’s first line of defense.)
• Celebrate wins—big or small. (It’s easy to feel discouraged when times are tough; recognition keeps morale up.)
• Recognize resilience. (Call out the teams who stick to the culture even under pressure.)
Diane smiled. “I guess if we want people to trust the culture, we need to show that we trust it first.”
The Bottom Line
Jack stood to leave. “Culture isn’t tested when things are easy,” he said. “It’s tested when the pressure’s on. That’s when leaders either prove their commitment—or show that it was just talk.”
Diane shook his hand. “Well, this is going to be a tough few months. But we’re not giving up on the culture.”
“Good,” Jack said. “Because the companies that hold onto their culture during the hard times? They’re the ones that thrive when things turn around.”
Looking Ahead
This week, we explored how to sustain culture during tough times. Next week, Jack and Diane will dig into how to measure whether your culture is actually taking hold across the organization.