Culture Scale
Is Your Culture Thriving or Just Surviving?
From Stinky Fish to Flourishing Trees.
Culture isn’t ‘soft stuff for HR to deal with.’ It’s one of the most powerful drivers of business performance – shaped by everyone in an organisation.
Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report found that managers account for 70% of the difference between high and low employee engagement, and engagement directly links to profitability, productivity, and retention.
In the UK, average staff turnover sits at around 25-35% (CIPD) – that’s up to one in three employees leaving each year. Pay plays a role, but culture – especially the behaviour of a person’s direct line manager – is the bigger driver.
Toxic leadership, pockets of poor behaviours, or superficial fixes and box-ticking, all push your good people out the door. The cost isn’t just human – it’s commercial. In other words, culture isn’t just about how people feel. It’s about whether your organisation can attract, keep, and grow the talent it needs – and whether that talent can deliver the performance and growth your business depends on.
I introduced my new Culture Scale at an event recently, then shared it in a LinkedIn post. The response was clear: people recognised these patterns because they’ve worked in them. The scale resonates because it names cultures in plain terms – not fluffy slogans or corporate spiel but lived realities that people can identify with.
Let’s walk through it and see where you think your organisation fits…
Stinky Fish – Toxic from the top
‘A fish stinks from the head down’. When leadership is the problem, the whole place starts to smell.
- What it looks like: Fear, mistrust, and survival mode dominate. Leaders say one thing but do another, decisions feel self‑serving, and people stop speaking up because they know it won’t make a difference. The tone from the top sets the standard – and when that tone is toxic, it seeps into every corner of the organisation.
- Impact on people: Trust is low, fear is high, and people focus on survival rather than growth.
- Impact on performance: Even if revenue looks strong, it’s fragile. Staff turnover is high, attraction is low, and productivity is capped. A healthier culture could unlock far greater performance and retention.
- Reflection: Leaders need to hold up (and look into!) a mirror and ask: am I contributing to the toxicity, or helping to clear it?
Rotten Apples – Localised toxicity
A good apple won’t automatically fix a bad one, yet one bad apple can spoil the rest around them. (That doesn’t mean people can’t change – but it does mean leaders must act quickly to stop the rot and create the conditions for change).
- What it looks like: One toxic manager, or one unchecked behaviour, and the rot spreads fast. Good people start to copy poor habits, disengage, or lose trust. Without intervention, negativity multiplies.
- Impact on people: Good people leave, engagement drops, and morale suffers.
- Impact on performance: Recruitment costs rise as talent exits, productivity dips, and disengagement eats into margins.
- Reflection: Hold up the mirror and be honest – where are the pockets of rot in your business, and what’s your responsibility in tackling them?
Lipstick on a Pig (it’s still a pig!) – Superficial fixes
All the posters, screensavers and slogans in the world won’t fix a broken culture.
- What it looks like: Box‑ticking workshops, glossy campaigns, slogans and values that don’t match reality. Leaders start initiatives to ‘show progress,’ but they rarely go deeper than surface‑level gestures. Employees roll their eyes because they’ve ‘seen it all before’. Yet, beneath the cynicism and eye-rolls, there’s often genuine appetite for change, if leaders stop painting over cracks and start tackling the roots. This is the tipping point: superficial fixes can either reinforce mistrust or become the first step towards something real, depending on how leaders choose to act.
- Impact on people: Employees see through it. Trust erodes further; cynicism grows. Small pockets where people believe something different is happening then lose faith as it’s not followed through.
- Impact on performance: Money is wasted on initiatives that don’t shift behaviour. Engagement stagnates, innovation stalls, and the organisation misses out on the gains of genuine culture change.
- Reflection: When you hold up the mirror, ask yourself – are you leading culture change because you genuinely believe in it, or simply because it’s expected of your role? This is the level where the biggest gains can be made. What’s the one bold step you could take to move beyond surface fixes and tackle the roots of the problem?
Good Apples – Healthy teams thriving
Teams are growing, people feel good, the culture’s solid.
- What it looks like: Trust is visible, collaboration flows, and people speak up without fear. Work gets done, teams feel connected, and morale is positive. But this balance is delicate… one poor behaviour left unchecked can quickly sour the team, while consistent leadership investment can lift the culture towards flourishing. Good Apple cultures are healthy, but they’re not immune: they can tip up or down the scale depending on how leaders choose to act.
- Impact on people: Engagement is strong, morale is positive, and collaboration flows.
- Impact on performance: Productivity is consistent, retention is healthy, and recruitment is easier. But without continued investment, growth can plateau and competitors can overtake.
- Reflection: Hold up the mirror (again – are you seeing a theme here!) and recognise the good – but don’t get complacent. What’s next to keep the momentum going, and how will you stay accountable, so you don’t slip into ‘rotten apples’ mode?
Flourishing Trees – The ultimate goal
This is where everything – people, purpose, and performance – connects.
- What it looks like: Strong roots (values) that guide decisions and behaviour every day. A solid trunk (structure) that gives stability without suppressing flexibility. Healthy branches (leadership) that reach across the organisation, supporting growth and connection. Visible fruit (results) that prove the culture is working – employees who feel confident in their organisation, teams delivering with purpose, and performance and growth that’s consistent and repeatable.
- Impact on people: People feel proud, connected, and purposeful.
- Impact on performance: Engagement is high, innovation thrives, retention is strong, and performance compounds year after year. This is culture and commercial success aligned.
- Reflection: Final time with that mirror, ask yourself how close are you to this picture, and what’s holding you back? What barriers might get in your way, and how will you overcome them to stay on course?
Why this stuff matters
Culture isn’t abstract. It’s measurable, it’s visible, and it shows up in both peoples’ lived experience and the bottom line.
For every manager, every leader, every choice and decision either strengthens the roots or spreads the rot. That’s why Gallup’s finding – managers accounting for 70% of engagement differences – is so stark. Leadership behaviour is the lever that shifts culture, for better – or worse.
So, pick up that mirror:
- Where does your organisation sit on this scale today?
- Where do you sit as a leader – are you reinforcing the culture you want, or allowing behaviours that hold it back?
Taking action
Culture doesn’t shift with slogans. It shifts with honest reflection, practical tools, leadership that’s willing to change – and behaviours lived consistently across the organisation.
At Harrison Network, we help organisations in complex sectors tackle the very issues that push good people out the door – toxic leadership, pockets of poor behaviour, and superficial fixes. Through diagnostics, coaching, workshops, and leadership development, we make culture tangible and actionable, with results you can see in your retention, engagement, and performance.
If you’re ready to hold up the mirror and lead the shift, get in touch with Heather, Lucy or Nev via our Contact Page.
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