Culture Isn’t What You Say It’s What You Let Happen

7 May 2025 · 1 min

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In this brief interview segment, Jesse Pujji argues that organizational culture is defined not by stated values but by what leaders and members tolerate. He illustrates the concept with concrete examples—allowing meetings to start five minutes late, permitting a humorless meeting environment, or going months without social outings—all of which signal the underlying culture. Pujji emphasizes that both tolerating and refusing to tolerate certain behaviors constitute cultural signals. He shares his personal practice of giving daily appreciation and notes that he challenges his colleague Adrian to consider what she is willing to tolerate as a leader, framing tolerance as a diagnostic tool for culture.

Culture is what you tolerate. I've like looked for a better definition of it, and I can't actually find one up until now. If you can be 5 minutes late to a meeting, that's your culture. People are gonna be 5 minutes late to the meeting. If you tolerate a day full of meetings where nobody laughs, then that's your culture. It's not a laughing culture. It's not a fun culture. If you tolerate a culture where you go months without going out to dinner—
And if you don't tolerate it, then that also is your culture.
I can't go more than 5 days without saying appreciation for someone. I mean, you've noticed that about like, I try to give a lot of affirmation to people. I just don't tolerate that, you know. And again, the intolerate maybe is a negative frame to it, but what, what I like about it is when Adrian comes to me with issues in the business, you know, I'll oftentimes just say to her, what are you willing to tolerate? As a leader, what do you tolerate? That's your culture.