Workplace culture spirals up or down based on leadership choices. Ignore problems and tolerate bad behavior, and culture decays. Pay attention, reshape the stories people tell, and model better behavior, and culture improves.
Culture either gets better or gets worse based upon those interactions that we have with our people as leaders. So culture is really not a flat circle, it's more, it's more a spiral. It's like a Slinky. You ever seen a Slinky? You remember Slinkys? See, Slinkys can spiral up and they can spiral down, just like your culture based on your interactions. Now a downward spiral is what happens when you ignore things, when you allow unproductive behaviors to occur. Downward spirals occur in the absence of effective leadership. On the other hand, when you're intentional, when you're effective, your culture can spiral up. Your culture can improve. See, an upward spiral is what happens when you are effective, when you do have an improved awareness and improved stories and improved behaviors. Upward spirals are a result of you being an effective leader.
