Is the Culture You Have the Culture You Think You Have? How to Read the Culture Signals

Is the Culture You Have the Culture You Think You Have? How to Read the Culture Signals

Hosts: Steve Boese and Trish Steed

Guest: Meisha-ann Martin, Ph.D., VP of People Research at Workhuman

Summary

In this episode of the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve and Trish are joined by Meisha-ann Martin, VP of People Research at Workhuman, for a conversation about moving beyond stated values and getting a clearer picture of how culture actually shows up across an organization.

The conversation explores one of the biggest sources of cultural disconnect: what organizations say they value versus what they actually reward and reinforce. A company may say it values efficient execution while celebrating heroic firefighting. It may promote innovation while only recognizing successful outcomes, unintentionally discouraging thoughtful risk-taking. Or it may tolerate harmful behaviors because an employee delivers strong business results.

Meisha-ann shares how recognition data can give leaders a much richer view into these patterns. She also explains how advances in people analytics and natural language processing are making it possible to uncover insights that traditional engagement surveys alone could not provide—from identifying differences in how employees are recognized to detecting language that may serve as an early warning signal for burnout.

Ultimately, Meisha-ann encourages HR and business leaders to approach culture with greater intentionality: define the outcome you want, understand the behaviors that lead to it, measure what is actually happening, and continually refine the system based on what the data reveals.

Topics include:

• Why culture is more than the values written on the wall
• The gap between organizational intentions and employee experiences
• How organizations can unintentionally reinforce the wrong behaviors
• The relationship among vulnerability, recognition, and psychological safety
• How language data can uncover burnout risk, bias, and cultural misalignment
• Why recognizing behaviors—not just outcomes—can improve performance
• Connecting leadership behaviors to organizational outcomes
• Why measurement should come before analytics

Thank you for joining the show today! Remember to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts!

Workhuman is a proud supporter of the HR Happy Hour Network.

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