Your Culture Isn’t Broken, It’s Avoiding the Hard Stuff
Culture is not just energy or engagement. It’s the lived structure of your organization. And in the Human Relations Matrix framework, culture is defined by three things: language, actions, and icons. Not intentions. Not slogans. But rather by what people say. What they do. What they elevate.
Language is more than your mission statement. It’s how leaders talk in a crisis. It’s what gets whispered behind closed doors. It demonstrates inclusion or exclusion. And when a culture keeps people out, you'll hear phrases used to silence people and dismiss their contributions, like “We’ve always done it this way” or “That’s not how we do things here.”
Actions are the company's policies, its behaviors, and its habits. Not its annual goals. If you have equity goals but underpay staff of color or women or uphold the pink ceiling, the action demonstrates the company's truth. If you run inclusion trainings but never restructure who makes decisions, the action distracts more than the language used to promote the training.
Icons are the people and symbols that get celebrated or centered. Who gets promoted? Who gets a communications platform? Who gets protected when things go wrong? Culture is reflected in who you feature on your website, who you exclude from your meetings, and how funding is allocated.
When organizations avoid the hard stuff, people often say the culture is broken. But it’s not broken. It’s doing exactly what it was designed to do. It’s a protective power. And it’s disciplining those who speak against it.
You see it in performance reviews. Who gets told to be “less emotional,” and who gets labeled “not a team player.” These aren’t accidents. They’re artifacts of a culture built to avoid accountability.
At Indigo Path Collective, our consulting does not start with vision statements. It starts with reality. Who’s leaving? Who’s silenced? Who’s burned out? And what your systems reward. We use the Human Relations Matrix to map how your culture functions. Then, we help you design it differently.
Culture work is not a vibe reset and should never be dependent upon the personality of your CEO or leadership team. It’s aligning your language, actions, and icons so people don’t have to question what’s real.
If your organization is ready to face what’s true, we’re ready to help. Schedule a consultation and let’s talk about what culture looks like when it’s built for people, not just power.
