Hello,
A new month, the same harmful challenges prevail…I don’t know about you but despite the relentless hurdles, I’m feeling a renewed ‘start of term’ energy that I’m making the most of before the hibernation energy creeps in.
I’ve been reflecting over the past month on the work I’m doing with companies and organisations as I shift to spending more of my time on our pilot education project – the Teen Incubator we’re building.
Over the past few years, I’ve had the unique position of being deeply embedded in a number of organisations as they seek to ‘live their values’ and ‘do business differently’. During that time, a few common patterns have emerged that indicate many organisations are far ‘sicker’ (and do more harm) than they realise…
Here’s what a ‘sick’ organisation actually looks like:
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Leadership say they value “transparency” but information flows through unofficial channels and is only shared on a ‘need to know’ basis; the energy of secrecy prevails and every single person on the team feels it but no-one feels safe enough to surface it or address it directly.
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‘Personal responsibility’ is emphasised yet many members of the leadership team model anything but and instead a blame culture is the unintentional consequence which leads to a damaging cycle of nobody stepping up to take responsibility, out of fear.
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While ‘trust’ is promoted, micromanagement is the default style of management. Not only does this inhibit creativity and prevent the exact type of innovative thinking needed, it creates a totally demoralised team who eventually give up and begin to just ‘dial it in’. This then spirals into ‘this person isn’t delivering, they need to go’ – which results in…
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Team retention is a struggle and as a leader you’re not quite sure why; you think you offer higher-than-average salaries/pay, generous benefits, a great workplace, meaningful work and yet…your people turnover is unusually high and you just can’t see why.
If any of these sound familiar, you have a deeper problem than you realise…and the solution? A very long, hard and likely uncomfortable look in the mirror.
Why Founders & Leadership Miss These Symptoms
You’re too close to see it. You built this thing. You meant well. You wrote those values with genuine conviction.
But the brutal truth is this: You values aren’t what you say, they’re what you tolerate and what you model every single day…
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If you ‘reward’ or do not address behaviours that you know don’t align with your values, they’ll continue.
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If you avoid conflict and difficult conversations because you (and your team) don’t have the emotional capability or capacity to navigate conflict safely, you cultivate a culture of ‘untruths’ and people talking in secret.
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If you don’t address the power dynamics in interactions that happen every single day, you perpetuate the same behaviours, actions, attitudes, perspectives, beliefs and systems that have got us to where we are today.
And sadly, while you’re busy defending the culture you think you’ve built, your best people are already quietly planning their exit.
What Actually Works
Real change doesn’t happen through another all-hands meeting or updated mission statement…It happens when you’re willing to do the uncomfortable work of examining:
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Your self as a leader.
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Your fellow leaders.
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Your systems, policies and processes.
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The default behaviours across your team.
It requires going beyond strategy documents and performative policies to create embodied, relational, collective and systemic changes.
Make no mistake, this is deep, deep work. And the collective (and systemic) change ONLY happens when the individual work is first put into focus.
If this is something you would like to explore for your organisation, the Living Your Values learning journey is designed to do just this.
Over 6 months, we guide your entire organisation through a transformation that addresses:
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Month 1: Grounding In Your Values – Moving from abstract ideals to concrete behaviours everyone can practice.
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Month 2: Self As A System Of Change – Understanding how individual patterns perpetuate organisational culture.
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Month 3: Brave Conversations & Repair – Building the skills for courageous accountability without toxicity.
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Month 4: Values-Aligned Systems, Processes & Policies – Auditing and redesigning the structures that shape behaviour.
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Month 5: Belonging, Liberation & Accountability – Creating equity that goes beyond surface-level diversity.
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Month 6: Integration, Celebration & Continuity – Embedding new practices so change actually sticks.
What Happens When You Get This Right…
Imagine your workplace where:
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Your values are actually visible in daily decisions, not just company slide decks.
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Trust replaces performance management theatre.
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Difficult conversations happen skillfully instead of being avoided.
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Your systems actively support equity instead of accidentally undermining it.
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Everyone can meaningfully contribute and thrive.
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The gap between “who we say we are” and “who we actually are” finally closes.
This is what organisations on the other side of this journey experience: Real alignment. Genuine trust. Sustainable change.
👉 Book a free consultation to explore if this journey is right for your team.
Here’s to putting your values in to action,
Lea
Founder, Mission Equality
P.S. Still unsure? Ask yourself this: If you audited your last 5 major decisions against your stated values, would they pass? If you hesitated even for a moment, let’s talk!