What Really Defines a Great Workplace Culture?

If you ask most leaders what defines a great culture, you’ll hear the usual suspects:

• Engaged employees.

• High performance.

• Low turnover.

• Maybe a table tennis table in the lunchroom if they’re feeling trendy.

But here’s the truth: none of those things prove you’ve got a great culture.

The real test is much tougher.

The Gap That No One Talks About

Every organisation has an aspirational culture — usually captured in glossy Values statements on walls, websites, and annual reports.

Words like Respect, Innovation, Safety, Integrity.

But walk into any workplace, and you’ll quickly discover there’s another culture at play — one that’s rarely written down, yet shapes behaviour every day.

These are the Unwritten Ground Rules (UGRs). Put simply: people’s perceptions of “this is the way we do things around here.”

They answer the questions that no policy manual can touch:

• Do people get recognised for speaking up, or punished for rocking the boat?

• Do leaders really listen, or just nod politely?

• Do we cut corners when the pressure’s on, or hold the line?

And here’s the kicker: these UGRs drive behaviour more powerfully than any official statement ever will.

The True Test of Culture

A brilliant culture exists when there’s alignment between the aspirational culture (the Values) and the lived culture (the UGRs).

If your Values say Respect but the UGR is “around here, leaders get away with ignoring people” — then respect isn’t part of your culture, no matter how big the posters are.

If your Values say Safety first but the UGR is “around here, deadlines come first” — then safety is just lip service.

If your Values say Innovation but the UGR is “around here, new ideas get shot down” — then don’t kid yourself: you’ve built a culture of compliance, not creativity.

Why This Matters for Leaders

Here’s the uncomfortable reality: leaders create and sustain UGRs, often without realising it.

When leaders ignore bad behaviour, they endorse it.

When they celebrate shortcuts, they normalise them.

When they take time to listen and act, they send a powerful signal about what really matters.

Leaders don’t just influence culture — they are culture.

So, What Defines a Great Workplace Culture?

It’s not the ping pong tables.

It’s not the slogans.

It’s not the leadership offsite where Values were word-smithed to perfection.

A great culture is when what you aspire to and what people actually experience are the same thing.

That’s the acid test.

And until leaders get serious about surfacing, understanding, and shifting their UGRs, the gap between words and reality will keep tripping them up.