Culture in the Can

Have you ever been dumpster diving? I have. It was my second job coming out of college - I went from the multi-billion-dollar Pitney Bowes to selling commercial waste hauling contracts. And dumpster diving wasn't the worst part.

That would be the culture.

More specifically, the culture driven by the manager. Command and control for one. Also, there was beating you down and leaving you there. No build back up. I remember one painful meeting where my boss took us in a room, shared the data demonstrating that we were the least profitable part of the organization. He then dismissed us, leaving us to sit in our shame. Done.

The message was clear: we were failures, and there would be no discussion of a path forward.

It was this experience that taught me the powerful truth behind the often-quoted phrase, "Culture eats vision for lunch."  Our team's official sales goals—our "vision"—were to increase revenue and market share.

The culture created by our manager's actions made that vision impossible. A top-down, command-and-control environment where failure was punished and success was ignored simply devoured any motivation we had to achieve those goals. The values we should have had, like collaboration and innovation, were completely overshadowed by the reality of our day-to-day work life.

Then there’s this truth: "Culture is not words on a wall; it's a consistent set of actions."

It's easy for any company to post a polished mission statement or a list of values on the wall. But the real culture is revealed in the way leaders behave when the pressure is on. It’s what they do, not what they say.

Our manager's consistent actions of shaming and demotivating us were the true cultural message, far louder than any corporate slogan could ever be.

This culture of fear and blame became the real, unspoken rulebook for everyone on the team.

Oh, and by the way, the best part of the waste hauling company - riding with the drivers - much better culture!