Articles
Wellbeing can be measured. Values must be measured differently.
Articles on value hierarchy, shadow values and the difference between measuring mood and measuring priority. Written for leadership teams, HR and workplace organisations.
Wellbeing and measurement
Psychosocial work environment and culture: two different problems
The psychosocial work environment is about strain and protection. Culture is about priority. Here are the markers of each problem, and why the wrong diagnosis costs the most.
6 min
Wellbeing questionnaire: the survey, the pitfalls and the blind spot
Six pitfalls in the wellbeing questionnaire: agreement bias, too few units, the average trap, vague concepts, action-free reports and the question the survey never asks.
6 min
What is a wellbeing survey — and what does it not show?
A wellbeing survey measures how employees feel. It does not measure which value wins when two values collide. Here is the difference — and when it matters.
7 min
Concepts
Shadow values: the unwritten rules that settle it
Shadow values are the unwritten rules that govern decisions without anyone adopting them. Five typical shadow values, their markers, and how to make them measurable.
6 min
Value collision: when two values cannot both be honoured
Speed against thoroughness. Openness against calm. Accountability against loyalty. Five value pairs that collide in practice, and what the collision reveals.
5 min
Schein's iceberg explained practically
Artefacts, values and basic assumptions. What the three levels mean in practice, why most culture projects stop at level one, and what to do instead.
6 min
Espoused and enacted values: how to see the difference
Espoused values are what an organisation says. Enacted values are what it acts on. Five tests that reveal the difference — without anyone having to admit anything.
6 min
Leadership
Culture, recruitment and retention: what the hierarchy does to turnover
Employees rarely resign over values. They resign when the hierarchy between values differs from the one they were promised at hiring.
6 min
Culture during change: merger, fast growth and downsizing
Three types of change, three culture risks. What happens to the value hierarchy in mergers, fast growth and downsizing — and when in the process to measure.
6 min
How to write values that hold under pressure
Most value sets are written so nobody can disagree. Five rules that make values operational: hierarchy, behaviour, cost, opposition and scope.
7 min
The credibility gap: when leadership guesses wrong about its own culture
Leadership guesses the hierarchy before the result is opened. The distance is a number. How to read it, and how to use it without turning the guess into an exam.
6 min
Method
Culture measurement in public and private organisations
Public organisations carry more legitimate, conflicting mandates than private ones. That changes how dilemmas must be written and how the hierarchy must be read.
6 min
From report to action: what to do with a hierarchy
A hierarchy points at one choice, not ten initiatives. Here is the agenda that takes a leadership team from report to a decision people can feel.
6 min
Anonymity in employee surveys: what "anonymous" actually requires
Confidential is not the same as anonymous. Six technical requirements before a survey can be called anonymous — and the four places anonymity typically breaks.
7 min
What does a culture measurement cost — and what drives the price?
Number of units, number of values, facilitation, languages and follow-up drive the price of a culture measurement. Here are the factors, so you can compare quotes on a real basis.
5 min
Response rate: why low participation ruins the conclusion
A 45 percent response rate is not half the truth. It is probably the most satisfied half. How to read and raise participation without breaking anonymity.
5 min