The Disconnect Between Culture and Execution
“What decisions can you make based on how your people feel?”
That question came from a frustrated Silicon Valley CPO during a conversation about workplace culture. The topic was employee engagement, but the mood quickly shifted.
Post-layoffs and under pressure to deliver aggressive growth, they were desperate for insights they could bring to the CEO and board, something more than just vague sentiment data.
It’s a scenario that’s becoming all too common. In the wake of sweeping redundancies across tech, traditional engagement metrics are falling short. Leaders are left wondering whether their leaner teams can actually deliver on ambitious growth targets.
Growth, Pressure, and Uncertainty
Cheap money is gone. Shareholders are impatient. And the post-COVID economic order is anything but stable.
Tech companies, especially in Silicon Valley, are under immense pressure to prove they can still grow and generate profit with fewer people. But there's a problem: employee sentiment data, the usual “culture barometer,” isn't telling leaders what they need to know.
That’s where workplace behaviours come in.
What Are Workplace Behaviours?
Workplace behaviours are observable actions, how employees interact, collaborate, make decisions, and solve problems. It’s about how work gets done, not how people feel about it.
Take respect, for example. It’s a core value in most organisations, but it’s often misunderstood. Respect doesn’t just mean being polite or making people feel good. It means giving honest, constructive feedback when someone is struggling, even if it’s a difficult conversation. It means treating customer service as a priority, even when it’s late on a Friday.
And in environments like factory floors, it means being vigilant around heavy machinery, because someone’s life could depend on it.
These aren’t just values. These are behaviours that impact performance, safety, and customer satisfaction in real time.
Why Workplace Behaviours Matter
Workplace behaviours offer leaders, the insight needed to assess whether their teams can execute strategy, before performance slips and quarterly results disappoint.
Unlike engagement surveys that often produce ambiguous or feel-good results, behavioural data reveals how work actually happens and where it breaks down. It highlights whether collaboration is working or whether it’s blocked by silos or poor leadership. It shows whether daily decisions are aligned with the company’s goals or quietly undermining them.
It gives executives a direct line of sight into what’s really driving outcomes on the ground.
From Culture Talk to Strategy Execution
At Culture15, we help organisations move beyond vague cultural statements and identify the workplace behaviours that are actually playing out across teams.
We provide clarity on how people really work together, whether those behaviours support or conflict with your strategy, and most importantly, where you need to step in to protect your business from underperformance.
Rethink Culture Through the Lens of Workplace Behaviours
If you're leading a team, especially in tech, you need more than engagement scores or cultural ideals. You need behavioural insight that connects directly to performance and execution.
Workplace behaviours are your most reliable leading indicator. They show you what’s working, what’s broken, and where you must act to stay competitive.
This is what Silicon Valley, and every ambitious company, needs right now.
Culture15 is your complete toolkit for tracking culture change. CEOs and Exec Teams at world-leading organisations use Culture15 analytics to ensure success by aligning their culture with their strategy.
If you’d like to learn how to define the culture you need, diagnose the culture you have and close the gap, talk to our team
