Culture Games

“In our culture, the problem is them.”

That’s the most convenient lie in organisations.

It’s tidy to frame culture as power games run by villains at the top and suffered by victims below. Reality is messier:

On Monday, you avoid the hard choice.

On Tuesday, you’re dealing with the consequences of someone else’s.

The roles are interchangeable.

Most of us, at different moments, play versions of the same games:

We Evade – agree in principle, let the action quietly die.

We Gatekeep – hoard context because it protects our influence.

We Meet-After-the-Meeting – say the real thing only in safety.

We Edit Credit – optimise the story so we land well.

Victims or villains?

Mostly, we’re all players.

Culture isn’t something done to us by a shadowy “they”.

It’s the sum of the trades we are willing to make.

So instead of asking:

“Who’s poisoning the culture?”

Ask:

“If everyone behaved like me this week, would I be proud of the culture that creates?”

That’s the only culture audit that really counts.