Culture: The Overlooked Force in Your Company

Photo by Klemen Vrankar on Unsplash

A few months ago, we visited the University of Texas’ McDonald Observatory. Located in the peaks of the Davis Mountains in West Texas, it’s home to one of the largest optical telescopes in the world (the Hobby-Eberly telescope) and is at the forefront of astronomical research.

The observatory is surrounded by 10 acres of Dark Sky Reserve, making it one of the darkest places in the continental U.S. This is why we traveled over 6 hours to take advantage of the rare, breathtaking views it offers of the night sky.

On this clear winter night, we waited as the sun slipped beneath the horizon. Slowly, faint specks of light emerged. As the darkness deepened and our eyes adjusted, the sky transformed into a vast, shimmering dome. Led by a staff member, we toured this other world. We saw constellations, planets, the Milky Way and learned some of the science behind it all. It was so awe-inspiring, we completely forgot about the chilly 33-degree air.

Upon returning to our lodging in a nearby town, the sky had become ordinary again as those celestial wonders faded from view. Of course, the stars hadn’t gone anywhere, but our ability to see them had.

It made us wonder: What else is always there, yet rarely noticed unless we intentionally stop and look?

Like the night sky, company culture is a powerful and ever-present force. But like those stars scattered across the sky it often goes unnoticed until we deliberately focus on it.

Culture is the invisible atmosphere that pervades every aspect of a company. It drives performance, determines employee engagement, guides decisions, and shapes how an organization grows and adapts over time. It encompasses how people interact, how decisions are made, and how success is defined. It’s always there, having an influence on us, whether or not we acknowledge it.

Just as the night sky is composed of countless stars, planets, and celestial systems, company culture is made up of many elements:

• Values and beliefs

• Behavioral norms

• Communication styles

• Leadership habits

• Rituals and traditions

• Attitudes about change, risk, and innovation

And, like the cosmos, culture evolves. It shifts in response to leadership changes, external pressures, and internal growth. In the same way that human behavior affects the atmosphere, company culture can be strengthened or compromised by what we bring into the work environment.

That night at the observatory, we didn’t just learn about the stars themselves—we also learned about what gets in the way of seeing them. The observatory staff talked to us about the growing problem of light pollution. It’s caused by unnecessary or poorly managed exterior lighting. Light pollution has negative effects on human health, wildlife behavior, and of course our ability to see the stars. And it’s the reason we had to travel so far to get those spectacular views.

The same thing happens in organizations. Cultural elements are always present, but they often go unseen, overshadowed by the hustle and bustle of daily demands. These distractions mask the cultural patterns shaping it all.

The good news is that when we learn to “look up” and deliberately focus on culture, it has a lot to teach us. It can provide clarity, promote alignment, and strengthen the effectiveness of leadership. We just have to decide to give it our attention.

Next week, we’ll explore some of the factors that keep culture hidden from leaders’ awareness and how those blind spots can prevent them from fully leveraging its power.