Taking a Culture Pulse: Are You Actually Living Your Values? (August 2026 TogetHR Times)

By John Wright

Most organizations can tell you their mission, vision, and values. They are displayed on websites, highlighted in onboarding materials, discussed during staff meetings, and referenced when leaders talk about the future. For many organizations, a great deal of time and thought goes into creating these statements.

The challenge is not writing them. The challenge is living them.

Over time, even well-intentioned organizations can develop a gap between what they say they value and what employees actually experience. This is where taking a culture pulse becomes valuable. A culture pulse is not about launching a major employee survey or conducting a lengthy organizational assessment. At its simplest, it is a deliberate effort to determine whether the organization is consistently acting in ways that align with its stated mission, vision, and values. In other words, are you walking the talk?

One of the most effective ways to answer that question is by looking for evidence. Values become meaningful when they show up in everyday decisions, interactions, and behaviors. An organization that claims to value collaboration should be able to point to examples where teams worked across departments to solve problems. An organization that values accountability should be able to identify situations where leaders took responsibility when mistakes occurred. A company that prioritizes customer service should have stories that demonstrate employees going above and beyond for clients. These examples matter because they move values from aspiration to reality.

At the same time, a healthy culture pulse is not limited to success stories. It is equally important to identify moments when the organization failed to live up to its values. This is often where the most valuable learning occurs. Many leaders become uncomfortable when discussing situations that reveal inconsistency. Yet culture is not measured by perfection. Culture is measured by awareness and response. Every organization will fall short of its values at times. The difference is whether leadership recognizes those moments, learns from them, and makes adjustments moving forward.

Organizations that are willing to examine both successes and shortcomings tend to have a much clearer understanding of who they are. They spend less energy protecting an idealized version of their culture and more energy strengthening the culture they actually have. Taking a culture pulse can be surprisingly simple. Leaders can start by asking a few straightforward questions. Where have we clearly demonstrated our values over the past year? What business decisions reflected those values? How have we handled challenging employee relations situations? What feedback have employees provided about their experiences? Just as importantly, where have we fallen short, and what can we learn from those situations?

The goal is not to create a scorecard. The goal is to identify patterns.

Consider the example of a mid-sized nonprofit organization that regularly spoke about its commitment to diversity and inclusion. These values were prominently featured in organizational materials, discussed by leadership, and referenced during strategic planning conversations. Staff generally believed leadership cared deeply about these principles. However, when leaders took a closer look at how the organization actually operated, a different picture emerged.

Over time, different departments had become increasingly siloed. Managers were given substantial autonomy to run their teams with minimal coordination across the organization. While this approach was often justified as flexibility and empowerment, the unintended result was fragmentation. Individual managers began developing their own approaches to hiring, employee relations, onboarding, performance management, and communication. Some teams maintained highly structured processes while others relied on informal practices. Employees performing similar work could have dramatically different experiences depending on which department they joined.

Despite frequent discussions about diversity and inclusion, leadership struggled to acknowledge that these inconsistencies were creating barriers to inclusion. Employees experienced the organization differently based on where they worked, who supervised them, and which processes happened to be in place within their department. The issue was not a lack of good intentions. It was a reluctance to recognize where organizational behaviors were not aligning with stated values.

As confusion increased, collaboration decreased. Employees became uncertain about expectations and frustrated by inconsistent treatment. Teams often solved similar problems independently rather than learning from one another. Instead of fostering inclusion, the siloed structure contributed to division and inconsistency across the organization. Eventually, leaders undertook a culture review focused specifically on identifying examples of both alignment and misalignment with organizational values.

Through those discussions, they recognized that inclusion could not exist solely as a statement or aspiration. It needed to be reflected in consistent organizational practices, shared accountability, and cross-functional collaboration. By acknowledging the gap between intention and reality, the organization was able to begin standardizing processes, encouraging greater collaboration among managers, and creating more consistency in the employee experience. The conversations were not always comfortable, but they provided a clearer path forward than continuing to ignore the issue.

This example highlights an important truth about organizational culture. Values are not proven when things are easy. They are proven through decisions, behaviors, and responses when challenges arise. If an organization claims to value respect, accountability, collaboration, inclusion, or innovation, there should be clear examples demonstrating those values in action. There should also be honest conversations about situations where those values were not fully realized.

The strongest cultures are not the ones that never fall short. They are the ones that regularly pause to assess whether their actions align with their intentions. If your organization has not taken a culture pulse recently, now may be a good time to start. Gather examples of moments when your values were clearly demonstrated. Look honestly at situations where they were not. Invite discussion, identify patterns, and focus on learning rather than blame. Often, the most meaningful culture improvements begin with a simple question: Are we actually doing what we say we will do?