Speaking Up about Organizational Culture Requires Courage

One of the most difficult tasks of exploring the cultural norms upon which the day-to-day operations in companies are based is that they are tacit, unquestioned, and taken-for-granted assumptions that are undiscussible. In some organizational cultures, speaking openly and publicly about changing the cultural norms upon which ineffective processes and poor performance are based is viewed as "political suicide" even if these changes would lead to improved performance and deep, profound, sustainable change. So speaking up about organizational culture requires courage on the part of managers and staff members, especially in the face of real (or perceived) retribution for speaking the unvarnished truth.