A culture killer is what ruins workplace culture in spite of your every effort. When we were researching our new book, Happy to Work Here: understanding and improving the culture at work, we came to the conclusion that some toxic cultural behavior was the result of people adhering to certain unspoken rules. These rules are unspoken because they are, frankly, unspeakable. But despite the fact that you never hear anybody say them out loud, they can do considerable damage to your workplace culture. it’s these unspeakable unspoken rules that we refer to as “culture killers.”
Over the next few months we’ll be publishing here some of the culture killers from our book plus some additional one we’ve discovered since. Come back here for a new culture killer every week.
The toxic rules and govern an organization can be fatal to healthy culture, but they are, paradoxially, some of the easiest things to fix. Each one is a clear indicator of actionable culture improvement. Once you identify a toxic, unspoken rule, repealing it can be as simple as bringing it into the light of day. When you say the rule out loud, the damage it can do will be readily apparent, as will the work needed to make it go away.
This week’s Unspoken Rule is the one that enables:
Sometimes work procedures are designed by “specialists” who don’t themselves do the work requiring the procedures, and in the worst case, have never seen the work being done. This often results in the people doing the work finding that the procedure does not fit the task – an insult to the people who know better but were left out.
You must have a story or two about the cultures, good and bad, that you’ve encountered, either in your present work or in your past. Have you been fortunate enough to see wonderful workplace culture in action, and to what do you attribute it? Or do have an unspoken rule damaging your culture? If so, what do you suppose was its cause? Tell us about it: cultureproject@systemsguild.com
New in 2025: Audiobook of Tom DeMarco’s earlier comic novel, Dark Harbor House, is now available. Click for details.
Neue und erweiterte Auflage 2 jetzt verfügbar. Adrenalin-Junkies und Formular-Zombies: Typisches Verhalten in Projekten. Hardback Amazon.de
Tom DeMarco’s speculative novel, The One-Way Time Traveler, now available in audiobook in addition to paperback and ebook. Time traveler John Donegal is thrust forward into a matriarchal future, and he can’t go back again. Worse still the great love of his life, Jill is left behind. Any chance of a happy ending here? (Don’t bet against Jill.)
How workplace culture affects workplace performance: We know they’re linked, but now we know a bit more about how and why: Article by Suzanne and James Robertson in Modern Analyst.
Happy to Work Here. A practical guide to understanding and improving your workplace culture. Available in paperback and Kindle. amazon.com amazon.co.uk
The German edition of Happy to Work Here: Betriebsklima verstehen und verbessern has been published by Hanser. Hardback at amazon.de
Two coauthors reflect on some of the unexpected implications that a reader may detect in what they’ve written. YouTube
See Tom DeMarco squirm as a rough critic trashes his most recent work. YouTube
Tom DeMarco gives away one of the secrets of the new book, Happy to Work Here. YouTube
Understand how to dissect the culture of your workplace as a device for improving it. YouTube
What happens when you challenge cultural norms? YouTube
Suzanne and James Robertson’s Requirements: The Masterclass LiveLessons-Traditional, Agile, Outsourcing. 15+ Hours of Video Instruction
A Ruby Beam of Light, Book I of Tom DeMarco’s Dark World Chronicles saga is now reissued in a new edition.