If You Only Measure What You Can Count, You’re Missing What Counts

For my first newsletter of 2026, I’m diving straight into something I’ve been thinking and talking about a lot with leaders recently: how culture gets measured - and why so many well-intentioned change efforts miss the mark.

Right now, many organisations are changing things quickly - sometimes before they’ve fully understood what’s really going on.

Market pressure. Economic uncertainty. AI. Cost control. Growth targets.
Boards want certainty - so leaders turn to the numbers.

Productivity. Engagement scores. Retention. Utilisation.

But when organisations only measure what’s easy to quantify, they end up fixing the wrong problems.

And the change doesn’t stick.

The Gap That Breaks Culture Change

Most culture change initiatives fail because there’s a gap between:

• What leaders assume is happening, and

• What people are actually experiencing on the ground.

That gap widens when culture is treated as something intangible or ‘too soft’ to measure, so leaders end up relying on surface-level indicators instead.

📉 Low engagement becomes the problem.
🚪 Attrition becomes the signal.
🧘‍♀️ Wellbeing initiatives become the solution.

But these are outputs, not root causes.

If engagement is down, the real question isn’t “How do we raise engagement?”
It’s “What’s happening day to day that’s eroding trust, safety, or belief?”

Until you measure that, you’re guessing.

Culture Isn’t Soft. It’s How Work Actually Gets Done.

Culture isn’t what you say.
It’s how decisions get made, who gets heard, what gets rewarded - especially under pressure.

It determines whether people:

• Speak up when something’s off

• Challenge poor decisions

• Take intelligent risks

• Stay when things get hard

When it’s misunderstood - treated as branding rather than behaviour - performance slowly unravels.

‘Unquantifiable’ Doesn’t Mean ‘Unmeasurable’

Trust. Psychological safety. Credibility. Alignment between words and actions.

These won’t ever live neatly in a spreadsheet - but they can be measured meaningfully.

Through:

• Qualitative insight

• Observable leadership behaviour

• Honest feedback and the stories people tell about what it really feels like to work there

• Independent, external conversations

These non-financial indicators are often the earliest signals of future risk or resilience. 

Senior leaders consistently overestimate how trustworthy they are. Not because of bad intent - but because power distorts feedback. Silence can look like alignment. Polite agreement can hide deep disengagement.

Objective measurement closes that gap between intent and impact.

What to Measure If You Want Change to Stick

If you want culture work to drive performance - especially in times of change - start here:

• Where does power really sit, and who feels able to influence decisions?

• Where does silence replace honesty?

• Where do leadership actions contradict your values?

• What behaviours get rewarded when things get tough?

These are not ‘soft’ questions. They’re operational ones.

And they’re best surfaced by someone independent - someone trusted to hear the truth and reflect it back with clarity and care.

P.S. The most effective culture change doesn’t begin with a dashboard or a values refresh. It starts with an honest conversation about what’s really happening - and the courage to listen to what comes back. That’s where meaningful change begins.