Netflix recently found itself in the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
According to a recently filed lawsuit, a Netflix executive participated in a company retreat that included a “vulnerability-trust exercise.” During the exercise, he disclosed that he had undergone medically supervised ketamine therapy to treat depression after the death of his mother.
A few months later, Netflix terminated his employment. He has since sued the company for wrongful termination, arguing that the very information he shared because leadership asked him to be vulnerable became part of the reason he lost his job. Netflix has not publicly commented on the allegations, and the claims remain to be decided in court.
Whether Netflix ultimately prevails in court isn’t the point.
The lawsuit highlights one of the biggest mistakes organizations make when trying to improve culture: they invest in highly visible initiatives before fixing the systems that shape everyday behavior.
Leaders spend thousands of dollars on retreats, personality assessments, ropes courses, trust exercises, and team-building events. Everyone leaves energized, inspired, and convinced they’ve turned a corner.
Then Monday happens.
- Employees still hesitate to speak up.
- Managers still receive mixed messages.
- The same policies, incentives, and accountability gaps continue driving the same results.
The initiatives become nothing more than a culture band-aid covering a much deeper wound. Though, there’s nothing wrong with these initiatives (they strengthen relationships and create momentum), if you’re using them to solve systemic culture problems, you’re putting a fresh coat of paint on a building with a cracked foundation.
3 Examples of Culture Band-Aids That Create Bigger Problems
1. Treating Symptoms Instead of Solving Root Causes
Culture problems rarely exist because employees haven’t attended enough workshops. They happen because organizational systems quietly reinforce the wrong behaviors. For example:
- Leadership says collaboration matters while compensation rewards individual competition.
- The company promotes respect but keeps a toxic rockstar because they consistently hit their numbers.
- Employees are encouraged to speak up, yet complaints disappear into a black hole with little follow-up.
None of those problems disappear after a one-time workshop. Culture improves when organizations examine the systems influencing behavior every day, not just the conversations happening once a year.
2. Rewarding the Wrong Behaviors
Every organization gets the culture it rewards.
- If you tolerate toxic rockstars because they hit their numbers, don’t expect civility.
- If promotions go to brilliant jerks, don’t expect collaboration.
- If leaders avoid difficult conversations, don’t expect accountability.
Employees don’t learn culture from your values statement. They learn it by watching who gets rewarded, who gets promoted, and what leadership is willing to overlook.
3. Mistaking Activity for Progress
This one gets organizations into trouble more often than they’d like to admit.
“We’ve done three trainings.”
“We launched a committee.”
“We updated the values.”
Fantastic. Now answer these questions:
- Has turnover improved?
- Has trust improved?
- Has accountability improved?
- Has psychological safety improved?
If not, you’ve been busy, not effective. Activity feels like progress because it’s visible. Real change happens when leaders make difficult decisions, redesign broken systems, and consistently reinforce the behaviors they expect. Unfortunately, those changes don’t make for nearly as exciting a LinkedIn post.
So What Does Work?
We approach culture differently because culture isn’t created by relationships alone. It’s created through the interaction of three elements:
- Organizational Behavior – The systems, policies, incentives, structures, and processes that influence how work gets done.
- Leadership Behavior – How leaders communicate, make decisions, reinforce expectations, and model accountability.
- Individual Behavior – How employees interact, collaborate, communicate, and contribute to the culture every day.
We call this the OIL Model. Most organizations focus on improving leadership skills or employee behavior while overlooking the organizational systems driving both. That’s why so many culture initiatives lose momentum. The environment never changed.
If you’re wondering where to start, join me for our free Office Hours on August 20 at 10:00 a.m. PT
Bring your toughest culture challenge, your roadblocks, or the situation that’s keeping you awake at night. Together, we’ll think through the problem, explore your options, and identify practical next steps tailored to your organization.
There are no presentations. No webinar. No recording. No sales pitch.
Just a confidential conversation with someone who’s spent nearly two decades helping organizations solve these exact kinds of challenges. Reserve your spot here.
Stop Looking for Culture Shortcuts
The Netflix lawsuit is just one example. Next month, it’ll be another organization making headlines for another culture failure that everyone claims “came out of nowhere.”
The truth is, culture problems rarely come out of nowhere. They’ve usually been quietly reinforced for years.
Before planning your next offsite or trust-building workshop, ask yourself one question: Do our systems reinforce the culture we’re asking people to create?
If the answer is no, start there.
Because the strongest workplace cultures aren’t built through band-aids. They’re built through intentional organizational design, courageous leadership, and consistent accountability.
That’s how trust lasts. And that’s how culture changes for good.
