Let me tell you about the moment I realized most companies are doing workplace culture completely wrong.
I was talking with Abi Adamson—culture strategist, LinkedIn Top Voice, and someone who's run over 800 workshops for companies like Spotify and Sony Music—when she said something that made me stop mid-sip of my coffee: "Organizations still treat culture like a construction project instead of what it is... a living ecosystem."
And just like that, everything clicked.
We've all watched the workplace culture rollercoaster of the past few years. The big DEI push. The backlash. The quiet retreat. Leaders everywhere are losing sleep wondering what comes next, and more importantly, what they're supposed to do about it.
But what if we've been asking the wrong question all along?
Stop Building. Start Gardening.
Think about how most companies approach culture. They gather the leadership team, spend weeks wordsmithing values, print them on posters, maybe add them to the website. Project complete, right?
Wrong.
Adamson introduced me to what she calls the SERN framework—Soil, Exposure, Roots, and Nutrients—and it completely reframes how we should think about workplace culture.
Here's what each piece means in practice:
Soil is your daily reality. Not the glossy values on your wall, but what employees actually experience when they show up to work. Is the ground fertile or toxic?
Exposure is about visibility. Who gets face time with leadership? Whose ideas get championed? Who remains invisible no matter how talented they are?
Roots are where the truth lives—in the group chats, the whisper networks, the conversations that happen after the official meeting ends. This is your real culture, whether you acknowledge it or not.
Nutrients represent growth opportunities. Who's being fed with mentorship, stretch assignments, and professional development? And critically, who's being starved?
When you view culture as a garden rather than a building, everything changes. Gardens are never "done." They need constant attention, weeding, and care. Some seasons are harder than others. And if you neglect them, they don't just stay the same—they deteriorate.
The Truth Problem
Here's where things get uncomfortable.
Adamson shared a story that probably sounds familiar: a tech company with every program you could imagine. ERGs? Check. Mentorship? Check. Great benefits? Check.
And yet, their top talent kept leaving after 18 months like clockwork.
The real problem wasn't the lack of programs—it was toxic soil and a roots problem. In the whisper network, people were warning each other which managers to avoid. The daily experience didn't match the brochure.
"When you're able to have an organization that's built on psychological safety... everything else will follow," Adamson told me.
But here's the catch: creating psychological safety means being willing to hear difficult truths. It means employees can speak up without fear of retaliation. And for many leaders, that's terrifying—because once you know the truth, you're responsible for addressing it.
We have a truth problem in corporate America. Leaders often know something is wrong, but they're afraid to dig deeper because fixing it feels overwhelming. So talent keeps walking out the door, and we pretend we don't know why.
Resistance Isn't the Enemy
If you're feeling discouraged by the current backlash against DEI and culture work, Adamson has a message for you: this is exactly how progress has always worked.
The Suffragettes faced resistance. The Civil Rights Movement faced resistance. Every major social advancement in history has been met with significant pushback before the pendulum swung toward progress.
"History has always taught us: whenever big changes happen, there's always resistance... to get to a good place, you do need to go through a bit of a gauntlet," she explained.
Friction isn't a sign you should give up. It's often a sign you're getting close to real change.
The question is whether you have the stamina to keep tending your garden through the difficult seasons.
The Bottom Line
Workplace culture isn't a destination. It's not something you build and walk away from. It's a living ecosystem that requires constant care.
As Adamson put it: "We bloom together, or we wilt alone."
The question for leaders isn't whether your culture has problems—every garden has weeds. The question is whether you're willing to see them clearly enough to do something about them.
So maybe it's time to put down the construction blueprints and pick up some gardening gloves instead.