Culture surveys measure sentiment. Sentiment tells you how someone felt in the ten minutes they spent answering — not what actually happens when it costs them something. Here's a diagnostic I actually run, and it doesn't need a vendor or a licence.
Start here: list five promotions, ask four people why
Write the real reason for each promotion, in one sentence. Then ask four people at different levels why they think each person was promoted.
The gap between those two lists is the most honest measure of your culture you will ever get.
What people believe promotion rewards is what they'll optimise for — not what you wrote down.
Sentiment tells you how people felt in the ten minutes they spent answering. Culture is what they do when there's a cost to doing it.
01 · Does bad news travel up?
Think of the last three significant problems you found out about. Did they come to you — or did you discover them?
Everything else is survivable if information moves. Nothing is if it doesn't.
02 · Does disagreement happen in the room?
Sit in three meetings you don't run. Count the disagreements with someone senior. Then count the corridor conversations afterwards.
The gap between those two numbers is your answer.
03 · What does promotion actually reward?
Same test as the opening exercise — the reasons you wrote down, against what four people believe.
Belief is what people optimise for. Not policy.
04 · How is a mistake handled?
Ask anyone to name a recent mistake. If nobody can, that isn't an absence of mistakes.
It's an absence of disclosure — and that's a worse finding than a long list.
05 · Is the standard applied to everyone?
Ask three managers, separately, if there's anyone difficult they've learned to route around.
If they name the same person, you've found it — and you already knew.
06 · Do new people become effective?
Ask someone at month three to explain what the company is trying to do. Compare it with what you'd have said.
An answer that matches yours means the culture actually transmits.
Score each one to four. Fix only the lowest — a six-point action plan is how nothing happens.