Measuring What Matters – Tracking Cultural Progress
- Colette Botha
- Sep 16
- 1 min read
Are you measuring culture in a way that truly reflects lived experience—or just what’s easy to count?
Culture may feel intangible, but it can absolutely be measured if you’re looking in the right places.
While annual engagement surveys are useful, they often miss critical nuances. To track cultural progress meaningfully, leaders must look at both hard data and human stories. Culture lives in patterns: how decisions are made, how people are treated and how safe it is to speak up.
A comprehensive culture dashboard may include:
Psychological safety ratings (via pulse surveys or feedback tools)
Exit interview trends and promotion data
Leadership behaviour audits
Inclusion and belonging indicators
At Microsoft, Satya Nadella shifted the company’s cultural focus to “learn-it-all” rather than “know-it-all,” tracking learning engagement and curiosity as key metrics of culture. This shift enabled agility, collaboration and innovation.
At Colette Strategic Solutions, we help clients create Culture Health Checks using mixed methods such as behavioural analytics, storytelling, team listening sessions and sentiment mapping.
What gets measured gets managed. What gets shared gets reinforced. Measuring culture is about checking your internal weather, not just counting the umbrellas.