How Leaders Expand Capacity: Hidden Culture Brought to Light
Photo Credit: Dieter Mueller | Unsplash
How honesty, curiosity, and care can build trust, partnership, and results
Unspoken opinions, tensions, and pressures can build in an organization and do not always manifest as open conflict. Sometimes, they sit just below the surface in hallway conversations, in what gets said out of earshot, in what people avoid saying, and in what everyone “knows” but no one says out loud.
Being a good leader means understanding this and stepping up to create an opening for what needs to be spoken, heard, and worked on. If this is handled with discernment, skill, and care, team members will not shut down. Instead, they’ll feel listened to. They’ll expand their capacity to think, speak, and move forward together.
We all perform better when we feel seen, heard, safe to say what is lurking just below the surface, and challenged without being flattened. Ultimately, we feel respected. And this is good.
Understanding Hidden Culture in Organizations
(A Core Focus in Executive Coaching and Leadership Development)
A helpful frame we love to use in order to understand this idea comes from Edgar Schein, a former professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He described organizational culture as operating at three levels: artifacts (surface), espoused values and beliefs (persona), and underlying assumptions (underworld). Artifacts are what we can see and hear. Espoused values are what an organization says it believes. Underlying assumptions are the deeper, often invisible beliefs that actually drive behavior. The metaphor that best illustrates this is the iceberg. What we first see is only the tip. Beneath the surface lies much more, and that hidden mass shapes everything above it. We all know it is dangerous, or at least short-sighted, to focus only on the tip of the iceberg.
Most teams spend the majority of their time reacting to what is visible on the surface. But the deepest dynamics in a culture often lie below that, in what is assumed, avoided, tolerated, or spoken only in whispers. In our executive coaching and leadership development work in Seattle, we consistently see that the ability to work below the surface is what distinguishes high-capacity leadership teams.
Henley Leadership Group Executive Coach and Director of Coaching Programs, Penny Koch-Patterson, recently shared a reflection that offers a first-hand example of what becomes possible when leaders make space for that deeper layer to be named and worked with.
Penny’s Reflection
Recently, HLG worked with an organization of leaders with whom we’ve been working for about two years. We were workshopping the topic of culture and the distinctions between surface culture, persona culture, and the underworld of culture.
Oh, the underworld. When I hear that, I see myself dropping into the depths of purgatory, Hades at the helm, tapping his fingers together, flames, steam, darkness, awaiting the descent of the humans into the abyss. Instead, what I witnessed yesterday was two senior leaders shining a light on the cultural underworld as perceived by the Senior Leadership Team, owning it, and making it known.
These leaders recognized and gave language to what others in this organization could and would say only in hushed tones and hidden corners of the office. And here’s the moment. Upon admission and ownership of the underworld, the room turned. There was more energy and freedom that rang out! Others in the room became more expressive. First-line managers spoke up about other aspects of the cultural underworld in ways that didn’t blame, didn’t shame, but simply as a declaration of their experience. Young leaders were invited in to share and be heard. Senior leaders listened with curiosity and interest. A container was created where these leaders could share openly.
No one defended. No one reacted. No one pointed fingers. The outcome of this day, although years in the making, was a pathway between junior and senior leaders toward partnership, results, and the ability for this organization to serve on its mission more effectively.
Once, I had a CEO client ask me how much they should work on culture within their team and their organization. I said, “Every single day.” He laughed at me. Fair enough. We can agree to disagree, but when I see an organization I’ve been working with for over two years go from a place of massive turnover to one where generous listening and partnership can occur between junior and senior leaders in real time, I smile. I’m awed. I say to hell with Hades, who wants to draw us into the depths of his dimension. Our CEO, Carol, often says most conflicts and issues can be resolved through communication and dialogue. And that is precisely what I witnessed among these leaders.
But that’s not what Hades wants. He wants us to suffer in silence, retreating to our corners, blaming and shaming and pointing fingers. But I say bring it. Bring the conflict and the underworld into the light. Shine it bright so it can be seen clearly, so that we can live, so that we can work on it and resolve it in service to creating a culture where all people can thrive. — Penny Koch-Patterson
What Becomes Possible
When leaders have the courage to bring the underworld of their culture out into the light without blame, shame, or defensiveness, something important happens. What is visible on the surface begins to make more sense. The gap between what people say they value and what they actually experience can begin to narrow. And the deeper assumptions shaping behavior can finally be seen and worked with. If handled well and courageously, people will speak more truthfully. They’ll start to ask questions. They’ll listen more fully. They’ll work together more effectively. And in that space, their capacity to stay present with one another, speak honestly, and move forward together toward a shared goal grows.
This reflection connects to our broader perspective on Leading with Humanity to Expand Capacity, where we explore how leadership behavior shapes what teams are able to hold, navigate, and move forward together.
How to Work With Hidden Culture in a Healthy Way
(Practical leadership tools used in executive coaching and team engagements)
Look below the surface
What people can see and hear matters, but surface behavior does not tell the whole story. Pay attention to patterns, tension, silence, and what keeps happening again and again, then ask what deeper dynamics may be shaping them.
Notice the gap between stated values and what’s really happening
Most organizations can clearly say what they value. The real question is whether people experience those values in practice. When there is a gap, tension often builds below the surface.
Name what people already know
It is incredibly powerful when leaders state what others have only said in side-conversations. It reduces isolation and builds trust. Name what’s true in a safe space where people feel like they can speak the truth.
Respond with curiosity, not defensiveness
When deeper assumptions and tensions emerge, resist the urge to defend or explain them away. (Tip: Some detachment helps.) Genuine curiosity helps people speak from experience and makes it more likely that they can actually understand what is really going on.
Treat the underworld as a doorway
The hidden tensions in a culture are not just problems to manage; they are part of the culture itself. They often point directly to what most needs attention, repair, and your leadership. What is avoided can become the path forward.
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