The Culture Assessment Protocol

Organizational culture is the aggregate behavioral pattern of the organization — what it does, not what it says. The culture assessment protocol is a structured diagnostic that observes, measures, and maps this behavioral pattern through three evidence streams: artifact analysis (what the organization produces), behavioral observation (how the organization operates), and informant interviews (what the organization's members experience). Each stream provides a different lens on the same phenomenon. Convergent evidence across streams produces a reliable diagnosis.

1. Artifact Analysis Review organizational artifacts: meeting agendas (reveal decision process culture), email chains (reveal communication culture), performance reviews (reveal evaluation culture), job postings (reveal aspiration culture), and internal communications (reveal leadership culture). Artifacts are behavioral fossils — they record what actually happened, not what people remember happening.
2. Behavioral Observation Observe organizational behavior in structured settings: meetings (who speaks, who is deferred to, how decisions are made), hallway conversations (what people talk about when nobody is watching), and crisis responses (what behaviors amplify under pressure). Observation produces data that surveys cannot — the unconscious patterns that people cannot self-report because they cannot see them.
3. Informant Interviews Conduct structured interviews with representatives from multiple levels and functions. Ask behavioral questions: "Describe the last major decision. How was it made?" "What behavior gets rewarded here that should not?" "What behavior is punished that should not be?" The informant perspective reveals the experiential culture — how it feels to work inside the system.