Mohamed Atef Elmelegey, GPHR®, SHRM-SCP®’s Post

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.

My co-founder and I have been researching toxic culture for more than 3 years now at MIT. This chart captures one of the most basic but important truths.  Leadership and culture are always entangled in some kind of quantum phenomenon, and nowhere is this more apparent than toxicity. Unfortunately, this entanglement makes toxicity very difficult to improve in practice. Why? Because if leaders are toxic: - They will tend to not care about toxic culture. Fishes do not care if stuff is wet. Toxic people usually do not care if stuff is toxic. They won’t care enough to change anything. They won’t hire consultants in the first place, or launch any kinds of initiatives, or anything. The situation will not change. - Because a big part of fixing toxic culture is addressing their toxic leadership, they will tend to get defensive when called out for their behavior. When they feel personally attacked, they will be less likely to buy in to the culture change process. Managing this dynamic is a tricky balancing act (“No one is saying *you* are toxic, of course, Mr. CEO, but… on the other hand, you do have to yell at people quite so loudly?”). If anyone watches Succession, imagine if a consultant tried to tell Logan Roy that he was a toxic leader. Imagine how he would react. That gives you some idea of the difficulty. - Because they are toxic, they will not be naturally well suited to making stuff less toxic. And the only way the company will become less toxic is if they set the example. Is it possible to fix a toxic culture? Yes, if you have top leadership commitment. If the CEO sets the tone and establishes new social norms, distributed leaders will tend to follow suit. There is evidence that toxicity can sometimes be coached away, and other mechanisms like promotions, compensation, and dismissals can further ensure leadership is culturally healthy. Tweaks to levers like work design can also help (cultures tend to be less toxic when they everyone gets a good night’s sleep). With top team buy-in, toxic culture is a solvable problem. You do need the CEO and a critical mass of key leaders to be nontoxic, though. In toxic cultures these key positions often are toxic. This is why probably the best opportunity to fix a toxic culture comes with a change in leadership, preferably with an external hire from a culturally healthy company.