6. Engagement & Culture
The say-do gap
Measure events, not opinions
Use when
Asked to refresh the values, or to measure culture at all
- 1
The finding
MIT SMR and Glassdoor analysed 1.4m reviews across 500+ large employers. ~Three quarters publish core values. The correlation between the values emphasised and how employees rate the company on those same values is close to zero.
- 2
1. Reversal
Did you see a decision reversed after someone junior raised a concern?
- 3
2. Candour
Did you tell your manager something they would not want to hear, and what happened?
- 4
3. Removal
Was anything removed from your workload?
- 5
4. Contradiction
Name one recent decision that contradicted a stated value.
- 6
System traces
Meeting hours, after-hours volume, approval cycle times, time from red flag to resolution.
“Agreement with a statement can only be spun. Events can be counted and disputed.”
How to use it
Run the event instrument quarterly on a 30-day recall window. Rewriting the values is not a culture intervention. Watch-out: publish the counts, including the uncomfortable ones, or the instrument becomes another survey nobody believes.
Card details
- Model type
- Sequence
- Origin status
- Established
- Content last reviewed
- 28 July 2026
Origin
EstablishedDonald Sull, Charles Sull and Andrew Chamberlain, MIT Sloan Management Review and Glassdoor, 2019. The four-question event instrument is ORIGINAL. Harsimran Kaur Kapoor, 2026.