What is a cultural detox?

A working definition from MIT Sloan

cultural detox (noun)

The process of identifying and addressing toxic subcultures in an organization.

A toxic culture is a strong driver of disengagement, attrition, employee stress, burnout, and sickness. But organizations can reverse a toxic culture, according to MIT Sloan senior lecturer Donald Sull. This is done through cultural detox, and the process starts at the top of an organization.

“Leadership consistently emerged as the best predictor of toxic culture,” Sull writes in @mitsmr. “Leaders cannot improve corporate culture unless they are willing to hold themselves and their colleagues accountable for toxic behavior.”

He offers four steps leaders can take to begin the process of detoxing their cultures: 

  1. Quantify the benefits of cultural detox to keep it on the top team’s agenda.
  2. Publicly report progress to keep the pressure on.
  3. Model the behavior you expect from employees.
  4. Track progress with honest data.

4 ways leaders can detox their corporate culture

Working Definitions: Leadership

MIT Sloan's Working Definitions explore the words and phrases behind emerging management ideas.

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