What is a culture audit?

culture audit (noun)

An evaluation that determines whether an organization’s culture aligns with its values, mission, or goals.

There are often gaps between how a company’s culture works and how the organization talks about it. That makes it hard for leaders to see how their own company’s culture really functions. A culture audit — combining quantitative tools, like surveys, with qualitative methods, like employee focus groups — can help leaders find those gaps and develop solutions. Diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives often arise as an area in need of work.

“A culture audit allows organizations and their departments to identify what I call the ‘stuck places’ — those elements of business culture that pose barriers to DEI goals,” 
MIT Sloan lecturer Malia C. Lazu writes in her book, “From Intention to Impact: A Practical Guide to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.”

As founder and CEO of The Lazu Group, a DEI consulting firm, Lazu conducts audits that unearth “attitudes, written and unwritten practices, conscious and unconscious biases, and beliefs about ‘how things get done’ that define the culture more tangibly than all the mission and vision statements combined,” she writes.

Culture audits often reveal issues such as treating DEI actions as charity, claiming commitment without buy-in for change, and resistant middle management, she writes.

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