Free resource
The 10 Signals Field Guide
Ten things leaders say when an organizational commitment is not landing the way they expected. Mark the ones you recognize. For each, you get a plain-language note on what it may point to and where to look first.
These signals tend to show up before the cause does. Often the message and the day-to-day reality have drifted apart, and no one team sees both. Mark each one that is true for your organization right now. Nothing is scored.
May point to The message may not be the part that needs work. People may be comparing the words with what they see happen.
Where to look first Put the message next to the last three decisions that touched the same subject. Do they say the same thing?
May point to People watch decisions as closely as they read announcements. Belief tends to follow what they observe.
Where to look first Ask a few employees what they have seen leaders do on this topic, not what they have heard.
May point to The employer story may describe the experience leaders hope for. New hires may be finding a different one within months.
Where to look first Ask people hired in the last year what matched the offer and what did not.
May point to Compliance and adoption look alike at first. Once attention moves on, people go back to what has worked before.
Where to look first Look at the manager conversations after the announcement. What did managers have to work with?
May point to Funders compare the story with what they can see for themselves. Sharper writing may not close a distance in the evidence.
Where to look first List the claims in the narrative and mark which ones you could show evidence for today.
May point to Gaps often sit between functions, so no single team sees the whole pattern. Not being able to name it is common.
Where to look first Write down where the message, the practice and the evidence are owned. Who looks across them?
May point to Consistent messages do not offset decisions that point the other way. People may be reading the decisions accurately.
Where to look first Name one decision in the last year that people still talk about. What did it say that the messages did not?
May point to Trust usually wears down through small contradictions: a commitment quietly revised, a priority that disappeared under pressure.
Where to look first Build a short timeline of commitments made and how each one was updated. Were people told?
May point to Values are a claim about how the organization decides. When decisions regularly go another way, people start trusting what they observe.
Where to look first Pick one value and find two recent decisions. Did the value shape either one?
May point to Each new initiative draws on the same conditions. If those are not helping, each one adds to the gap instead of closing it.
Where to look first Before the next investment, ask what the last one needed that it did not get.