Workshop with Mark Buchan
Most organisations are lying to themselves
Not deliberately. But it happens every day in the gap between what is said and what is actually done.
That gap is where trust erodes, conflict grows and change efforts quietly die.
The uncomfortable truth
Many organisations proudly declare values such as openness, honesty, respect and collaboration.
Yet in practice, people learn very quickly what is really rewarded, what gets punished and what must not be said out loud.
Over time, the spoken values become theatre. The real values go underground. Behaviour follows the underground ones.
Values theatre
The polished version of the culture that sounds right but fails to guide behaviour.
Underground values
The unspoken rules people follow because they know they are the ones that really matter.
Repeating patterns
The games, tensions and defensive routines that keep the system exactly where it is.
What this workshop exposes
The gap between declared values and lived reality
The hidden patterns that keep the gap in place
Why behaviour change programmes often fail
How leaders can begin to bring integrity back into the system
Inside the workshop
Through the Values Integrity Model, participants learn to identify theatre values, underground values and the real drivers of behaviour inside their organisation.
A key exercise, If Organisations Couldn’t Lie, creates a breakthrough moment by inviting people to describe their organisation honestly rather than aspirationally.
The workshop also draws on organisational games, defensive routines and competing value tensions to explain why the gap persists even when intentions are good.
Why it matters
Most leaders try to fix behaviour directly. But behaviour is downstream. Until the underlying values are surfaced and aligned, the same tensions keep repeating.
About Mark
Mark Buchan
Mark Buchan is a leadership psychologist, coach and workshop facilitator whose work explores why values misalignment sits underneath so much organisational tension, defensiveness and stalled change.
He helps leaders see beyond surface behaviour and understand the hidden values patterns shaping culture in practice.
Forthcoming book
A book is coming that goes deeper into these ideas
This workshop draws on the thinking behind Mark’s forthcoming book on values, behaviour, organisational tension and why change efforts so often fail when the real drivers remain hidden.
Title and subtitle are still under wraps for now.
Register your interest
I am currently opening conversations around a small number of early workshops. If this resonates, register your interest below.