Stop Fighting Human Nature. Start Leading with it.
A modern approach to change that leverages insight, inclusion, and recognition to build lasting momentum.
Executives today face a paradox: their strategic plans aim for better engagement, collaboration, and innovation—yet the deeper forces that influence these outcomes, such as culture and morale, remain stubbornly unchanged. Welcome to the soft issues: emotionally driven, people-centered challenges that define an organization’s spirit but resist traditional solutions.
A senior CIA executive once asked me, “Why is it when I pull the levers, nothing happens?” The answer: soft issues aren’t mechanical. They’re relational. Culture is not changed by decree but by gradually nudging behavior in ways that feel safe and natural to people.
When leaders neglect a human-focused approach to change, soft issues continue to fester despite the high-minded value statements displayed on lobby walls.
Why We Fail to Solve Soft Issues
1. Traditional Tools Don’t Work
You can’t improve culture with a memo, nor can you boost morale with a performance dashboard. Traditional management tools—directives, slogans, extrinsic incentives, and KPIs—are designed to manage operations, not to influence emotions, instincts, or basic human drives.
2. The Tangibility Bias
Leaders, especially in high-performance environments, often fall prey to what psychologists call the tangibility bias—the tendency to focus on what’s visible, measurable, or easy to track. Culture, trust, and inclusion aren’t easily shown in a spreadsheet. Therefore, even when executives demonstrate appropriate empathy, soft issues tend to be ignored in favor of the hard metrics that fill their dashboards and dominate their thinking.
3. Soft Issues Feel Overwhelming
“We need to change the culture.” That’s a common phrase in boardrooms, but it’s often met with silence. Culture feels too big, too vague, and too slow to change. As a result, leaders often rely on visible initiatives—like top-down training, values campaigns, and periodic reorganizations. These efforts usually fail because they don’t connect with, and can even conflict with, human nature. This clash creates more uncertainty—not less—in employees and subordinate managers.
The answer? Minimize reliance on traditional management tools and consistently use a few brain-friendly leadership techniques.
Mental Prompts: A Simpler Way to Solve Soft Issues
Mental Prompts are practical leadership techniques designed to work with human nature, not against it. Each prompt is a simple, repeatable action that nudges people toward better performance, behavior, or mindset.
They are not programs. They don’t require large budgets or a “culture transformation team.” Instead, they equip leaders with a toolbox for shaping behavior in small, sustainable ways.
Let’s explore one of the most difficult soft issues—changing culture—and see how four Mental Prompt examples can directly address it.
Culture Change Isn’t a Memo—It’s a Behavior Shift
Culture doesn’t shift just because you rewrite your values statement or hold a town hall. Shifts happen when employees begin thinking and acting differently—over time. That’s where these four Mental Prompts come into play. Each one is based on cognitive science and offers leaders a brain-friendly way to make culture change stick.
1. Insight Prompts
Definition: A brain-friendly method to inspire ownership and creativity—without pressure.
People resist change because the status quo feels safe. But insight helps overcome that fear by allowing the brain to reflect, connect the dots, and have its aha moment.
How it works:
Ask reflective, future-focused questions. (“By Friday, bring two ideas to improve how we handle X.”)
Allows time for reflection—commutes and coffee breaks are great opportunities for reflecting.
Add soft accountability: “Present your thoughts to the next staff meeting.”
Celebrate and make use of what they bring you.
A large group at the US State Department recently launched a program called Insight Prompts. Twenty subordinate managers were assigned Insight Prompts questions, and they produced numerous actionable ideas that positively affected their culture or operations.
Senior managers estimated that 70% of the ideas presented were very good or game-changing. To celebrate, employees and managers ranked the ideas, and the easy-to-implement, high-impact ideas were approved on the spot.
Why it works: Insight prompts activate the brain’s reward system (dopamine and serotonin), shifting it from defensiveness to creative problem-solving. The result: employees take ownership and feel confident about moving forward.
The co-discoverer of the brain’s insight mechanism, John Kunios, told me, “Insights can have a powerful effect on behavior because they are often accompanied by strong emotion, which leads to a feeling of certainty.” He added, “I believe insight prompting could be a powerful concept for managers to use in the workplace.”
Great leaders don’t force change—they inspire it. Insight prompts, or mental homework with a deadline, turn resistance into momentum.
2. Full Inclusion
Definition: Building a culture where every brain is periodically involved—it’s not just every person in the room.
The story of what a GE union leader told Jack Welch captures it best: “Mr. Welch, you made good use of my hands for the last 30 years… if only you had asked, you could’ve made use of my mind.”
Full Inclusion prompts do exactly that—they tap into the hidden talent of your workforce.
How to use them:
One-on-one:
Seek advice on genuine challenges.
Use weekly Check-ins to draw out ideas.
Ask “what” and “how” questions that encourage deeper thinking.
In groups:
Run a “Quick Win” session—let teams brainstorm without you, then agree on at least one idea right away. Make sure introverts participate for full inclusion.
During staff meetings, occasionally conduct a five-minute whiteboard exercise, “What does the word accountability mean?” Use it to clarify the definitions of other vague words, such as delegation, innovation, and feedback. Again, make sure that introverts participate.
Host genuine, purpose-driven discussions — not just one-way town halls. Jack Welch and CIA Director George Tenet excelled at this kind of two-way conversation. They spoke for five minutes about what mattered most, then asked questions and engaged in dialogue. That dialogue let them share more of their ideas, goals, and philosophy.
Use tools like 1-2-4 ALL to save time and fully engage everyone in the room. (See liberatingstructures.com for instructions and other useful inclusion tools.)
Why it works: Inclusion boosts oxytocin and engagement. When people feel heard, they contribute more—and subcultures begin to align with the culture you want.
Inclusion isn’t just a platitude or cliché. It’s an invitation—to think.
3. Leadership Reviews
Definition: A consistent, structured discussion to evaluate culture, morale, and leadership behavior.
We conduct budget reviews; why not leadership reviews as well? Leadership reviews create a structured space to reflect on people leadership—not just on performance. Conducted regularly and in a positive way, they highlight strengths, identify issues early, and share best practices across teams.
What’s Included in a Leadership Review:
Best practices and stories of behaviors that worked (or didn’t)
Lessons learned and surprises
Soft issue reviews
Managers publicly state upcoming actions, highlighting what to focus on next quarter to improve soft issues.
Why it works: Leadership reviews draw attention to soft issues, avoiding the tendency to focus only on tangible results. When leaders discuss leadership behaviors, techniques, and outcomes, it motivates them to modify their own actions. Reviews gently encourage reflection, learning, and growth—without placing blame. They also make invisible aspects, such as culture, morale, and inclusion, visible and actionable.
Leadership reviews quietly elevate standards without extra cost—no formal training or expensive programs are needed.
4. Weekly Praise
Definition: Small, frequent moments of recognition that foster momentum and a sense of belonging.
Praise isn’t just fluff. It’s one of the most powerful tools a leader has for the brain. A single comment can trigger dopamine and encourage the behaviors you want more of.
How to use it:
Provide one-on-one weekly positive feedback.
Celebrate small wins out loud.
Cold-call with praise—surprise someone with a thank-you from top leadership.
Why it works: The brain relies on feedback loops. What is praised tends to be repeated. When praise is sincere and consistent, employees feel recognized, secure, and motivated to develop.
Weekly praise nurtures a culture where progress feels personal—and people keep showing up at their best.
Final Tip: When you're unsure of what to praise someone for, ask, “What are you proudest of accomplishing this week?” Then give them praise for that.
Why These Four Prompts Work (Cognitive Science in Action)
Each of the four Mental Prompts leverages a different cognitive lever:
Unlike top-down initiatives, these methods are pull-based, not push-based. They let people internalize new beliefs instead of reacting negatively to imposed change.
Making Culture Change Work in the Real World
You don’t need a big transformation plan. Just focus on developing a few small habits.
Here’s how to begin:
Choose a cultural change you value (for example, increased collaboration, faster decision-making, or improved accountability).
Choose your Mental Prompts to guide the shift.
Assign someone to handle each prompt—don’t do it all yourself. (Precision Delegation like this is another mental prompt.)
Add another mental prompt, Soft Accountability: Use weekly huddles, pulse surveys, or recurring agendas to maintain momentum.
Celebrate initial wins and collect stories.
The beauty? These practices build up. Over time, they change mindset, mood, and behavior.
Culture Follows Behavior, Not Banners
Years ago, I saw a large banner at the entrance of the Department of Commerce that said, “Employees are our most important asset.” But nothing changed in how employees were treated. Culture isn’t just on a banner. It shows in conversations, recognition, ownership, and the decisions made.
The good news is that executives don’t have to fix everything—they only need to lead in ways that evoke positive responses from people. Mental Prompts act as the bridge between intention and action, between high ideals and real-world experience.
Culture change can be simpler than we assume, and soft issues can be addressed when you follow this formula: align your leadership practices with human nature.
More great insights and never-seen-before leadership tools can be found in my book CERTAINTY: How Great Bosses Can Change Minds and Drive Innovation.
Until next time.
Mike