Supervisor Truth: Organizational culture is determined by the belief-behavior systems of supervisors.

Subordinate Truth: In an autocratic culture, supervisors unconsciously create cultures of suffocation and status quo and mistakenly believe the opposite.

RULE: Supervisors’ Beliefs are Unconscious

Supervisor Truth: Engaged employees result in improved organizational performance, decreased employee sick leave, and lower workplace injuries.

Subordinate Truth: Employee engagement is not a function of the subordinate worker, but rather a function of each supervisor’s belief-behavior system.

RULE: Supervisors control and determine whether the workplace culture is one of engagement or conformity

Supervisor Truth: Employee burnout results in lower organizational performance, increased employee sick leave, and increased workplace injuries.

Subordinate Truth: Burnout is a result of suppressive workplace culture, which is a function of a supervisor’s autocratic belief-behavior system.

RULE: Burnout is a result of an autocratic workplace culture and can be prevented when supervisors learn how to function in their democratic belief-behavior systems

Supervisor Truth: The people doing the work have the knowledge needed to solve organizational problems.

Subordinate Truth: In an autocratic culture, the knowledge, insights, and experiences of subordinates are not valued nor sought out to understand and solve organizational problems.

RULE: Supervisors are generally unaware when they function in their autocratic belief-behavior systems

Supervisor Truth: Metrics are important in finding organizational knowledge gaps and performance gaps.

Subordinate Truth: In an autocratic culture, supervisors use metrics to drive conformity rather than learning.

RULE: It is not the tool itself but rather how a tool is used which determines if a supervisor is running a learning or conformity process

Supervisor Truth: When subordinates “speak out,” organizations can solve problems effectively.

Subordinate Truth: In an autocratic culture, it is safer and smarter for survival in the hierarchy for subordinate workers to avoid “speaking out.”

RULE: Supervisors misinterpret the clues and evidence that they are functioning in their autocratic belief-behavior system as insurgency on the part of their subordinate