Organisations as Meaning-Making Systems

When people talk about organisational culture, they usually focus on structures, policies, and mission statements; like culture is something you can design on a whiteboard. But organisations aren’t just systems for getting things done. They are meaning-making environments where people interpret, reinforce, and reshape what the organisation actually stands for.

An organisation isn’t just what it does, it’s what people believe about what it does. And that belief isn’t shaped by formal strategies. It’s shaped by the unspoken rules, the stories people tell, and the daily interactions that define how the organisation actually functions.

Culture is an Ongoing Process of Interpretation

Culture isn’t static, it’s an active, evolving process. People interpret policies, values, and leadership decisions through the lens of past experiences, the stories they’ve heard, and the way power operates within the organisation.

This is why an organisation can say it values transparency, but if people have learned that speaking up comes with consequences, they won’t believe it. It’s why restructures often fail, because people interpret them through the history of every other restructure that came before.

Meaning isn’t set by leadership statements. It’s set by how those statements align, or don’t, with what actually happens.

The Power of Stories in Organisational Meaning-Making

Organisations don’t just run on policies and processes. They run on stories.

Stories shape what people believe is possible, what they think will be rewarded, and what they assume is “just the way things are.” The unofficial history of an organisation, the one that’s told in team meetings, side conversations, and quiet moments of truth-telling, often carries more weight than anything written in a strategic plan.

Change efforts that ignore this fail. You can introduce a new structure, shift reporting lines, or rewrite a set of values, but if the dominant narrative in the organisation is “this is just another temporary change” or “nothing really changes here”, then those stories will override any formal attempt at transformation.

Power and Meaning: Who Gets to Define the Narrative?

In every organisation, there is a dominant meaning-making process and it’s usually controlled by those with the most power.

Leaders might think they’re setting the cultural direction, but they’re often the last to know what culture actually looks like in practice. Meaning is shaped not just by leadership messaging, but by how leadership behaves, how decisions are made, and what actually happens when people challenge the status quo.

 If people have learned that challenging ideas leads to consequences, then no amount of "we welcome feedback" messaging will make a difference. Meaning isn’t dictated, it’s constructed. And if organisations aren’t paying attention to who holds the power to shape meaning, they’re missing the real cultural drivers.

Why Change Efforts Fail

Most organisational change efforts fail not because people resist change, but because they interpret change in ways that make it ineffective.

A leadership team might introduce a “new era of collaboration”, but if past experiences tell people that collaboration means extra work with no real influence, then that’s how they’ll respond.

A restructure might be framed as necessary for efficiency, but if people experience it as cost-cutting and instability, then that’s the meaning that will stick.

Change only works when it shifts not just processes, but the way people understand what’s happening and why.

Organisations as Meaning-Making Systems: Why This Matters in Human Services

In human services, where power, trust, and relationships shape everything, the meaning that people attach to their work and the systems they navigate, matters more than any policy ever could.

What an Organisation Says vs. What It Means

A human services organisation might say:

“We prioritise the voice of the persons we serve.”

“We believe in staff wellbeing.”

“We’re committed to real change.”

But what do those words actually mean inside the organisation?

Do persons who are being served feel they have a voice?

Does the team feel like they have time to prioritise voice, or is it just another box to tick?

Is wellbeing something that actually shapes workload and how we are being of service?

Is change something that truly happens, or is it just another strategic plan that everyone knows will fade away?

The gap between what’s said and what’s experienced is where culture is really built.

People don’t just listen to statements and policies, they interpret them based on what actually happens when decisions are made, when pushback occurs, when things get hard.

So, What Do We Do?

If organisations are meaning-making systems, change isn’t about restructuring, it’s about reshaping the way people experience and interpret the work.

That means:

Listening to the stories already in circulation. What do people believe about the organisation? Where does that meaning come from?

Interrogating power. Who actually has the ability to shape decisions, and how does that impact meaning-making?

Creating space for dialogue, not just communication. If people don’t feel safe to challenge and make sense of things together, then meaning will always default to survival mode.

Bridging the gap between stated values and lived experience. If you say you value something, but people don’t experience it that way, that gap is your real culture.

Culture is Built in Meaning, Not Just Policy

Your organisation isn’t just what it does, it’s what people believe about what it does.

If you want to change culture, don’t just change strategy. Change meaning.

And that starts by listening, to the stories, the power dynamics, and the reality of what people experience inside the system.

Because no matter what’s written in your values, the real culture is already being lived. The only question is:

What does it mean to the people inside it?

Being Humanly: A Space for Those Navigating Meaning-Making in Human Services

If you’ve ever felt the tension between what an organisation says it values and what actually happens, you’re not alone. The challenge of navigating power, meaning, and change in human services is something many of us wrestle with daily.

That’s why Being Humanly exists, not to offer easy answers, but to create a space where people can reflect, share, and explore what it really means to do human service work in a way that honours people, not just processes.

We know that real culture isn’t built in policies, it’s built in everyday interactions, in the unspoken rules, in the meaning people attach to their work. And when you’re in an environment where those things don’t align, it can be isolating.

Our community is a space to explore these questions together, to navigate the realities of organisational culture, meaning-making, and person-directed practice without losing yourself in the system.

If that sounds like the kind of space you need, you’re always welcome here.