Culture survey questions: 6 examples for your team

When someone asks me where a culture assessment starts, I choose recognizable work situations. “Do we have a good culture?” is hard to answer. “What happened the last time a colleague reported a mistake?” opens a much more concrete conversation.

Here are six original questions you can use in a team discussion. They are open discussion prompts, not a validated scale or a copy of the OCAI questionnaire.

Six questions that make culture concrete

• Collaboration: when did a colleague recently help you, and what made that easy or difficult?
• Decisions: which decision could you make independently, and which needed approval?
• Innovation: what happened to the team's most recent improvement idea?
• Priorities: how do you decide what comes first when several tasks are urgent?
• Mistakes and feedback: what happens when someone raises a mistake or risk early?
• Preferred ways of working: which small change would help you collaborate better, and what would you keep?

How I would use these questions

Choose one team and a clear period, such as the previous four weeks. Give people time to think independently before discussing similarities and differences. Ask for examples rather than general opinions. Explain who will see the notes and how you will use them.

For each topic, record recurring patterns, different experiences and open questions. Do not simply add the answers into a culture score. These prompts help you understand working behavior, rather than rank employees.

When should you use a culture test?

To explore a personal profile across four culture dimensions, try Werkvolk's free culture test. It uses original CVF-based scenarios. Read the OCAI versus CVF explanation to understand the distinction.

For several participants, team comparisons and repeated measurement, see Culture Suite and pricing. Keep the approach consistent when comparing over time: different wording or a different participant group can explain changes in results.

What should you do with the answers?

My advice is to choose one visible working practice. For example, agree how an improvement idea gets followed up and who responds. Set a review date. The culture change guide develops that next step.