A friend of mine once described working at Amazon as “building a rocket ship while being pushed off a cliff.” Back then, the company’s obsession with innovation made that intensity feel exciting. But today, Amazon’s attempt to reignite that startup energy feels less like culture transformation and more like corporate confusion.
CEO Andy Jassy is making big moves. He’s mandating five days a week in the office. He’s cutting 15% of management. He’s warning against “fiefdoms” and telling employees to be scrappy and act like owners. And he’s saying—explicitly—that Amazon is a meritocracy now. “It’s not how charismatic you are,” Jassy told employees in a recent internal meeting. “It’s what we actually get done for customers. That is what we reward.”
These declarations were covered in detail by both Business Insider and TheStreet, painting a picture of a company undergoing a dramatic shift—one that sounds bold on the surface, but underneath reveals something far more disjointed.
It started with the return-to-office push. Employees were already required to come in three days a week. But Jassy upped that to five, claiming that in-person collaboration is “simpler and more effective.” Instead of energizing the workforce, the move sparked backlash and sent many employees looking for new jobs. And the response wasn’t to listen or adapt—it was to double down.
Next came the manager cuts. Jassy wants fewer layers and more speed. That’s fair—no one wants bloated middle management. But cutting managers isn’t just a numbers game. When roles disappear, the work doesn’t. It either piles onto already maxed-out employees or falls through the cracks. Without a clear plan to replace the support those managers provided, speed turns into chaos. Accountability turns into burnout.
And then there’s the rhetoric around meritocracy. The idea that performance should matter more than politics is appealing. But in practice, cultures that emphasize results without transparency often end up rewarding the loudest, not the best. Who defines “merit”? Who tracks outcomes? And are all employees equally set up to succeed?
This is the fundamental issue: leadership is trying to overhaul culture through structure. But culture isn’t structure. It’s belief, behavior, and systems working in alignment. You can’t create a culture of ownership by simply telling people, “This is your company.” You have to treat them like owners. That means trusting them to work how and where they’re most effective. It means explaining changes before announcing them. It means acknowledging fear and uncertainty, not pretending they don’t exist.
What’s happening at Amazon is not a culture transformation—it’s a strategy shift dressed up in culture language. And it’s revealing something important for every leader to pay attention to: you cannot change culture through force. You change it by creating clarity, reinforcing the right behaviors, and aligning systems to support the outcomes you want. That takes time, consistency, and—perhaps most importantly—listening.
Jassy says the company needs to move faster. But sometimes, the fastest way to move forward is to pause, ask how your people are actually doing, and build belief from the inside out. Culture isn’t scrappy. It’s strategic. And right now, Amazon’s culture playbook looks like it’s still being written on the fly.
Elsewhere In Culture
https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/disney-shareholders-reject-anti-lgbtq-proposal-hrc-1236343702/
At this week’s annual shareholder meeting, Disney made more than a statement—it reaffirmed its cultural values. With an overwhelming 99% of shareholders voting against a proposal to sever ties with the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index, Disney sent a clear message: inclusion isn’t just good ethics, it’s good business. If culture is shared beliefs—Disney shareholers have spoken about their beliefs. They’re saying that equality isn’t a distraction from results—it’s a driver of them. When organizations align their values with their behaviors, trust is built—not just internally, but with customers and shareholders. That kind of clarity in culture gives leaders the confidence to act decisively, even in the face of public scrutiny.
But culture isn’t static—it evolves. Disney, like many companies, has scaled back formal DEI initiatives, including its “Reimagine Tomorrow” campaign. Yet despite those shifts, this week’s vote revealed a deeper truth: when culture is embedded into the fabric of an organization, it doesn’t vanish with a policy change. It shows up in decisions, in shareholder sentiment, and in the everyday choices leaders make. The strongest cultures aren’t built on trends or checklists—they’re built on consistency, accountability, and a shared belief in what drives long-term success.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pamdanziger/2025/03/03/target-loses-and-costco-wins-in-web-traffic-on-feb-28-economic-blackout-day/
And speaking of business decisions—when Target scaled back its DEI goals earlier this year, they may not have expected to see a measurable dip in loyalty. But on February 28, during The People’s Union USA’s Economic Blackout, Target’s web and app traffic dropped significantly—while Costco’s rose. The two companies weren’t directly compared for their DEI policies, but the correlation is hard to ignore. Target had recently announced the conclusion of its three-year DEI goals, while Costco reaffirmed its commitment. That context matters. Culture isn’t just internal—customers are paying attention, and they’re making values-based decisions with their wallets.
This is a reminder that workplace culture doesn’t live in a vacuum. It reverberates through every touchpoint—employee retention, brand reputation, and yes, even website traffic. When companies walk back public commitments to equity or inclusion, they risk signaling to both employees and customers that culture is conditional. That erodes trust. Whether it’s a hiring decision, a proxy vote, or a subtle change in messaging, culture cues are always being read. And in this case, app users—some of the most loyal customers—read them loud and clear.
https://youtu.be/IAsrzW-uuNc?si=b7XCxSVPcJFkF6v-
What if the key to better business results wasn’t another initiative but a shift in mindset?
This week on Culture Leaders, I sat down with Peter Stavros, Co-Head of Global Private Equity at KKR and founder of Ownership Works, to talk about employee ownership and the surprising role of CEO empathy in making it work.
Pete’s team at KKR is pioneering empathy gyms to help leaders develop the empathy needed to build real ownership cultures. The result? Lower turnover, higher engagement, and frontline employees receiving life-changing payouts—sometimes 6.5 times their annual salary.
If 97% of Americans don’t even know employee ownership is an option, how do we change that?