My key takeaway from this book is a simple, but reliable way to quantify the culture of an organisation - speak to new hires two weeks after they have joined - whatever they tell you about how the company works is a key insight - they will already be adapting to the new culture, they will know who to speak to to get things done, the right tone and tempo and other valuable things that you could never find out.

Culture is how people behave when the boss is not around, but the CEO can't ask her managers to describe this and expect anything but a managed answer - what she might want to hear - but asking directly, she will have trigger the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle of management and in doing so influenced the answer to the question, most probably unwillingly and unknowingly.