Edgar Schein's Culture Model - Free Template
A framework for exploring organisational culture at three levels - the visible artefacts on the surface, the stated values beneath them, and the deeply held assumptions that ultimately drive how the organisation behaves. It helps you move beyond what's obvious to understand what's really shaping your culture.
Based on our full guide to the Edgar Schein's Culture Model.
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What's in this Edgar Schein's Culture Model template
The three levels of Schein's model on one page - artefacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions - showing how visibility runs down while influence runs up, with what each level tells you and how you reach it.
A summary card covering what the model is, when to reach for it, how to work through the three levels in order, and what to watch for - including the traps of over-reading artefacts and expecting people to name assumptions they hold unconsciously.
It's a PDF, so you can print it for a team session, share it with your leadership group, or keep it beside you while you gather evidence.
Tips for using it
Work top-down, because that's the order the evidence arrives in. Start with artefacts - the visible layer is the easiest to gather - but collect before you interpret, because a single artefact is suggestive rather than conclusive. Then gather the stated values from the written record and test each one by asking what it looks like on a normal Tuesday.
The gap between the two is the useful finding, and it isn't evidence of bad faith - it usually means the values were adopted sincerely and the older assumptions were never surfaced. Reach the deepest level indirectly, through patterns in decisions, what gets rewarded and what never gets discussed. Treat any assumption you name as a hypothesis to test against a second decision, not a conclusion to act on.
Culture Change
Culture work is most effective when it goes beyond surface-level observation to uncover the assumptions that really drive behaviour. We work with leadership teams to explore their culture using frameworks like Schein's - and to translate those insights into meaningful change.
Charity Culture Change
A community trust born from decades of activism, with brand values that felt bold on paper but hadn't yet changed how services were delivered or how teams worked day to day. Sports, housing and arts ran as different organisations to the person walking through the door.
Read the case study →
