Applying business strategy and psychology to cure workplace dis-ease.
With Change Comes Risk
Organizations in the midst of fast growth, a merger or acquisition, or rightsizing and reorganization, face heightened risk across key drivers of performance. “Micro-fractures” can occur through culture breakdown, talent attrition, morale erosion, and trust gaps, all of which create an unhealthy work environment where incivility is inevitable. Symptoms of dis-ease (i.e., disorder of structure or function) in the workplace can show up at any time, but significant change is often the breeding ground for incivility with costly impact across organizational systems and talent performance.
That’s where early diagnosis matters, because curing workplace dis-ease requires treating the root cause, not just the visible symptoms. It demands an approach to culture anchored in behavioral science.
The Civility Doctor is a management consultancy that applies business strategy and psychology to preserve organizational health and well-being, which is critical in high-change scenarios. Our culture lens and proprietary system are grounded in two decades of applied research showing that incivility is more than individual bad or toxic behavior.
Workplace incivility is a networked phenomenon sustained by organizational structures, norms, and leadership signals. Unchecked, it leads to significant financial and emotional costs. We transform civility from a personal virtue into organizational infrastructure and leadership competencies that drive trust, retention, and high performance.
If culture is top of mind, or your organization is navigating a change event that could impact it, we'd love to talk to you.
Symptoms of Workplace Dis-Ease
When organizational health declines, the warning signs aren’t always loud — but they are costly.
Behavioral “micro-fractures” start small: missed signals, frayed trust, slowed decisions. Over time, they spread through the system, affecting performance, retention, and resilience.
Most organizations see one or more of these symptoms before calling The Civility Doctor:
-
Teams grow cautious, communication becomes filtered, and decisions take longer. Leaders may believe they’re being clear, yet mixed messages create confusion and silence.
→ Common in rightsizing or reorganization, when transparency falters and fear fills the gaps. text goes here -
Two sets of norms collide — after a merger, an acquisition, or even a major departmental change. Instead of synergy, teams experience tension, territorialism, and “us vs. them” behavior.
→ Typical of M&A and integration scenarios, where competing values and leadership signals breed uncertainty. -
In periods of rapid scaling, structure lags behind ambition. Managers are promoted faster than they’re prepared, and new hires don’t absorb the original company ethos. Speed becomes the priority; cohesion becomes optional.
→ A hallmark of high-growth companies struggling to sustain culture and leadership consistency. description -
Front-line managers set the daily tone for civility, yet many haven’t been trained to model presence, clarity, and accountability under pressure. When that capability is missing, small frustrations turn into friction that spreads.
→ Seen across all change scenarios, often misdiagnosed as “communication problems. text goes here -
The organization feels tired. Engagement scores flatten, high performers disengage quietly, and once-healthy teams exhibit cynicism or blame. Compliance complaints, departures, or reputation risks start to appear.
→ These are culture health and risk symptoms — warning signs that the system needs intervention before further damage. description
Left untreated, these patterns escalate into measurable losses in performance, retention, and trust.
That’s where early diagnosis matters: identifying the structural causes beneath behavioral symptoms before they become a larger culture risk and threat to overall organizational health and well-being.
Recognize your organization in any of these symptoms? We can help.
The Cost of Ignoring or Underestimating Impact
What begins as subtle behavioral strain soon exposes a deeper dysfunction - one that weakens an organization’s system from within. When change happens rapidly or without clarity for those impacted, leadership alignment falters, accountability blurs, and teams are forced to adapt to ambiguity or inconsistency causing a form of organizational dis-ease to take hold.
Workplace incivility, behavior that violates norms of mutual respect, is both a behavioral and cultural risk. Unlike theft, harassment, or violence, incivility often goes unnoticed because it hides behind plausible deniability: curt emails, dismissive tones, exclusion from key decisions. Yet this is the infection that signals and accelerates broader cultural dysfunction.
Recent organizational data show U.S. businesses collectively lose as much as $2 billion per day in lost productivity and absenteeism due to incivility. This translates to anywhere from $30,000 – $100,000 per employee incident annually - a cost driven by turnover, disengagement, diminished performance, and the ripple effects of unresolved tension.
The impacts are measurable and profound:
Performance erosion. Teams under chronic incivility experience up to 40 percent declines in collaboration quality and decision efficiency.
Managerial bandwidth loss. Managers spend the equivalent of 16 hours per week repairing relationship strain, re-explaining decisions, and managing interpersonal fallout.
Attrition and knowledge drain. High performers are the first to exit, taking institutional wisdom and trust with them.
Reputational and compliance risk. Repeated exposure to unresolved incivility quietly undermines credibility with employees, boards, and customers.
Unchecked incivility becomes the hidden infection that permeates organizational systems leading to weakened culture, performance, and resilience - until the costs are too visible to ignore. Workplace incivility is not just individual behavior. It’s a networked phenomenon sustained by structures, norms, and leadership signals. Addressing it early is risk prevention and ensures optimal organizational health and well-being.
Is your organization at risk?
Finding the Cure
When the human body experiences illness or trauma, every system is affected. Ongoing agitation further compromises its ability to return to a healthy state. Organizations are no different. During rapid change or prolonged strain, structures and relationships can destabilize, a workforce under pressure becomes agitated, and systems meant to drive high performance and resilience become at risk.
The Civility Doctor relies on two decades of research and best practices that point to civility as the cure. Civility isn’t etiquette or tone management — it’s the infrastructure that stabilizes a healthy culture. It’s how leaders signal clarity, model accountability, and design conditions for trust to thrive under pressure.
Our approach applies business strategy and behavioral science to strengthen the systems that sustain respect, trust, and engagement: leadership routines, communication channels, and decision hygiene. When these systems are aligned, performance stabilizes, retention improves, and teams regain their sense of purpose and momentum.
Organizational health remains one of the most reliable predictors of long-term performance and value creation. Civility-driven frameworks are how we help you protect it.
Learn how to identify and treat the root causes.
-
![]()
Only 16 % of employees are thriving in their roles worldwide, signaling massive room for performance, engagement, and civility interventions.
-
![]()
Workers in positive cultures are 4 × more likely to stay and 3 × more likely to recommend their employer.
-
![]()
26% of U.S. workers have considered leaving their jobs due to incivility. This number is steadily increasing.
Leaders accountable for culture, change, or risk management are under tremendous pressure to keep the organization stable, particularly during times of major organizational change when risk of cultural and performance decline is high. Change events often test alignment, trust, and resilience.
Using the lens of civility is a validated key driver of organizational health and well-being. Our proprietary system equips leaders and their teams with diagnostics, protocols, and playbooks based in civility as prevention or intervention for organizations navigating workforce changes and culture shifts due to expansion, integration after a merger, or reorganization.
Across every scenario, our partnership strengthens leadership capability, restores clarity, and rebuilds confidence in the organization’s direction. Whether the goal is recovery or readiness, civility as foundational infrastructure will ensure successful outcomes.
Explore how we help organizations navigate change.
Reduce Risk, Transform Culture, and Stabilize Organizational Health
Partner with The Civility Doctor
Start Healing Today!
Book a free discovery call to learn how we can help you diagnose, treat, and stabilize your organizational health.
Subscribe for Exclusive Insights
We practice email etiquette and will not spam your inbox. Thanks for subscribing!