Free Culture Diagnostic Tools: Trust Survey & Employee Collaboration Survey

Culture isn’t a poster on the wall, it’s alive. It shifts with every new hire, every resignation, and every unaddressed gap between leaders, employees, and departments.

For decades, research in organizational psychology has shown that trust in leadership and employee empowerment and collaboration are two of the strongest predictors of performance, adaptability, and engagement. When both are strong, organizations thrive. When either falters, friction grows, execution stalls, and “culture work” starts to feel like pushing a boulder uphill.

• Trust in leadership influences employee engagement, psychological safety, and willingness to innovate. (Mayer, Davis & Schoorman, 1995; Dirks & Ferrin, 2002)

• Cross-department collaboration and role clarity are directly tied to organizational effectiveness and learning. (Lawrence & Lorsch, 1967; Hackman & Oldham, 1976)

• Psychological empowerment drives ownership, initiative, and resilience. (Spreitzer, 1995)

These insights form the foundation of the Twin Pillars Method™. By examining both leadership credibility and employee empowerment, we can reveal where your culture is strong, and where misalignments may be silently holding your organization back.

How the Twin Pillars Method™ Can Help

The Twin Pillars Method™ is a proprietary framework developed by Jess Sumerak and Intentional Empowerment, LLC. It bridges two critical organizational divides:

1. Leadership & Employees: aligning vision, communication, and accountability.

2. Departments & Functions: breaking down silos and fostering collaborative flow.

These pulse surveys are free diagnostic tools designed to give you a meaningful snapshot of where your organization stands on both pillars. They are just one part of a larger system we use to diagnose, infuse, and stabilize culture in ways that outlast leadership changes and resist surface-level hype.

How It Works

1. Choose one or both surveys above.

2. Answer 10 quick Likert-scale questions (about 2 minutes).

3. Receive your score instantly by email, along with interpretation and practical next steps.

4. Use the insights to start bridging the gaps between leadership and employees, or across silos, where it matters most.

💡 These pulse checks are completely free. They’re designed to provide you with a quick, research-backed snapshot of your cultural foundation, serving as a powerful starting point for intentionally creating the culture your business needs to thrive.

Ready for the Full Picture?

These surveys are one piece of a broader diagnostic ecosystem. Through the Twin Pillars Method™, we offer deeper tools, like Situational Dilemmas™, Culture Labs, and Leadership Alignment Sessions, to help you turn insight into sustainable culture change.

References

• Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 709–734.

• Dirks, K. T., & Ferrin, D. L. (2002). Trust in leadership: Meta-analytic findings and implications for research and practice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 87(4), 611–628.

• Lawrence, P. R., & Lorsch, J. W. (1967). Organization and Environment. Harvard Business School Press.

• Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(2), 250–279.

• Spreitzer, G. M. (1995). Psychological empowerment in the workplace: Dimensions, measurement, and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 38(5), 1442–1465.

• Focus: Leadership credibility, integrity, communication, and follow-through.

• Grounded in: The Organizational Trust Inventory and Mayer et al.’s ability, benevolence–integrity model.

• Why it matters: Leaders often overestimate trust levels. This pulse reveals the real perception gap between leadership intent and employee experience, providing a clear starting point for trust-building action.

👉 Best for executives, culture teams, and senior leaders who want honest, actionable insight into how their leadership is perceived.

Leadership Trust Pulse

Confidence & Collaboration Pulse

• Focus: Employee role clarity, empowerment, and interdepartmental collaboration.

• Grounded in: Psychological empowerment research (Spreitzer), role clarity frameworks (Hackman & Oldham), and classic cross-department collaboration work (Lawrence & Lorsch).

• Why it matters: Even strong leadership can’t compensate for weak collaboration structures. This pulse identifies where confidence or workflow breaks down between teams, often the hidden friction that slows strategy to a crawl.

👉 Best for managers and change leaders who need clarity on execution gaps.