I didn’t go to Finland, Estonia, and Latvia expecting to come home with leadership lessons. I went to travel. To see new places, eat unfamiliar food, walk without an agenda, and say yes to experiences I found along the way.
Somewhere between eating pig tail for the first time, riding through the snow on a reindeer sleigh, wandering old fortresses, visiting a KGB history museum, and getting lost to meet people willing to share their stories, I was reminded of something HR leaders talk about often but don’t always practice: You cannot understand culture from a distance.
Culture Isn’t What’s Explained. It’s What’s Experienced.
In each country, the culture wasn’t announced. No one handed me a guidebook that said, “Here’s how people think. Here’s what matters. Here’s why things work the way they do.” Instead, culture showed up quietly. In how people communicate, in what they share quickly and what takes time, and in how history lives just beneath the surface of everyday interactions.
In HR, we rely on surveys, values statements, and engagement data to describe culture. Those tools matter, but they come after the fact. Culture is shaped in behaviors, patterns, and unspoken norms long before it’s measured. If you haven’t spent time inside it, you’re only guessing.
Context Changes Everything
Walking through historic sites and hearing personal stories reinforced how deeply past experiences shape how people show up today. Context isn’t academic, it’s lived. You can’t understand why a place feels the way it does without knowing what it has endured, what it values, and what it has learned to protect. History doesn’t sit in a museum. It shapes how people show up today.
HR leaders are often brought in to “fix” engagement, performance, or trust without being given time to understand the organization’s lived history. Past leadership decisions. Failed transformations. Moments where employees felt unheard or unsupported.
When we skip that context, we misdiagnose the problem. Culture is cumulative. It is shaped over time. And it deserves to be understood before it’s redesigned.
Different Doesn’t Mean Wrong
There were moments where my first instinct was to compare. To translate everything back into what felt familiar. But the longer I stayed curious instead of judgmental, the more I learned. The same is true in organizations. Different communication styles or leadership norms aren’t flaws by default. The best HR leaders pause long enough to ask why before deciding how to fix.
You Learn More When You Stop Trying to Control the Experience
Some of the most meaningful conversations happened when there was no agenda. No checklist. Just walking, observing, and being open. That’s a lesson HR doesn’t talk about enough.
Not every insight comes from a structured meeting. Some come from walking the floor. Sitting with employees. Listening without interrupting. Being present without immediately translating everything into action items. When HR shows up as a learner instead of an authority, trust follows.
The Real Lesson
Whether you’re navigating unfamiliar streets in a new country or supporting a workforce through change, the lesson is the same:
Culture cannot be downloaded.
It cannot be rolled out.
And it cannot be understood from a conference room.
It has to be experienced. The HR leaders who make the greatest impact are the ones willing to get uncomfortable, stay curious, and listen long enough to understand what’s really happening beneath the surface. Perspective changes everything.
About Morgan Booker
Morgan has over 18 years of Talent Acquisition, Employee Relations, and Human Resource Business Partner experience. She joined The Christopher Group in 2022 as a Recruiting Manager and has since been promoted to Recruiting Director. Morgan’s focus is partnering with executive Human Resources candidates across the United States to fill Human Resources executive roles. To learn more about Morgan visit her bio page.