On a gray Tuesday in late January, Darren stands in his break room holding a stale donut like it's evidence.

The room isn't "bad."

It's just… blank.

Fluorescent lights.

Two folding chairs.

A fridge with a dented door.

A laminated poster that says TEAMWORK in a font nobody believes.

And yet Darren can't understand why his people feel flat.

He owns a 14-person service business.

Good revenue.

Growing demand.

But the culture?

It's turned into quiet quitting with better manners.

People do the work, clock out, and disappear.

Today, he remembers something a customer said offhandedly.

"Your shop feels… tense. Like everyone's bracing for something."

That sentence hits him because Darren realizes he feels it too.

The book, Your Brain on Art, makes a point most leaders miss: space isn't neutral.

The brain is continuously taking in sensory information (light, sound, texture, color, clutter) and building a prediction about what to expect.

And when people don't know what to expect, anxiety goes up.

This is reinforced in something Darren overheard at LA Fitness.

Confused customers do nothing, and uncertainty creates unease.

And he realizes a sarcastic truth.

We don't need a new motivational speech.

We need a new environment.

The Hidden Lever: "Enriched Environments"

Darren researches Marian Diamond's work showing that enriched environments (more stimulation, novelty, things to explore) produce measurable brain changes in animals compared to impoverished environments.

The lesson for workplace culture is simple: if you want a more alive culture, you must build a more alive environment.

So Darren runs an experiment for 30 days:

• He swaps harsh overhead lighting for warmer lamps (not expensive—just intentional).

• He adds one living thing: two big plants by the window.

• He puts a small speaker on the counter and makes "soft start" playlists for mornings.

• He clears clutter and creates coherence—the document notes that coherence, fascination, and "hominess" predict whether a space feels good.

• He puts a single prompt card on the wall: "What are you working on that you're proud of?"

On day five, something weird happens: people start lingering.

Not long—just an extra minute.

Then two.

Then someone asks another person for help without making it a formal request.

It isn't magic.

It's biology.

This is where different employees experience "A Space for Being," where people's bodies respond to rooms differently than they expect.

This idea haunts Darren (in a good way) until his next breakthrough.

Your culture is happening at the nervous-system level, not just at the policy level.

What changes first isn't productivity.

What changes first is breathing.

People walk in and exhale.

And once they aren't bracing, they start connecting again.

This is the doorway to trust and psychological safety—two ingredients every high-performing culture needs but most leaders try to "train" into existence instead of designing for.

The Culture Lesson

If your workplace feels brittle, don’t only ask:

• “What should we say to people?”

Also ask:

• “What are people’s senses learning here every day?”

Because your space is teaching a curriculum—silently.

A simple 2026 culture upgrade

• Make one area feel coherent (clear, uncluttered, predictable).

• Add one element of fascination (a rotating wall of customer wins, works-in-progress, photos, sketches).

• Add one element of hominess (warm light, comfortable seating, a “we’re human here” signal).

• Add one micro-ritual prompt that creates meaning, not compliance.

Culture doesn’t start with a mission statement.

Sometimes, it starts with turning down the fluorescent lights.

Step Into Clarity