If I joined the military for example, I suspect that the dominant culture and established way of doing things is just so much more powerful than I am individual

If I joined the military for example, I suspect that the dominant culture and established way of doing things is just so much more powerful than I am individually, and I wouldn't really have an opportunity to affect change. That is, unless somehow I got promoted to be a general. But then to get there I also might have to do a lot of compromising things. It seems more effective to go outside the system: e.g. for affecting change in the military, use civic action. Run for office and change the rules. This works for fighting against bad companies like weapons manufacturers and polluters too btw, since you can push legislation to shape what they do. ^ The cynical take is that everything is too locked-in-place for an individual to make a difference. But all important changes require a collective. Going back to the original topic: if someone feels that Google as an organization of humans is broken from a values perspective (e.g. lacking systems to capture feedback from bottom up and allow that to shape decisions), the most effective way to change things is not to hopelessly try to become a C-level exec who makes those kinds of decisions. You either need to directly approach the folks in charge (e.g. a union actually helps with this, but also hopefully, if things aren't totally broken, there are internal forums that enable these kinds of interactions), or gather enough internal gravity to get their attention. If you're in a workplace where neither seems feasible, all you can really do is leave.