This article thoroughly examines workplace culture, exploring its definition and the necessary steps to foster a changing culture at work.

What Is Workplace Culture?

Workplace culture emerges from a company’s workforce’s collective behaviours, beliefs, and attitudes. Leadership plays a crucial role in shaping this culture by exemplifying the values and practices they expect from the team. However, larger-than-life personalities and influential employees also contribute to forming workplace culture, adding their dynamics to the mix. Culture is not simply outlined in an organisation’s policies. Instead, it’s the lived experience of “how we do things around here.” The actions, attitudes, and unspoken norms that leaders and employees display daily often define the true nature of workplace culture. This culture grows from the dominant intentions and personalities within the organisation, how people collaborate, make decisions, and solve problems.

What Does It Mean To Create Culture Change At Work

Recognising the existence of a workplace culture that isn’t working is one thing, but creating the needed difference is another. Working with clients, I have found that they can often articulate the primary cultural shifts they need but are at a loss as to how to make them happen. The difficulty is usually because creating culture change involves shifting behaviours, beliefs, and values. It goes to the heart of changing habitual habits on a grand scale. If not understood correctly, it can seem impossible, but it can and must be done.

Why Culture Change Matters

Too often, I have worked with organic organisations where the need for culture change is recognised; instead of making the mindset and behavioural changes needed, they focus on changing structures or setting out new missions, values or policy statements.   While these are fundamental tools to create change, without embedding these changes, then like individuals reverting to well-worn habits, so does the organisation. Practical culture change matters, and while there are many imperatives to creating the change, here are some key reasons.

  • A strong, positive culture attracts and retains talent, improves employee engagement, and enhances performance.
  • Employees are clear that a supportive culture trumps salary.
  • Workplace culture affects an organisation and long-term success in today’s rapidly changing environment.
  • Cultures rooted in inclusivity, trust, and collaboration increase employee satisfaction and productivity.
  • A healthy culture improves brand reputation, customer experience, and overall competitiveness.
  • Wellbeing, positive reinforcement, a focus on trust, and an environment encouraging good mental health are critical.

Why Is Changing Culture At Work Hard?

I’ve seen eye rolls when the leadership team starts to talk about changing the culture at work. That’s not being critical; it’s recognising that culture change at work is challenging without the right tools and commitment.  It’s not hard because it can’t be done; it’s hard because many parts must change simultaneously.  Just like changing ingrained habits can be challenging for an individual, collectively, it is even more so.  Here are some common barriers you might encounter when embarking on a journey of changing culture at work.

  • No Clear Way Forward: Every situation is unique, and few cultural change models will work. Building a bespoke culture change strategy involves understanding the specific parts needed for change.
  • Resistance to Change: Employees may resist changes that disrupt their routines or roles.
  • Leadership Misalignment: If leaders are not united in the change effort, it creates confusion and undermines progress.
  • Fragmentation: Large organisations have subcultures that are difficult to align with the broader cultural vision.
  • Impatience for Results: Culture change takes time, and expecting quick outcomes often leads to failure.
  • Unintended Consequences: Changes can have unpredictable effects, including creating power struggles or backlash.
  • Conflicting Leadership Agendas: Inconsistent leadership alignment and fragmented

The Role of Leadership in Driving Cultural Change

Leadership is the cornerstone of any successful workplace culture change initiative. Without a commitment from the very top of the organisation, it will not happen. Leaders, from the boardroom to team supervisors, set the tone for the rest of the organisation by expressing the values and behaviours they want to see.

When the Board fully commits to the change, it signals the initiative’s importance to the organisation, including the necessary authority and resources to drive the transformation. This alignment at the top level creates a ripple effect, ensuring that all departments understand the priority of culture change.

Team leaders and influential employees are equally vital in translating this vision into day-to-day practices. Team leaders act as intermediaries between upper management and the broader workforce, making them critical in reinforcing new cultural norms and addressing any resistance or concerns that arise from employees.​

Recruiting internal Champions when implementing practical changes should also be considered when creating cultural change.  I remember harnessing the skills of a well-liked, influential employee who was in danger of steering the team in a conflicted way.  However, valuing his skills and sincerely getting him on Board to support positive changes was vital to achieving successful change.  These Influential employees, respected and trusted by their peers, must be harnessed to champion the change. Organisations foster a sense of ownership and collective responsibility across the workforce by involving them early in the process and empowering them to advocate for the new culture.​

As you can see, leaders at every level help create a unified approach to culture change, ensuring that the new values are communicated and embodied in everyday actions.

10 Steps For Successfully Changing Culture At Work

Many change models can help with changing culture at work. One of my favourites is Robert Dilts’ framework, which provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the organisation. The levels included in the model can be applied to individuals, differently functioning teams, and the broader organisation. It can help identify common themes throughout the shift at different levels while allowing people, teams, and the organisation to reflect the differences needed to operate most effectively.

These levels include  Vision, Identity, Beliefs and Values, Capabilities, Behaviours and Environment.  All these levels must be addressed to embody the needed changes when creating cultural change.  While this model can help develop the “what” when determining culture, there are several steps you can take to create a thriving, changing culture at work.

1.  Discover The Current Organisational Narrative

What does the team believe about the organisational stories that have helped shape today’s culture? Use focus groups, staff surveys, and inquiry to piece together the collective view of the organisation, employees, customers, stakeholders, and anyone important in making that story.  Ask people to describe the organisational events, changes, or decisions that have made them draw those conclusions.  Ask them to tell successful characteristics and not-so-successful characteristics or decisions.  Once you have this information, you can determine how far away the perception of employees or customers is from where you would like it to be.

2.  Determine What’s Holding The Organisation Back

A particular HR team I worked with changed their role from being a regulatory decision-making entity to giving advice and options to help managers make decisions.  The team wasn’t working well a couple of years after this change.  In a reflective focus group, it became apparent that even though the team paid lip service to the new role, the new role was resented and resisted.  Once this was unearthed, people were allowed to talk about the difference in status in a way they couldn’t at the time. Changes for the better came about quickly.

Determine what decisions or stories are holding your organisation from embracing a brighter future.  What outcomes are not happening, or what are the intended and unintended consequences of the current culture?  It would be best to reach a broad range of people to get this feedback, people with diverse views and styles.

3. Change The Story

Being able to fully harness the power of imagination and develop a vision for the future is crucial.  Tell the story of the vision.  What will it look like, feel like, and sound like?  What will people be saying about the organisation’s imagined future? How will employees think about working for the organisation? Some questions you can use to describe the future you want to create.  If you use Dilts model, then be clear about what each level will look like.  Use feedback mechanisms to bring out doubts, limiting beliefs and different ideas about the vision to the surface. Then, find ways to strengthen belief, faith and patience about achieving the outcome.

4. Get Buy-In Right Across The Organisation

Float the new story across the organisation, including team leaders, employees, and those champions we discussed.  Get feedback and identify the difficulties and the quick wins.  Make sure people know the benefits for them.  If you can’t articulate what the new vision and culture will mean for everyone, then it isn’t going to succeed, and progress will be extraordinarily slow.   Once you have all the feedback, demonstrate you’ve listened. Outline any changes you need to make following the feedback and why.

5. Approach it like a Project

Any good project plan has a clear initiation plan, a research period, and outcomes and measures to show that the plan will work.  How will you know the difference is being made otherwise?  Measurements could include performance improvements, absence levels, motivation levels, staff feedback or feedback from focus groups.

Be clear about the timeline and the main milestones. Ensure each part is owned and people and teams are accountable for delivering. Set out the cost of changes (and the project) and conduct a cost/benefit analysis.

6. Build In Alignment Across The Organisation

Too often, implementing change is seen as one-dimensional. However, to change the culture at work, every moving part must be aligned. Here are some examples of the areas that must be reviewed and changed depending on the outcomes required.

  • Policies and Procedures: Modify company policies, performance metrics, and reward systems to reflect the new culture.
  • Corporate Story-Telling: Make sure any news, newsletters, or publications reflect the new culture.
  • Measurements and Key Performance Indicators: The outcomes must align with the new culture. Reward systems, for example, must be designed around these new outcomes.
  • Recruitment and Retention Material: Your recruitment policies, literature, advertising, selection criteria, and people involved must fully understand and reflect the new culture.

 7. Communicate

Communication at every stage and to all affected employees and stakeholders must be consistent and honest. This will involve regular updates, successful outcomes, feedback, and continuously getting ideas. Set a clear communication strategy, including a timescale and methodology, so everyone knows what to expect. Make sure everyone involved is told about any delays or setbacks.

8. Monitor Progress

Monitor progress continuously using metrics and feedback to stay on track for your defined outcomes. Make agile adjustments when necessary to ensure the strategy remains effective. Establish a clear and transparent monitoring system that everyone understands to prevent any misinterpretations or communication breakdowns.

9. Celebrate Early Wins

Make sure the things that are achieved are celebrated.  Call out those people who have helped make things happen.  Don’t just reward achievements; celebrate progress across the whole change plan.  Don’t just celebrate with the project team; celebrate with the Board, teams, stakeholders and, where appropriate, the outside world.

10. Make Culture Change A Continuous Process

Once you embark on the journey of changing the culture at work, you realise you are never a once-done entity.  While devising, embedding and delivering on such a change, one of the key components is making sure that moving on is a continuous process.  Encourage leaders and employees to view culture as a living aspect of the organisation, which constantly evolves.

  • About the Author
  • Latest Posts

I help leaders develop self- mastery, helping them to become confident in their own inner guidance.

I collaborate with leadership experts, managers and HR professionals to help them get their own message and unique services and products to a wide audience.

peopledevelopmentmagazine.com