Changing Organisational Culture: What Really Needs to Be Considered?

Organisational culture is a powerful yet elusive concept. It has roots in anthropology and speaks to the deep, often invisible ways people within organisations behave, relate, and make meaning. While many leaders understand that culture shapes performance, innovation, and employee engagement, the question remains: how do we actually change it?

The answer is both simple and complex. Simple in that it starts with people—what they believe, feel, and do. Complex because culture is not a policy or a slogan. It’s a living system of values, customs, beliefs, behaviours, and rituals—often contradictory, layered, and deeply embedded.

In aiming to change an organisation’s culture, a considered approach through the traditional constructions of project stages: assess, plan, and implement allows us to delve into what really needs to be understood in aiming to change an organisation's culture, and why these ideas are important in change

Assess: Understand Before You Intervene

Before diving into cultural change, we need to understand what culture actually is in the organisation. This isn’t just about measuring performance or surveying engagement. It’s about uncovering the lived experiences of the people who make up the organisation. What stories do they tell? What unwritten rules guide their behaviour? What does success look like to them?

Organisations are not monocultures. They’re made up of multiple subcultures based on departments, professions, generations, and personal experiences. A strong culture doesn’t mean uniformity, but alignment—when diverse subcultures can connect meaningfully to a shared purpose.

Yet traditional change models often treat culture as something that can be diagnosed like a machine fault. These approaches assume that culture is visible, fixed, and measurable. But in reality, much of culture operates at a subconscious level. It is influenced by power dynamics, social norms, and even broader societal constructs like gender, class, or race.

A meaningful diagnosis involves more than data. It requires listening. It involves gathering stories, surfacing contradictions, and recognising the informal networks that shape how things really get done. Culture is both the content and the container of organisational life—it holds everything, and yet is shaped by everything within it.

Plan: Defining the Future Culture

Once there’s a clearer sense of the existing culture, the next challenge is defining where you want to go. But here’s the catch—this isn’t just about setting goals. Culture change involves identity change. It touches on people’s values, their sense of belonging, and how they see themselves within the organisation.

There’s a danger in assuming that existing culture is bad, and that the new culture must be better. Some cultural elements may be working well and deserve to be protected or evolved rather than replaced. Real change happens when people can see the why behind the change—when they can connect the new direction to real problems, opportunities, and a meaningful future.

Organisations are complex systems, full of emotion, memory, and meaning. People don’t change simply because of a PowerPoint slide or a new mission statement. They change when they feel heard, involved, and emotionally invested in the journey.

Any cultural change plan must therefore be ethical, human-centred, and inclusive. Changing culture isn’t just a business tactic—it’s a social act. It touches people’s identities and can impact their mental wellbeing. When done carelessly, culture change can leave scars. When done well, it can foster growth, trust, and a renewed sense of shared purpose.

Implement: Allowing Time, Space, and Story

Cultural change is not an event—it’s a process. And it’s one that takes time.

Traditional change models often present a linear journey from “current state” to “future state.” But real culture change is far messier. It’s emergent, emotional, and non-linear. People need time to adapt. They need space to experiment, process ambiguity, and make sense of the change for themselves.

This “in-between” period—sometimes called the liminal space—is where true transformation happens but it can feel very uncomfortable. People may feel uncertain or even resistant initially, but this is also where exciting innovation and renewal are possible.

Importantly, resistance shouldn’t be seen as failure. It’s often a natural and reasonable response to something that feels threatening or unclear. It may reflect loyalty to an existing culture, or fear of losing meaning, status, or identity. Engaging with resistance—rather than suppressing it—can create the conditions for deeper trust and change.

One of the most powerful tools in this phase is storytelling. Stories help people understand the past, navigate the present, and imagine the future. They help anchor values in lived experience and create space for new narratives to emerge. Leaders can support change not just by directing strategy, but by creating and sharing authentic stories that reflect the journey and invite others to participate.

The Human Aspect of Cultural Change

Culture lives in people. It’s created by people, experienced by people, and changed by people. Too often, change efforts focus on systems, structures, or slogans—while overlooking the individual.

But real change asks us to look inward, as well as outward. To ask not just what needs to change, but who needs to be involved, heard, and empowered.

Culture change is not about control. It’s about participation. Not about replacing behaviours, but understanding the meaning behind them. Not about rushing to results, but allowing space for transformation to unfold.

In a world of constant change, perhaps the most powerful thing we can do is build cultures that are resilient, adaptive, and emotionally intelligent. Cultures that embrace uncertainty not as a threat, but as a space for growth and innovation. Cultures where people can bring their full selves—and find meaning in what they do.

Final Thoughts

Changing organisational culture is one of the most complex challenges a leader can take on. There is no one-size-fits-all model, no quick fix. But by combining insight with empathy, structure with storytelling, and purpose with participation, we can begin to shape cultures that reflect the best of who we are—and who we want to become.

Ultimately, culture is not just a problem to solve, but a conversation to continue. And perhaps the most important question is not what needs to change—but how and who we need to include on the journey.