Leading Large Scale Culture

Culture Change: Whose Job Is It, Really?

I’ve just returned from working with a brilliant APAC leadership group in Bangkok. They’re part of a global business navigating a big question: how do we turn culture aspirations from corporate head office into meaningful action across regions and teams spread around the world?

This Bangkok workshop was one of a series of regional workshops I’ve delivered across Europe and the USA in which company culture plans have been translated into regional culture plans and individual change actions.

In the workshop, one participant (let’s call him Barry) put up his hand and asked – with all these plans being made, who owns what? Who is really responsible, and how do we keep track?”

Good question Barry!

Here’s what I shared with Barry – and what I’ll share with you, if you’re wondering the same thing.

Culture change doesn’t live in a document.
It lives in people.
It lives in leaders.

Not just the CEO. Not just the People & Culture team. Not just the regional Heads. You. Me. All of us. And the impact we can have depends on the level we lead.

Let me explain.

Culture shift needs leadership at every level.

In global businesses, culture change isn’t top-down or bottom-up. It’s both. It’s sideways, cross border, and within.

I like to think about it like this. Culture surveys are often able to be broken down to be viewed at the global, regional, department and team level. That means, culture action also needs to be taken at each level. This means the work to be done to change culture can be ‘divvid up’ and shared across the different levels.

• Global-culture actions set the tone:
  Overseen by the executive with company-wide initiatives like the annual culture survey, global training initiatives, global town halls, and strategy sessions.
• Regional-culture actions bring culture to life:
  Overseen by regional leaders through regional gatherings to educate and foster local collaboration, belonging and cultural reinforcement.
• Team-Level culture actions is where the change happens:
  The most impactful work happens here – leaders making culture change through everyday conversations, decisions, and actions.
• Individual culture actions is how we each take accountability for change:

Every person contributes to a positive and productive workplace by being accountable to personal and professional achievement, supporting their teammates and sharing their ideas in service to better customer outcomes.

Culture plans matter – but they are the starting line, not the finish. The real shift happens in the daily conversations, decisions and micro-moments shared between people.