Culture Starts Here, Ep8: What Culture Change Actually Looks Like Inside Organizations [podcast video]
Culture change is often discussed in theory. Leaders talk about values, engagement, and alignment. But inside organizations, the real work of culture change looks very different.
It happens in leadership meetings where a CEO unintentionally shuts down collaboration.
It shows up when teams struggle to think strategically because the organization’s vision is unclear.
It surfaces when high-performing individual contributors are promoted into leadership roles without ever being taught what leadership actually requires.
In this episode of Culture Starts Here, recorded live at CultureCon – a gathering of leaders focused on building strong workplace cultures – BJ McKay sits down with a group of ADVISA consultants who spend their days working directly with organizations navigating these challenges.
The conversation offers a candid look inside what culture change really requires.
Highlights from this episode of Culture Starts Here
Culture change begins with leadership clarity
One of the most common challenges consultants encounter involves how leaders show up in critical conversations.
Senior leaders often intend to invite collaboration. But because of their authority, even a casual comment can signal that the decision has already been made.
Patrick Howe described how often this dynamic plays out in leadership meetings.
“Be intentional about your intentions.” – Patrick Howe
When leaders fail to clarify their role in a conversation – whether they are there to decide, collaborate, or explore ideas – their teams may interpret suggestions as directives. The result is silence rather than discussion.
Helping leaders recognize this dynamic is often one of the first steps toward creating healthier decision-making environments.
This type of leadership awareness reflects what ADVISA describes as Activation from Above, the first element of ADVISA’s ATLAS model. Culture shifts most effectively when senior leaders model the behaviors they want to see throughout the organization.
Culture change requires connection across silos
Another theme that surfaced repeatedly in the discussion was the growing challenge of organizational silos.
Hybrid work has expanded flexibility for many organizations, but it has also created new barriers to collaboration. Teams often operate with limited visibility into the priorities and challenges of other departments.
These disconnects frequently show up as communication gaps between teams that are trying to solve similar problems in different ways.
When organizations step back to address these gaps, the solution often begins with simple but powerful questions.
What would help employees feel more connected to their colleagues and the broader organization?
The answers are rarely complicated. But they require leaders to create space for intentional connection rather than assuming collaboration will happen naturally.
This work aligns with another ATLAS principle – Trust & Shared Purpose – which focuses on building the relational foundation that allows teams to work effectively across boundaries.
Strategic thinking depends on strategic clarity
Many executives say they want their teams to think more strategically. But in practice, organizations often fail to provide the context employees need to do so.
Kye Hawkins shared an example of a client where leaders were frustrated that managers were not bringing forward strategic ideas.
When the consulting team began exploring the issue, the root cause quickly became clear.
“You want people to think strategically – but they can’t do that if they don’t know the strategy.” – Kye Hawkins
Without a clear understanding of the organization’s vision and priorities, managers naturally focus on the immediate needs of their own departments. The result is tactical problem solving rather than broader strategic thinking.
Addressing this challenge often requires leaders to communicate strategy more consistently and create opportunities for teams to engage with the bigger picture of the business.
Leadership is a job – not just a promotion
Another pattern that emerged in the conversation involves how organizations develop leaders.
High-performing individual contributors are frequently promoted into management roles because of their technical expertise. Yet many organizations provide little guidance about what leadership actually requires.
Mandy Haskett emphasized that leadership must be treated as a distinct job with its own expectations and capabilities.
“Leadership is a job – and that job has skills.” – Mandy Haskett
Without clarity about what effective leadership looks like, organizations struggle to develop consistent behaviors across teams. Performance conversations become subjective, development efforts become scattered, and culture initiatives often stall.
Defining leadership capabilities – and focusing on a small number of behaviors that matter most – helps organizations create the consistency required for meaningful culture change.
This focus connects directly to Leader Effectiveness and Systems that Support Leaders, two additional elements of the ATLAS model.
Data creates the starting point for culture change
Culture conversations often begin with opinions.
One leader believes communication is strong. Another believes it is broken. Employees may experience the same environment in very different ways.
That is why ADVISA’s consulting work typically begins with data.
Whether through personality insights, leadership diagnostics, or culture assessments, objective data provides a shared starting point for conversations that might otherwise remain subjective.
As Mandy explained during the conversation, data allows leaders to move beyond speculation and focus on what employees are actually experiencing.
In ADVISA’s ATLAS model, this element is known as Actionable People Data – the insights that help leaders make informed decisions about how to strengthen their culture.
Culture change is transformation – not training
Perhaps the most important theme that emerged from the conversation was the distinction between training and transformation.
Many organizations attempt to improve culture through one-time workshops or short training sessions. While these experiences can introduce useful ideas, they rarely lead to sustained behavior change on their own.
Real culture change requires something more.
It requires leadership alignment, clear expectations, consistent language, data that guides decision-making, and systems that reinforce the behaviors leaders are trying to build.
In other words, it requires the full leadership system working together.
That kind of transformation takes time. But when organizations commit to the process, the results can be profound.
What these patterns reveal about culture change
Across organizations, these challenges often trace back to the same underlying factors:
- Leadership signals are unclear.
- Teams lack visibility across silos.
- Strategy isn’t translated into daily work.
- Leadership expectations are undefined.
- Culture conversations rely on opinion rather than data.
When these factors align, culture begins to move.
When they don’t, even well-intended initiatives stall.
Want a quick starting point for evaluating your culture?
If you are beginning to explore culture change in your organization, one helpful first step is understanding how your culture is currently experienced.
ADVISA offers a free Culture Check assessment. In five minutes, you will receive a snapshot of strengths and opportunities across the five drivers:
- Activation from Above
- Trust and Shared Purpose
- Leader Effectiveness
- Actionable People Data
- Systems That Support Leaders
Curious how these patterns show up inside your organization? Take the assessment and receive immediate insights that can help guide your next leadership conversation.
It is a practical way to turn a complex topic into a focused conversation.
About Culture Starts Here
Culture can be an organization’s biggest threat to growth – or its greatest opportunity for competitive advantage.
In Culture Starts Here, a special series on the CultureCon podcast, ADVISA CEO Heather Haas and leadership consultant BJ McKay share insights and tactics you can use to jump-start your organization’s optimal culture. This and every episode of Culture Starts Here includes the answer to the most common question ADVISA’s leadership consultants hear: Where do we start?
All episodes
- Culture Starts Here, Ep1: Meet ATLAS
- Culture Starts Here, Ep2: One thing your C-Suite absolutely can’t delegate
- Culture Starts Here, Ep3: Do Mission, Vision, and Values Really Matter?
- Culture Starts Here, Ep4: Do Your Leaders Know What to Say and Do To Be Effective?
- Culture Starts Here, Ep5: For Leaders, This Can Make the Difference Between a Guess or a Smart Decision
- Culture Starts Here, Ep6: Leaders Are Only as Effective as the Systems That Support Them
- Culture Starts Here, Ep7: What we learned from attending CultureCon
- Culture Starts Here, Ep8: What Culture Change Actually Looks Like Inside Organizations