Embedding organisational culture
Embedding organisational culture with your people - helping the culture you want stay true, and re-energising it when other things crowd it out.
Embedding organisational culture so it stays true to what you agreed and keeps growing through change and uncertainty. We work alongside your leaders as change partners, looking together at what’s helping your culture grow and what’s getting in its way. Then we’d find practical ways to re-energise it when other things have crowded it out - often small changes to how you already work, sometimes something new. You choose how much of that you hold and how much we hold, and the balance can shift over time.
When embedding culture change might help
Embedding culture change is for when you know the culture you want, and it’s already part of how you work - or was, before other things took over. If you’d like a fuller picture of your culture today, an organisational culture assessment can help. If you’re still shaping the culture you’d like to create, target culture design might suit you better. And if you’re ready to put a new culture into practice, a culture change programme could be the place to start. Here are some of the moments that bring people to us for help embedding their culture.
The situation | How embedding culture change might help |
|---|---|
You agreed the culture you wanted a while ago, and other things have taken over | Looks with your leaders at what’s still working, and finds practical ways to re-energise it. |
A culture change programme is coming to an end | Helps you plan how the culture keeps growing once the programme steps back, with your own leaders carrying it forward. |
New leaders are joining | Helps them understand the culture you’ve built and make it their own, so it carries on through the change at the top. |
You’re growing quickly | Helps new people pick up the culture in their first few weeks, and keeps what’s shared clear as new teams form. |
A restructure, merger or new strategy is on the way | Helps your culture stay steady through it, and adapt where the new direction asks for something different. See our post-merger integration work. |
Things feel a little tired, and no one can say quite why | Gives you a light read of how the culture is doing, and fresh ideas to re-energise it. |
Teams have each grown their own version | Helps you see what’s still shared and where local differences are healthy, then strengthens the common ground without flattening what each team does well. |
You’d like to rely less on outside help | Grows the skills inside your organisation - in leaders, managers and internal facilitators - so you can keep cultivating the culture yourselves. |
What embedding culture change might involve
Every approach to embedding culture change is different, so we’d shape it with you around your size, what’s changing and how involved you’d like us to be. Often it starts with re-energising a culture that other things have pushed aside, then helping it grow stronger from there. Everything comes back to the culture you want to create - the principles that guide decisions, the practices that make joining up easy, and the environment that makes the right thing natural.
Getting clear on what you’re cultivating
We’d start with your leaders by coming back to the culture you want to create, and making sure everyone can picture it on an ordinary working day. If it was agreed a while ago, parts of it may need putting into today’s words, since new people have joined and the work has moved on. We’d also look at what’s already working well, because that’s usually the best place to grow from.
Together we’d agree a handful of signs that tell you it’s growing - principles coming up when decisions are made, say, or teams reaching for the same practices without being asked. They give everyone something to look for, and a way to tell whether what we try is helping.
Seeing how your culture is growing
How would you know if your culture was growing, or fading into the background? We’d help you set up a light way of noticing, built into things you already do - a few minutes in team meetings, say, or some questions added to a survey you already run.
Now and then, a fuller read can help. States of Vitality looks at eight areas of organisational health, including culture, and shows where things differ across teams and levels, so you can see what’s thriving as well as what’s fading.
Re-energising your culture
When other things have crowded your culture out, we’d work with your leaders to understand why, and find practical ways to make room for it again.
We’d usually start by looking for teams where the culture is thriving under the same pressures as everyone else. This is called positive deviance, and it shows what works in your own setting, so other teams can adapt it. We might also try small experiments with a few willing teams, like using a principle as a question in planning meetings, or changing how good work gets noticed, then build on what helps.
Sometimes something bigger is useful, like a session that retells the story of your culture with everyone, or a fresh look at how a practice fits the way teams work now. We’d suggest what seems most likely to help, and you decide.
Helping leaders tend it day to day
We’d work with your leaders on the everyday things that shape culture most - what they notice and ask about, and which decisions they make by your principles. That might be leadership team sessions on how the culture is doing, or coaching where it helps. Small habits make a difference too, like opening a decision with one of your principles as a question.
We’d also help leaders agree a few things they’ll carry on doing once other priorities arrive, and check in on them together.
Growing the skills inside your organisation
Alongside leaders, we’d help build the skills to cultivate your culture across the organisation, so it doesn’t depend on a few people, or on us. That might include:
- Internal facilitators who can run culture sessions and team conversations without us.
- Managers bringing the culture into routines they already have, like one-to-ones and team meetings.
- The people others listen to, meeting now and then to share what they’re seeing and try ideas in their own teams.
- New leaders, so they can pick up the culture quickly and make it their own.
Keeping your culture true through change
When something big is changing - a restructure, a new strategy, a merger or fast growth - we’d help you think through what it means for your culture before it lands, so the culture can stay steady through it. A new structure might separate teams that used to work closely, and a new strategy might ask for a principle you haven’t needed before.
We’d also look with you at the things around your teams that tell people what really counts, like recognition, appraisals, recruitment and induction, so they go on backing the culture as the organisation changes. And where the new direction asks for something different, we’d help you adapt the culture with care, changing only the parts that need it.
Leaving room for your culture to grow
Together we’d work out which parts of your culture need to stay shared across the organisation, and where local differences are healthy - a team adapting a practice to fit its work, say, or finding a better way of doing something. We’d help teams share what they find, so others can borrow what’s useful.
How much you hold, and how much we hold
How involved we are is up to you, and it can change over time. Some organisations like a regular rhythm with us - a session with the leadership team every few months, say, and a fuller read once a year. Others call on us when something changes, or when they’d like a fresh view. There’s no heavy retainer either way, and our aim is that you’ll need us less as time goes on.
A lighter approach might be a few sessions with your leadership team and a simple way to see how things are going. A deeper one might run across the whole organisation for a year or more, with internal facilitators trained, a fuller read, and changes to how people are recruited and recognised.
The thinking behind it
Culture keeps changing whether anyone tends it or not, because it grows from what people do every day. Like a garden, it does best with regular care - noticing what’s growing, and making room for it. Embedding your culture is that care, done steadily over time by the people who know the organisation best, with help from us when it’s useful.
What success might look like
Success for embedding culture change is the culture you want growing stronger in everyday work, with your own people looking after it. The signs we’d agree with you at the start are specific to you, but they often include things like:
- Leaders talking about the culture in their own words, and still making time for it when other priorities arrive.
- Principles coming up in real decisions, including the difficult ones.
- Teams reaching for shared practices without being asked, in a form that fits their work.
- People suggesting better ways of working, rather than waiting to be told - a sign they’ve made the culture their own.
- New starters and new leaders picking up the culture quickly.
- Recognition, appraisals and recruitment still backing the culture after a restructure or a change at the top.
- Your own people running check-ins and culture sessions, without needing us in the room.
Some signs appear within weeks, like the culture coming back into leadership conversations. Others, like the culture staying steady through a restructure, take longer to see.
Over time, looking after your culture becomes part of how your leaders work, with a simple way to see how it’s growing. What happens after that is up to you. Many organisations carry on themselves. Others like having us nearby for a fuller read now and then, or when something big changes. And if it turns out you need something lighter than you expected, we’ll say so.
Common questions
Is embedding culture change the same as sustaining culture change?
Pretty much. Both are about helping a culture last once it’s part of how you work. We think of it as cultivating your culture, since cultures keep changing whether anyone tends them or not. So the aim is a culture that stays true to what you want and grows stronger with your organisation.
Can you help re-energise a culture that’s faded into the background?
Yes, that’s often where this work starts. We’d look with your leaders at what’s still working and what’s been crowding the culture out, then try a few practical ideas to bring it back into everyday work, and build on what helps.
Do we need to have worked with you on our culture before?
No. Many organisations come to us with a culture they shaped themselves, or with earlier work someone else helped with. We’d start by getting to know the culture you want and how it’s going today.
How is this different from a culture change programme?
A culture change programme puts a new culture into practice across the organisation, usually over a set period. Embedding culture change is ongoing - helping a culture you already have grow stronger and stay true as things change. Some organisations move from one to the other, and others start here.
Our culture is changing anyway. Should we try to stop that?
No, and it would be hard to. A culture that’s working well grows as people bring their own experience to it. What matters is that the parts you want to share stay shared, and that the changes are ones you’ve chosen. We’d help you see which is which.
Will we come to depend on you?
We hope not. Growing the skills inside your organisation is part of the work from the start - in leaders, managers, internal facilitators and the people others listen to - so you can carry on without us. Our aim is that you’ll need us less as time goes on.
How often would we work together?
Whatever suits you. Some organisations like a regular rhythm, such as a leadership team session every few months and a fuller read once a year. Others call on us when something changes. It can shift over time, and there’s no heavy retainer.
How much does it cost?
It depends on how much support you’d like and how often. Once we understand what you need, we’ll give you a clear price before anything starts.
Ready to give your culture some fresh energy? Talk to us about embedding culture change
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Embedding culture change is one of four ways into our culture change work. See how they fit together on our main Culture Change page.
