Episode 21 - Culture Change Isn’t a Campaign How Leaders Shift Behaviour in Complex Organisations

Cultural change is often talked about as if it can be created through vision statements, internal campaigns, or leadership messaging alone. In reality, culture changes when behaviours, incentives, governance, and leadership signals begin to align. In this episode, we explore why culture is not defined by what an organisation says, but by what people experience every day, especially under pressure.The episode explains that leading cultural change starts with honest diagnosis of the current reality, followed by clear definition of the behaviours that need to change. It also shows why leadership consistency matters so much: people watch what gets rewarded, what gets tolerated, and how leaders react when difficult issues are raised. A real-world style example illustrates how organisations fail when they ask for openness and collaboration but continue rewarding silence, local optimisation, and “green dashboard” reporting.The core message is simple: culture does not shift through communication alone. It shifts when the system makes the desired behaviour credible, safe, and repeatable.Key references:Schein, Edgar H., and Peter A. Schein — Organizational Culture and Leadership (5th ed., 2017).Kotter, John P. — “Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail” (Harvard Business Review, 1995).Kotter, John P. — Leading Change (Harvard Business Review Press). Kotter, John P., and Dan S. Cohen — The Heart of Change (2002).Edmondson, Amy C. — “Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams” (Administrative Science Quarterly, 1999).Beer, Michael, and Nitin Nohria — “Cracking the Code of Change” (Harvard Business Review, 2000).Fernandez, Sergio, and Hal G. Rainey — “Managing Successful Organizational Change in the Public Sector” (Public Administration Review, 2006).Kotter, John P. — “Accelerate!” (Harvard Business Review, 2012).