Change Management Workshops And Seminars

72% of formal culture change initiatives show no meaningful improvement in employee trust, engagement or retention. Nearly three quarters of the time, those glossy values frameworks, company conferences and culture campaigns don't achieve anything. I spoke to Professor Benjamin Laker from Henley Business School this week, and he put it simply: "Culture isn't a campaign. The more you talk about culture, the less people believe you." And it gets worse. In his research, 59% of employees said every week they saw senior leadership actions contradict stated values. I loved Professor Laker's research because it shows what *does* work: when senior leaders changed their behaviour (whether how they ran meetings, how they responded to challenge, how they made decisions) trust scores went up by 26%. Culture change is about show not tell. Read (and hear) more on this week's newsletter: https://lnkd.in/dc4rexcr

"Culture change" is the biggest lie in organizational transformation. Here's what actually happens: You run workshops. You print posters. You train people on new values. Six months later, behavior looks exactly the same. Why? Because you've got the causality backwards. Culture follows structure. Not the other way around. Craig Larman captured this in his Laws of Organizational Behavior. The first law: Organizations are implicitly optimized to avoid changing the status quo of middle- and first-level manager positions and power structures. Read that again. Your organization isn't resisting change because people are difficult. It's resisting change because it's designed to resist change. The structure, rewards, and processes are all optimized to preserve existing power. Want to change culture? Change the structure. Want people to collaborate? Remove the structural barriers that make collaboration expensive. Want innovation? Create Product Groups with real P&L ownership and decision-making authority. Want customer focus? Merge customer-facing and product development units so everyone shares the same measures of success. Jay Galbraith's Star Model shows this clearly: Strategy, Structure, Processes, Rewards, and People practices must be in harmony. Change one without the others, and the system snaps back. Stop running culture workshops. Start redesigning your organization. The culture you want will emerge from the structure you create. #SimplificationOfficers #OrganizationalChange

Building a strong company culture is a continuous process. It requires more than just defining values and hanging posters on the wall. It demands active participation and a genuine commitment to two-way communication. Too often, organizations fall into the trap of "top-down" culture building. Leaders dictate the values, but employees are left feeling unheard and disconnected. True culture change happens from the bottom up. Think of it like this: you can say you value transparency, but if you look down on people who speak up, your culture will be anything but transparent. Actions speak louder than words. So, how do we build cultures that truly resonate? • Involve employees in the process from the start. • Create safe spaces for open and honest feedback. • Empower individuals to contribute to shaping the culture. • Be consistent in your actions, demonstrating the values you preach. The result? A workplace where people are engaged and genuinely invested in the company's success. Yes, building a culture of trust and transparency takes time and effort. But the payoff is immense.

6 things I’ll likely repeat in 2025 1. It’s not Culture that’s eating your Strategies for Breakfast. It’s your Growing Gap between your Current and Preferred Culture. - Help each other see the specific gaps for a more specific discussion. - You can't do that without a shared diagnosis to establish common language about “what are we talking about when we say Culture” 2. Closing your Culture Gap needs BOTH teams/orgs nudging specific changes in behaviours through new policies, processes and practices AND individuals making specific changes in behaviour at personal level. - Organisations that put all the burden on individual change must remember if many individuals are all saying they have a similar problem in your system, a fundamental policy or process change might be a more useful and cost-effective way to go vs. paying for more training workshops. 3. Spending much time, $ and energy on reinventing a new mission statement, new set of corporate values and new fancy launch of the above IS NOT actually going to cause culture change. - Nice to have but limited in impact. - May further ground cynicism in “same same and not so different” change efforts. - Remember your real culture is the one happening everyday in the workplace - not the aspirational one you print on a big foyer for all to see (and doubt). 4. Adhoc interventions do not lead to change. Sustained interventions monitoring change over a period of time leads to change. - Instead of a standalone 8hr workshop, choose 4x2hrs interventions over a 3 to 6 month change journey, or choose 2 x 4 hrs interventions. Basically have a period of time and # of interventions that works for you. 5. No matter how brilliant they are, sending in 1 Lone Ranger for training or coaching does not lead to change. - You need to send in at least a little subsystem of 2-5 individuals who come out with shared language to strategise better together when they go back to work. 6. You cannot totally outsource change to an external change professional on the outside. It's like depending on a marriage therapist to save your marriage. Nope. It's the people inside the marriage who save the marriage. The therapist just provides excellent, relevant, professional, "outsider-view" support so that the people inside can do their job well. - Even the best externals will fail without excellent internal change makers fighting their good fight within. Make sure that you have enough internal change agents on the inside willing and able to keep carrying on the "in-between" work your external partner started. — If you're curious about #culturechangestrategy and all things #leadershipdevelopment for your organisation, book a slot with us through www.ourcommonground.com.sg

CULTURE IS NOT A POSTER ON THE WALL. IT IS A DECISION WE PRACTICE EVERY DAY. Last week, I facilitated an internal session using the Culture Design Canvas. What we planned as a 2–2.5 hour workshop turned into 5 hours of intense, honest, and meaningful conversation. And that’s when I knew that something powerful was happening. We didn’t start with Purpose. Most culture workshops begin with Purpose. We didn’t. We started with Psychological Safety. Why? Because before we talk about why we exist, we must agree on how we create a safe space where everyone can speak. Without safety: ☹️ Purpose becomes a slogan. ☹️ Values become decorations. ☹️ Alignment becomes artificial. By starting with psychological safety, we ensured everyone aligned on how to: 👍 Voice disagreements 👍 Challenge ideas respectfully 👍 Bring the “elephant in the room” to the table And they did. People debated. People disagreed. People raised difficult issues. And they stayed. For five hours. One discussion stood out. One of the agreed values was: "Debate. Decide. Commit." Sounds simple. But this is where culture either strengthens or breaks. ✔️ Debate means: Everyone must speak up. Including disagreement. ✔️ Commit means: Once the decision is made, we move forward together. ✔️ No silent resistance. No post-meeting gossip. No “I actually disagreed from the beginning” conversations behind closed doors. Because when people stay quiet during debate but resist after decision, we don’t just lose alignment. We slowly nurture: 👿 Distrust 👿 Politics 👿 Toxic whisper networks And culture erodes quietly. ✔️ True commitment also means maturity: If circumstances change and we need to revisit a decision, we openly acknowledge: “Yes, I supported this before. Now new data has changed the context.” 💡 Transparency builds trust. Back-channel resistance destroys it. Completing the Canvas Is Just the Beginning. Finishing the Culture Design Canvas is not the end. It’s the starting line. The real work begins with: ⏭️ Socializing it ⏭️ Cascading it ⏭️ Embedding it into performance discussions ⏭️ Using it as a compass to observe behavior ⏭️ Rewarding alignment ⏭️ Addressing misalignment Because culture is not what we write. It’s what we tolerate. It’s what we reward. It’s what we repeat. Facilitating this session reminded me: 💡 When leaders are willing to sit in discomfort for 5 hours to align deeply, culture transformation becomes possible. If you’ve facilitated culture-building sessions before, I’d love to hear: ✔️ What worked? ✔️ What was challenging? ✔️ How did you make it live beyond the workshop? And if your team is navigating alignment or redefining culture, let’s connect. I’d be happy to share or support your journey. Culture doesn’t change by accident. It changes by design. #CultureDesign #Leadership #PsychologicalSafety #TeamAlignment #OrganizationalCulture #DebateDecideCommit #PeopleMinute #LeadershipDevelopment #Weareloreal

“Innovation is born when comfort zones are shattered. Most facilitators guide conversations—disruptive facilitators ignite transformation. The difference? One informs. The other provokes. In a world drowning in information, facilitation must evolve beyond passive knowledge transfer. Disruptive facilitation isn’t about delivering content—it’s about dismantling assumptions and reconstructing new ways of thinking. Peter Drucker once said, “The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” Disruptive facilitators amplify these unspoken truths—challenging participants to confront biases, question the status quo, and co-create future possibilities. Here’s what separates disruptive facilitation from conventional methods: 1. Provocative Inquiry Over Predictable Questions Surface-level questions reinforce existing narratives. Disruptive facilitators employ strategic provocation—asking the questions no one else will, to unearth what’s hidden beneath the obvious. 2. Dynamic Tension Over Comfort Zones Growth happens in discomfort. By fostering productive friction, disruptive facilitation forces cognitive dissonance—compelling participants to navigate ambiguity and think expansively. 3. Systems Thinking Over Linear Solutions Instead of isolated problems, disruptive facilitators expose systemic patterns. This holistic lens shifts the focus from quick fixes to sustainable, scalable solutions. 4. Participant-Driven Dialogue Over Facilitator Expertise Authority is decentralized. Disruptive facilitators empower participants to shape the conversation—because the future isn’t dictated from the front of the room. Why does this matter? Because in an era of rapid change, the ability to challenge and disrupt isn’t just a facilitation skill—it’s a competitive advantage. As futurist Alvin Toffler noted, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Facilitation must follow suit. Are you still facilitating for comfort—or are you facilitating for change? Let’s discuss—how do you challenge the status quo in your facilitation practice?

THE HOUSE IS NOT THE SCAFFOLDING (Wanted a house. Got a superb, expensive shell.) Loose thoughts from the trenches… Most “change models” still follow an engineering gospel of steps, sequential phases, mechanics and templates. Some of the so-called culture change  frameworks would be perfect—if we were assembling a motorbike. Small detail: organisations are not machines. They are organisms. Yet our managerial upbringing has taught us to worship predictability. And predictable rubbish still sells extraordinarily well—because it feels safe.  The machine ‘that works’. For 25 years, my teams and I have been doing the opposite. We’ve been turning “change projects” into social movements: mobilising people, for a purpose, at scale, while creating the long-term conditions for change-ability. That’s Viral Change™ in one breath. Our consulting is not about landing a blueprint. It is about accompanying the client inside the living system—seeing what is emerging, amplifying what truly mobilises people, and building just enough scaffolding for the real structure to grow. We are practitioners, not preachers. But here is the blunt truth: TRADITIONAL CONSULTING DELIVERS WORLD-CLASS SCAFFOLDING AND CALLS IT A HOUSE. Shiny scaffolding. Impressive scaffolding. Expensive scaffolding. Still scaffolding. The house—the lived culture, the everyday behaviours, the internal movement—can only be built by the people inside it. We walk with them, not above them. And after 25 years of doing this work globally, I’ll say it plainly: THE FUTURE OF TRANSFORMATION BELONGS TO THOSE WHO CAN BUILD MOVEMENTS, NOT MECHANISMS. We’ve been practising this for decades. Perhaps it’s time we stop whispering about it.

After coaching 750+ executives across 55 countries, I keep watching the same culture change fail in the same way.   Not because the strategy was wrong.   Because nobody at the top was willing to model it.    So I built the roadmap to replace the typical announcement-and-hope approach with a sequenced, intentional process that runs from the CEO down through every layer of the organization and ends with measurement.   I call it the 6 Critical Steps to Cultural Transformation.   → Lead from the Top. If the CEO does not model it, the company will not carry it. → Make the Vulnerability Decision. You have to be honest about what is broken before you can change it. → Define Your Vision. Give your people something worth working toward. → Transform Mindsets, Behaviors, Culture. Change how people think first. Behavior follows. → Ignite Talent. Build the new culture into how you hire, develop, and keep your people. → Measure, Adapt, Achieve Results. Track the change. Adjust as you go. Make sure it sticks.   The difference between a culture program and a culture transformation is simple.   A program tells your people what to do.   A transformation shows them how to be.   When you do all six, your people stop watching the change and start being it.   P.S. If you mapped your organization against these six, which step is your strongest, and which is the one waiting to be developed?

To thrive and survive as a change or improvement leader in a big system, we need to be competent. We need to be able to redesign processes, apply improvement methods, analyse data, mobilise teams & achieve outcomes. A February 2026 HBR Harvard Business Review article by Annie Peshkam, PhD (“To lead through uncertainty, unlearn your assumptions”) says that this isn’t enough. She distinguishes between “competence” (doing things well) and “capacity” (staying present when action will not resolve the tension). As change and improvement leaders, we have invested heavily in competence: QI methods, governance, pathways, PMO disciplines. We have invested far less in capacity: the inner steadiness, emotional regulation and shared sensemaking that allow us to hold complexity with our teams. Capacity is the ability to pause instead of jumping to solutions; say out loud what is difficult about a change; keep conflict in the room and work with it rather than pushing it into the “meeting after the meeting”. The systems we work in are in sustained uncertainty: financial pressure, workforce depletion, reform agendas, unrelenting demand. Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends survey of 14,000 leaders found that, in this context, we must look beyond efficiency and predictable results and instead elevate resilience, adaptability, and human connection. Yet our improvement/performance approaches still reward leaders who give quick answers, project confidence and absorb team anxiety. These assumptions shrink rather than expand our capacity to lead. How can change and improvement leaders build capacity? 1) Embed personal practices of pause and reflection into our leadership routines, especially in "high‑stakes" meetings. 2) Start key conversations by naming the tension in the room and giving people time to speak to it before moving to plans. 3) Design our improvement structures (huddles, steering groups, programme boards etc) as “holding environments”, where disagreement and emotion are legitimate data, not distractions. 4) Stop carrying the burden alone: share sensemaking work with our teams, service users and communities, and make that sharing visible. 5) Invest in development focused on emotional steadiness, presence and curiosity, alongside the technical disciplines of QI and "change management". We talk a lot about learning cultures. This article challenges us to cultivate unlearning cultures in addition. The shift from competence to capacity is not a “nice to do”; it is central to our ability to lead change and improvement in the face of relentless uncertainty. The article: https://lnkd.in/e4JmMb9y.

I am one month away from my celebration of another trip around the sun. With that comes a time of celebration and reflection, along with my annual visits to my doctor. Admittedly, the more trips around the sun require a more regular routine with my doctor(s) to ensure all is in good working condition. My dentist reminds me twice a year that oral hygiene is the precursor to good health. Interestingly, culture is no different. Most organizations don’t need a full cultural transformation. What they do need is better CULTURAL HYGIENE—the consistent, intentional upkeep of their culture to prevent slow drift and deeper dysfunction. Culture doesn't break overnight. It drifts—subtly, silently, and often unnoticed—until the gap between what we say we value and what we actually do becomes too wide to ignore. By that point, fixing it requires a much heavier lift. The better path? Practice cultural hygiene. Just like brushing your teeth or getting an annual check-up keeps your health in check, small, consistent efforts to assess and align your culture help ensure long-term organizational vitality. These efforts don't have to be massive—they just have to be INTENTIONAL. Side note: Rarely, if ever, will a doctor give themselves a check-up. ·Conduct regular cultural “pulse checks” to listen for misalignment (Our SimplifiedHR tool is fantastic for measuring the cultural heartbeat of your people) ·Review the stories being told—what’s being rewarded, ignored, or normalized? (Our Cultural Framework Model teaches the three stories we tell when we Show Up, Speak Up, and Sync Up) ·Revisit your values: Are they actionable or aspirational? (Our ODF Model helps leaders quickly see if the values feed the culture appropriately) ·Encourage leadership reflection: Are we modeling the culture we expect? (This has everything to do with The Follower Effect) Culture is never “set it and forget it.” It's a living, breathing ecosystem that requires daily attention, not because it's broken, but because it matters. Key Takeaways: *Culture doesn't always need transformation; it needs maintenance. *Cultural drift is the slow decay of alignment between values and behaviors. *Practicing cultural hygiene helps teams stay connected, consistent, and clear. *Healthy cultures are shaped not by grand gestures but by everyday choices. If we treated our culture with the same discipline we treat strategy or financials, we'd spend a lot less time repairing it and a lot more time thriving in it. Curious how your organization is doing with cultural hygiene? We've created a quick Culture Hygiene Assessment to help you find out—simple, practical, and free. Go here for your assessment, https://lnkd.in/eXt7yp9F #CulturalHygiene #Leadership #OrganizationalHealth #TheFollowerEffect #IntentionalCulture #ModernLeadership The Encompass Group