About this themed issue

Describing our own culture is often surprisingly difficult. To us, it simply feels natural — part of how things are. It usually takes newcomers or outsiders to make that culture visible. They are the ones who notice what’s different from what they’re used to themselves.

Polder culture

In Ten Walks Explain Everything, Nicholas Walton shows how the Dutch culture is deeply rooted in the way we deal with rising water. He calls this the polder system. If we fail to face the threat of the water together, we perish. Everyone must therefore have a voice. Power differences are small, and we are used to directness and tolerance towards people who think differently. That collective dialogue ultimately leads to collective action as seen, for example, in the Delta Works.

Cultures, then, always take shape within boundaries. National cultures find their character within geographical and linguistic borders. Organisational cultures develop within the enclosed worlds of buildings and digital access systems. Yet that enclosedness has a downside: we are never fully connected to what happens outside our organisation. As a result, cultural patterns and cultural problems can persist. Often it takes a crisis or new leadership to open our eyes, prompting cultural change that brings us back in step with the times.

It’s no surprise, then, that many organisations face pressing cultural challenges. Questions such as: how can we make our organisation more agile? How can we implement innovation without losing people along the way? How can we foster a sense of ownership among employees? How can we eliminate inappropriate behaviour? What can we do when breaches of integrity keep recurring? And how can we create a culture that prevents criminal influence from taking hold?

Hesitations among managers

The need for cultural change — in short, thinking differently and acting differently — has become unmistakable. Major societal challenges show what happens when everyone stays on their own cultural island. Collaboration and alignment are essential to remove obstacles and achieve shared goals. Consider the housing challenge, the drive to meet climate targets, the transformation of healthcare, or the need to tackle congestion in the electricity grid. Each demands cooperation, flexibility, and new ways of thinking and working.

There are countless reasons for cultural change. Yet many managers hesitate and understandably so. Cultural change can feel slow, complex, and uncertain. It raises many questions: what exactly should you steer towards? How do you approach the process? And which interventions will make a difference?

It is precisely for these reasons that this themed issue is dedicated entirely to cultural interventions. It’s a crucial subject, because gaining real control over cultural change can have far-reaching consequences. It can help solve social and organisational problems that previous approaches have failed to tackle.

The right conditions and interventions

An intervention means ‘the act of taking action in order to have an effect on its outcome’, and it covers everything needed to move from point A to point B. That can take many forms. Change is not just about concrete measures in the existing culture, such as reshaping internal power dynamics or offering targeted training to help people adopt new ways of working. It is just as much about creating the right conditions: the attitude of management, how leaders handle obstacles, and the space they create for employees to contribute to the desired changes.

In this themed issue, we bring together relevant knowledge and perspectives on key aspects of cultural change. The main article explores how to choose the right interventions and introduces the Intervention Check, a practical tool for assessing whether your mix of interventions is well balanced. We also focus on how to prepare effectively for cultural change, and how to define a desired culture that serves as a clear and inspiring point of direction — one that people can identify with and work towards together. In a group interview with three specialists, we explore the scientific foundations of cultural interventions.

This issue is also rich in real-life examples. These cases describe culture change processes in practice and examine how different interventions were chosen and what effect they had. Eric ten Hulsen presents a casestudy. He shares his experience leading a major culture change in a large municipal organisation. Erik Gerritsen, former Municipal Secretary of Amsterdam and now CEO of housing association Ymere, reflects on the repertoire of interventions he has developed across various culture change initiatives. He emphasizes that social issues require close cooperation between organisations. His plea: create an ‘authorising environment’, a frequent dialogue between government officials to jointly identify and remove practical barriers that emerge during change.

Resistance, of course, often surfaces during any process of cultural change. What does that resistance tell us, and how can it be recognised and handled constructively?

Cultural change also calls for different roles. Interim HR manager Carmen van den Blink discusses the role of HR professionals in shaping and supporting change. A crucial factor in success is the emergence of a group of new culture bearers, people who embody and reinforce the desired culture. We look at the qualities these culture carriers should ideally possess. After all, a cultural change can only succeed if it is embraced by the people within it. The key question is therefore: how do you create genuine engagement?

We hope that the approaches, insights and real-life cases presented in this issue make the process of cultural change less abstract and more tangible. With the right interventions, examples and insights, change becomes not only easier to understand, but also something you can actively steer.

Several reviewers contributed their expertise to this issue. Our thanks go to Marleen Verschoor (HR Manager, Rijnmond), Samir Achbab (Senior Researcher, Inholland University of Applied Sciences / PhD Candidate, VU University Amsterdam), and Piet Franssen (Researcher and former manager and educator).

We wish you an inspiring read and we’d love to hear what you think. Tell us what you found useful, and what resonated with your own experience. You can send your feedback to: info@platformcultuurverandering.nl