Theme #2 Culture change interventions

Why good analysis and preparation make all the difference

Anton, Director of Public Space at a medium-sized municipality, sits across from us with his HR colleague. In front of them lies a complete campaign for cultural change: catchy slogans, brightly coloured posters, branded desk gadgets, and meetings around new core values. Everything seems ready for launch. Yet there’s a sense of hesitation in the room. Not about the goal – on that, they are fully aligned.

Alex Straathof and Rita van Dijk, November 2025

The department manages and maintains public green spaces, roads, and underground infrastructure. For years, leadership was strictly top-down. Team leaders monitored staff closely, down to the smallest detail. The result: limited ownership and little initiative. That needs to change. Anton wants employees to take more responsibility, find their own solutions, and stop waiting for instructions.

But since his appointment six months ago, he has sensed that something deeper is at play. There’s lingering resentment within the organisation. Colleagues bring up old grievances but remain vague about the causes. The tension is palpable but unspoken. “There are some old wounds” says Anton. “But no one talks about it.”

The stories beneath the surface

During our conversation, the glossy campaign is shelved for the time being. Anton realises he moved into action too quickly. First, it must become clear what lies beneath. We are asked to conduct interviews with employees, and soon the lid comes off.

In the interviews, stories emerge of managers who were suddenly moved elsewhere, teams left rudderless, and informal leaders who seized power. Of colleagues who raised concerns but were ignored or even punished. Of staff who were promised a say in the purchase of new equipment, only to be overruled in the end.

“If we’d started out like that, it would have gone wrong for sure.”

What first looked like a polished campaign turns out to be little more than a glossy layer concealing deep structural issues. “If we’d started out like that,” says Anton, “it would have gone wrong for sure. We’d have damaged the trust even further.”

Starts with understanding, not action

It’s a familiar pattern: organisations that embark on a culture change full of energy yet pay too little attention to preparation. They invest in communication, training and symbolism, but forget that culture doesn’t change through a launch event or a poster.

Those who want lasting change must first understand before they act. And that begins with jointly exploring, questioning and discussing what is truly needed – not in management jargon, but in real conversations with the team responsible for the change. Where do we stand? What’s happening beneath the surface? Do we have enough culture carriers? And can we sustain the pace and engagement once the initial energy fades?

Good preparation involves four steps — not as a checklist, but as signposts towards a realistic and broadly supported change process.

1. Understand the change challenge

Every culture change begins with a clear diagnosis. But a diagnosis goes beyond simply stating that there is a culture of fear, a closed culture, or even a toxic one. It means digging deeper: uncovering connections between patterns of behaviour, relationships between people, and the beliefs that keep the current behaviour in place.

That takes time and conversations. Ask yourself: how wide is the gap between our current and desired culture? What makes old behaviours so persistent? And how deeply is the existing culture rooted in the organisation? How extensive is the change we’re aiming for — does it involve part of the organisation, or everyone?

The distance to the target culture determines how intensive the process needs to be. Moving from a controlling culture to one built on trust demands a lot from both leaders and employees. It requires a realistic timeline, with interim goals that build on what already works. Be critical about what’s truly needed and set achievable goals that grow from the strengths of your existing culture rather than making a leap to something entirely new. Remember, no culture change is ahistorical: every journey builds on what has come before. The path forward must connect with earlier changes and the culture that already exists.

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Choose interventions that work

The more deeply a culture is embedded, the stronger the resistance will be. At Anton’s organisation, the old culture ran deep. A small group of senior employees had accumulated informal power. They decided what really happened through mockery, exclusion or simple influence. Many colleagues had learnt to adapt to them. “That pattern had built up over years,” Anton explains. “We could talk about wanting more ownership, but in hindsight that wasn’t realistic until the informal power dynamics changed.”

His conclusion: without tackling the power structure, any change effort would fail. “We had to reshuffle some responsibilities and redefine roles. For several teams, we brought in strong external leaders. Only then did things start to open.”

2. Build a credible change coalition

Culture change doesn’t rest on a single leader, but on a group of people who collectively drive the movement. A strong change coalition is the engine behind a new culture. These are the formal and informal leaders who inspire others, persuade them, and — when necessary — challenge them. Their behaviour determines whether the change feels credible. “You need people others actually listen to,” says Anton. “Not because they hang up posters, but because they live the new behaviour themselves.”

Yet this is where many organisations stumble. Too often a project group is labelled a ‘culture team’, even when it’s made up of people without real influence or conviction. Or every manager is automatically called a culture bearer, even if some reinforce the old ways. That’s why it’s vital to ask early on: who are the natural culture bearers of the future? Are they already here, or do they need time to grow into their role? And is the network strong enough to get the change moving?

A solid coalition doesn’t emerge from a single workshop. It’s a group you build, nurture and strengthen — through small pilots, shared reflections, or visible successes that encourage others to join in.

3. Involve employees from start to finish

Involving employees sounds obvious, yet in practice it’s the hardest part. Not because people don’t want to contribute, but because it demands time, energy and perseverance. If you only involve employees at the launch or through a survey, you create not ownership but distance. True involvement means giving people a voice right from the start in shaping the change itself: what already works well, what holds us back, what should we keep, and what must change? But there’s a pitfall too. If you involve everyone in everything, the process can drag on endlessly. Involve people smartly: decide in advance who to include when, in what role, and with what expectations. Be clear about how their input will be used.

And don’t overlook the so-called ‘difficult’ colleagues. Their criticism isn’t necessarily resistance: it’s often a signal that something doesn’t yet make sense or lacks substance. “The people who complained the most at the start,” Anton says, “became our best ambassadors later. They just wanted to be taken seriously.”

The key is keeping people engaged. Do that by celebrating small wins, feeding back what’s being done with their ideas, and keeping dialogue open — even when things get tough. Plan ahead for how you’ll maintain momentum, handle turnover, and keep communication flowing.

4. Create the right conditions

Working independently, taking more responsibility, showing ownership: it all sounds great, but it only works when the right conditions are in place. Behaviour won’t change if systems continue to reward the old ways. If you want employees to take initiative, you must also give them the freedom and the trust to make mistakes. That calls for different leadership, adjusted evaluation systems, and processes that reinforce the new behaviour.

For Anton, that meant less control, more trust. “We redesigned our performance reviews,” he says. “No more ticking boxes to check if things were done by the book, but conversations about how someone contributes to the result.” Decision-making procedures were also changed, giving employees earlier input into solutions.

Every organisation should ask itself:

Do our systems support the behaviour we want?
Do our leaders have the skills to guide people in new ways?
Are our tools and processes set up to reinforce, rather than block, the change?

Not everything has to be in place before you start but it does need to be discussed.

The trap of moving too fast

Many organisations underestimate how much preparation culture change requires. There’s pressure to show progress, energy to get going and so the rush begins. But those who move too quickly often grind to a halt.

“We thought we were losing time by slowing down first. The opposite turned out to be true.”

Culture change rarely fails because of unwillingness. It fails because people weren’t sufficiently involved, because the conditions weren’t right, or because the process wasn’t sustainable.
“We did it the wrong way round,” Anton reflects. “Action first, reflection later. Now we do it differently: understand first, then move.”

Shared journey

Culture change isn’t a campaign. It’s a shared journey in which old mindsets and habits are let go, and new beliefs and behaviours take root slowly. It doesn’t demand haste, but clarity and preparation. Those who take the time to explore with their teams what’s really going on, who the true culture bearers are, how to engage people, and whether the conditions are right, lay the foundations for lasting change.

Or, as Anton puts it: “We thought we were losing time by slowing down first. But the opposite is true. Only when we took preparation seriously did the change really begin to happen.”