We’ve worked with dozens of organisations on culture change over the years. Some have transformed beautifully. Others have struggled. And a few, honestly, have failed.
The difference usually isn’t budget, or size, or even how dysfunctional things were at the start. It comes down to how the change is approached. And there are three mistakes we see again and again that derail even the most well-intentioned culture initiatives.
If you’re thinking about embarking on a culture transformation (or you’re in the middle of one that’s not going to plan), here’s what to watch out for.
Mistake 1: Starting with values on the wall instead of behaviour on the floor
It’s tempting to kick off a culture change project with a big values refresh. You bring people together, run workshops, debate word choices, and eventually land on something everyone can agree on. Integrity. Collaboration. Excellence. Innovation. The words go up on the wall, into the email signatures, onto the website.
And then nothing changes.
Here’s the problem: culture isn’t what you say you value. It’s what you actually do. It’s how decisions get made when no one’s watching. It’s what gets rewarded, what gets ignored, and what gets punished. If your stated values don’t match the lived experience of your people, they’ll notice. And they’ll become cynical about the whole exercise.
What to do instead: Start by understanding your current culture honestly. What behaviours are actually being rewarded? What stories do people tell about “how things work around here”? Use diagnostic tools to get beneath the surface. Then work on shifting behaviours first. The values can follow once the change is real.
Mistake 2: Treating culture change as an HR project
We love HR teams. Some of our favourite people are in HR. But when culture change gets delegated to HR as “their thing” to manage, it’s usually a sign that the senior leadership team isn’t fully committed.
Culture is shaped by leadership behaviour. It’s shaped by who gets promoted, how meetings are run, how feedback is given, and how conflict is handled. These aren’t things HR can fix on their own, no matter how talented they are.
When the CEO and executive team aren’t visibly leading the change (and visibly changing themselves), people notice. They wait it out. They’ve seen initiatives come and go before.
What to do instead: Culture change has to be owned by the leadership team. Not sponsored. Owned. That means leaders going first: being willing to examine their own behaviours, receive feedback, and model the changes they’re asking of others. Leadership development and culture work need to happen together.
Mistake 3: Expecting it to be quick
“We need to change the culture by the end of the financial year.”
We’ve heard versions of this more times than we can count. And we understand the pressure. Boards want results. New CEOs want to make their mark. There’s urgency to fix things that aren’t working.
But culture is slow. It’s built up over years (sometimes decades) of habits, stories, systems, and reinforced behaviours. You can shift the trajectory fairly quickly if you do the right things. But genuine transformation takes time. Usually 18 months to 3 years for meaningful, sustained change.
When organisations try to rush it, they often end up with a superficial change that doesn’t stick. Or worse, they create change fatigue that makes future efforts even harder.
What to do instead: Set realistic expectations from the start. Focus on early wins that demonstrate progress, while being honest that the deeper work takes longer. Build culture change into your ongoing operating rhythm rather than treating it as a one-off project.
Culture isn’t what you say you value. It’s what you actually do.
So what does successful culture change look like?
The organisations that get this right tend to share a few things in common:
- They’re honest about where they’re starting from. No glossing over the hard stuff or pretending things are better than they are.
- Leaders go first. They’re willing to be vulnerable, receive feedback, and change their own behaviour before asking others to change.
- They focus on behaviour, not just values. They get specific about what the culture looks like in action.
- They build in accountability. Culture work doesn’t stop at the workshop. It gets embedded in how people are hired, developed, and recognised.
- They stay the course. They know transformation takes time and they commit to the long game.
If you’re navigating culture change and want to avoid these common pitfalls, we’d love to chat. We’ve helped organisations across Newcastle, Sydney and beyond transform their workplace cultures, and we’d be happy to share what we’ve learned.
