empowering people and connecting them to a vision is where the success of any cultural change is won or lost.

Whether it be to deliver new products and services to customers or improve internal ways of working, digital adoption and innovation requires a shift of company culture, mindsets, behaviours, and ways of working – from leaders and managers to front line staff. 

Culture is still cited as one of the primary reasons why M&A transactions fail to realise their full deal value. Aligning cultures stretches well beyond just harmonisation of people and HR policies- it needs to include working practices behaviours and the employee experience. 

With rapid growth comes culture strain– ways of working are often outgrown and need to be adapted, new disciplines are required, people need to be upskilled, management practices enhanced, and the employee experience refreshed. Left unresolved, the culture strain will impact on performance and future growth.

How diverse your population is, how inclusive your culture and how well your people feel heavily contributes to how agile and innovative you are as a business,  how appealing your offerings are to your diverse customer base, and how engaged, hence productive, your people are.

The need for strong, connected and forward-thinkingleadership of your people is greater than ever as employees grapple with blurred boundaries of fluid operating structures, increased demands and moving goals, higher uncertainty and greater complexity, all within a fast-pacedenvironment.

Culture change programmes for complex situations requires a robust underlying method, attention to detail, yet flexible and effective approach towards implementation to allow for the various complexities. A multi-layered approach may not be simple, but it can spread responsibility, resources and multiply impact to achieve faster traction.

Achieving greater performance, productivity and impact is a constant challenge for leaders. Whether just for a team, a department, a division or for the overall company, creatinga climate and culture which enables high performance is key for delivering results and fulfilling strategic ambitions.

Most organisational cultures are not totally conducive to sustainable remote working practices, with productivity, engagement and wellbeing all being impacted. Organisations will need to reset their internal culture and ways of working to enable remote working to be a sustainable, human and productive way of operating.