At Paradox, we define organizational culture as the shared values, behaviors, and practices that shape how people work and interact every day. Culture influences everything from employee engagement to business performance. A thriving culture fuels innovation, collaboration, and growth. A toxic or misaligned one erodes trust, drives turnover, and stalls performance.
Shifts in leadership, layoffs, unfair practices, overwhelming workloads, or lack of clarity can all negatively affect culture. And in today’s climate of political, economic, and societal uncertainty, too many organizations are stuck reacting to culture shifts instead of leading them.
The most successful organizations take a proactive approach by intentionally shaping a culture that aligns with their purpose, values, and strategy. Read on for practical steps leaders can take to lead culture change with clarity and confidence.
1. Start Where You Are
When I worked at Stanford, I’d often walk by a sign hanging in the window of the Stanford d.school that reads, “Start where you are.” The sign is there as a reminder of one of the core principles of design thinking, emphasizing the importance of beginning something from your current reality rather than waiting for the perfect conditions. It means using your present resources and insights to begin exploring a problem and build incremental solutions from there.
To gain the necessary insight, you’ve got to assess the current culture. To do so, you can use surveys, interviews, or focus groups to uncover how employees experience work today and where barriers exist. As Lisa Lahey reminds us in Immunity to Change, people resist change unless they are part of naming what needs to shift.
Beginning with assessment then ensures 1) you’re not guessing 2) you have a baseline to build from and 3) you can get buy-in from the team.
Action Step: Invite employees to share what feels aligned, what feels off, and what gets in the way of living your organizational values. Ask questions like:
- What’s one change we could make to improve how we work together?
- What do we want to hold onto and amplify?
- Where do our practices or systems feel unfair, unclear, or misaligned with our values?
Example: A nonprofit was facing unusually high turnover, and collaboration between new and existing employees had broken down, stalling progress toward goals. Through interviews and focus groups, we identified hidden cultural barriers that weren’t visible on the surface. These insights revealed practical levers to pull on to improve organizational culture that wouldn’t have been identified otherwise. From these insights we were able to make recommendations on next steps the team could take to strengthen its culture and regain momentum.
By bringing people into the process, you build ownership and show that culture isn’t handed down—it’s created together.
2. Connect to Purpose
Shared purpose serves as an anchor in times of uncertainty. When people understand why their work matters and how it connects to something larger, they can navigate change with more confidence and resilience. A clear, lived purpose turns day-to-day tasks into contributions toward something meaningful.
Action step: Continuously link organizational decisions, changes, and strategies back to your purpose. Reminder team members of the “why” by revisiting it regularly in communications, team meetings, and career conversations so people can see how their work ties in. Consider questions like:
- Have we articulated our purpose in a way that feels clear and inspiring to employees at every level?
- When making changes, do we explain how they connect to our larger mission and values?
- Do leaders model our purpose in both strategic decisions and everyday interactions?
Example: A private equity company revisited its purpose during a strategic planning process. By grounding investment decisions in its mission of “building companies that create long-term value,” the leadership team gained alignment and employees better understood how day-to-day work connected to long-term impact.
Purpose gives meaning to the work and direction to the change. Without it, culture efforts risk feeling like surface-level initiatives instead of movements that matter.
3. Operationalize Values
Organizational values set the stage for culture. In a values-driven culture, people not only have a clear understanding of the core values, but these values serve as the foundation for decision-making, behavior, and interactions among employees, leaders, and stakeholders. In this kind of culture, the organization’s values are not merely statements on a wall but are instead deeply embedded into the fabric of daily operations, guiding everything from strategic initiatives to individual actions. People understand what the values look like in practice and can describe observable behaviors that demonstrate the values in action.
According to Gallup, only 27% of employees strongly believe in their organization’s values. And according to Brené Brown Education and Research Group, only 10% of organizations have operationalized their values into teachable and observable behaviors that are used to train their employees and hold people accountable. Such misalignment on values can create the opposite of a high-performing culture, leading to disengagement and high turnover.
Action step: Get clear on what your core values are and what they look like in practice. Gather input from employees across different levels and departments, so that the values truly do speak to the people who make up your organization.
Example: An executive team took an existing list of company values and tied clear, observable behaviors to the values so that people understand what it means to live these values day-to-day. It took vague values like “collaboration” and transformed it into:
Collaboration:
– I actively listen to other team members’ perspectives and concerns.
– I am open and curious about finding solutions to problems.
– I share resources and information openly with colleagues.
– I give credit to other contributors
Operationalizing values in this way helps everyone within the organization know, and agree upon, what good looks like.
4. Implement Fair and Equitable Practices
Culture is shaped by everyday experiences like how people are paid, promoted, recognized, and supported. Pay equity, workload expectations, flexibility, and recognition practices all send signals about what the organization truly values.
This is where our Equitable Process Framework helps. Leaders can evaluate processes and systems against six design elements: recognizing bias, equal access, diverse input, consistent application, flexibility, and transparency.
Action Step: Thoughtfully review a process within your organization. Consider questions like:
- What might impact people having a different experience?
- Is there opportunity to be more flexible and provide multiple options, especially if it helps more people participate or put their best foot forward?
- What are measures of success and how can we share this information so more people are set up for success?
Example: A healthcare organization used our Equitable Process Framework to redesign its salary structure. By engaging diverse employee input, being transparent about how pay ranges were set, and applying the structure consistently across departments, leaders not only reduced inequities but also increased trust in how compensation decisions were made.
When you embed fairness into your operations, you build a culture where ideas, people, and innovation can thrive.
5. Lead Productive Communication
Communication during change can either strengthen trust or undermine it. Productive communication is all about clarity, timeliness, respect—and making space for two-way dialogue.
Action step: Create a communication plan that coincides with a systems, process, or structural change. Words without actions can quickly erode trust: if leaders say one thing but employees see another, skepticism and disengagement grow. For example, announcing a commitment to transparency but failing to share updates in a timely way sends a mixed signal that undermines credibility. Aligning messages with visible action is what gives communication power. Consider questions like:
- Are we communicating early and often, or waiting until we have every answer?
- Do employees have real avenues to ask questions and share concerns?
- Are we listening as much as we’re talking?
Example: During a restructuring, a tech company held weekly “open forums” where executives shared updates and answered questions live. Not every answer was immediate, but employees trusted the process because communication was consistent, transparent, and human.
In times of change, communication isn’t just about keeping people informed—it’s about keeping them engaged, aligned, and moving forward together.
Conclusion
Organizations that don’t slow down to intentionally shape their culture often find themselves reacting later to unwanted shifts—usually at a greater cost. As Brené Brown reminds us, “The biggest resistance to intentionality is time.”
Yes, investing in culture takes time. But when leaders commit to clarity, fairness, and dialogue, culture becomes more than aspiration. It becomes a lived experience that enables people to thrive and organizations to grow stronger through change. Start where you are, involve your people, and build the culture your strategy truly needs.
Are you ready to lead culture change at your organization? Contact us to learn how we can help!
Katherine Nobles is a Senior Consultant at Paradox Consulting Partners, a management consulting company and Certified B Corporation that aligns talent strategy with business strategy to create high-performing, great places for all to work. She has 15 years of experience in career, leadership, and organizational development. She has her BA from Virginia Tech and MEd from William & Mary. Follow her at linkedin.com/in/katherinenobles.
