6 Leadership Lessons from Mark Cuddigan
Taken from the Culture de-cooded Podcast episode, several themes from Mark Cuddigan’s experience as CEO of THIS stand out for anyone thinking about culture, measurement and transformation. 1. Behaviour Shapes Culture, Not Statements Culture is shaped by what leaders do, not just what they say. People notice what gets rewarded, challenged and tolerated, and how […]
Organisations vs People: Why it’s Time To End the Tension
Employees want flexibility. Employers want productivity. Employees want wellbeing. Employers want performance. At least, that’s how the headlines would have it. We seem determined to turn work into a tug of war between the organisation and the people in it. ‘Here’s what organisations must do to keep their staff happy’. ‘Here’s what employees need from their […]
Why Strategy Change Alone Isn’t a Golden Ticket
Changing strategy is relatively straightforward. Changing how an organisation operates because of that strategy is much harder. IBM CEO Arvind Krishna is finding that out as he continues to reshape the technology giant. The strategic direction is clear: move away from parts of the business reliant on large customer capital expenditure and towards more growth-oriented, […]
Why AI Has a Management Problem
Every week, another article asks why AI adoption is stalling. The answers are usually predictable. Better tools. Better prompts. Improved governance. Better training. Gallup’s latest research suggests something different. Employees whose managers actively support AI are significantly more engaged in the workplace than those whose managers don’t. In other words, AI doesn’t have a technology […]
The Difference Between Workplace Culture and Organisational Culture
Culture is a vague term, and as such, gets thrown around a lot in discussion without much description or detail. When hearing about a failing business, you may hear terms such as ‘toxic’ culture. When discussing sporting achievements or disappointments, you may come across ‘winning’ or ‘losing’ cultures. And if you’re interviewing for a new […]
The Leadership Mistake: Treating Symptoms, Not Causes
New research from Kahoot! suggests employees are craving stronger workplace relationships. More than half wish they had closer connections with colleagues, while almost four in ten report feeling lonely at work. At the same time, many workers say meetings have become their primary source of interaction, and managers are being asked to communicate more clearly, […]
Why Culture Begins and Ends With Leadership Team Alignment
Culture is often thought of as something everyone in an organisation owns. There is some truth in that. But it is only part of the picture. In reality, culture is shaped broadly but defined narrowly. It is interpreted by everyone, but reinforced, and ultimately anchored, by a small number of people at the top of […]
Delivering on Ambition: A Healthcare Culture Transformation Case Study
When leaders think about culture transformation, there is often an assumption that something must be wrong. Performance is declining. Engagement is low. Teams are disconnected. But some of the most valuable culture work happens in organisations that are already successful. The challenge sometimes not fixing a broken culture. It is understanding whether culture is fully […]
When Friction Is Really a Culture Question
Every organisation has experienced it. A new person joins. They ask different questions. They move at a different pace, and they challenge assumptions that others have stopped noticing. The instinct is often to ask whether they fit the culture. A more difficult question is whether they are helping the organisation see its culture more clearly. […]
How Premier League Underdogs Built High-Performance Cultures
In modern football, money usually dominates the conversation, and usually equates to high-performance. Bigger budgets means bigger squads, and means bigger expectations. But in the 2025/26 season, that dominance has been pushed aside by some of the Premier League’s most consistently impressive clubs, that are operating without the financial advantages traditionally associated with success. These […]