Culture shapes how far your transformation will go.
After 36 years in delivery, working with over 70 teams across countless organisations, I’ve come to a simple conclusion: the success of any change or transformation is less about the method and more about the mindset and that mindset is shaped by culture.
Not the slogans on the walls. Not the barista coffee or Friday yoga. But the unspoken rules about what’s normal. The way decisions get made. The behaviour that’s tolerated and the behaviour that’s quietly rewarded.
Culture flows from leadership. Not the titles or the org charts, but the actions people observe. If you want to understand the real power structure of a company, don’t look at the hierarchy, watch who people mimic. That tells you everything.
I saw this play out clearly in one organisation. The culture had been fairly relaxed. Friendly. A little disorganised, maybe, but collaborative, with good people trying their best. Then a new CEO arrived.
On paper, he was impressive, experienced, successful, sharp. In one-to-one conversations, he was engaging and thoughtful. But in large meetings, his persona changed. Loud. Dismissive. Sharp-edged. He put people on the spot. He interrupted. He set the tone and others followed.
Team leads and managers, perhaps unintentionally, started mirroring this behaviour. Bravado replaced curiosity. Meetings became about survival, not problem-solving. It wasn't toxic, exactly, but the shift was unmistakable. Fear and performance posturing crept in. The culture bent around the leadership.
And here’s the kicker: if I hadn’t been lucky enough to spend time with that CEO in a more personal setting, I might have come to a very different conclusion about him. I got to see the intent behind the noise, the intelligence, the ambition, the real desire to drive improvement. But most people never saw that side. They only saw the Wizard not the man behind the curtain.
This is why I’ve stopped obsessing over frameworks and started paying more attention to the environment I’m stepping into. Agile, Lean, OKRs, they’re just tools. If the culture doesn’t support learning, honesty, and safe failure, none of those tools will make a difference.
The truth is, culture can either accelerate delivery or grind it to a halt. It can empower teams or silence them. It can spark innovation or smother it under the weight of fear and process.
One of the tools I often share with new managers is the Dancing Guy Video on YouTube.
A short clip with a huge message. It’s not the first dancer who matters, it’s the first follower. That’s where the culture starts to spread.
So before you launch another transformation, roll out a new framework, or try to “go agile” take a hard look at your culture.
Because delivery lives and dies on whether people feel safe enough to speak up, try things, fail, and still be trusted.
Where have you seen culture make or break delivery? And what did it take to shift it?
If you’re grappling with this stuff and just want to bounce some ideas around, especially about what good looks like or how culture spreads, happy to chat. No pitch. Just a conversation.