How to change workplace culture (+ real-life example)

Workplace culture has become one of those things we all talk about, but when it comes to actually changing it, things get messy fast.

This is because culture isn’t something you can tweak around the edges. If you want to truly understand how to change workplace culture, you need to get into the day-to-day reality of how work actually feels for people.

So let’s get straight into it: what really works, what doesn’t, and how people leaders can drive culture change that actually sticks.

Why workplace culture change matters more than ever

Right now, culture is a business-critical conversation.

Employees are paying closer attention than ever to how it feels to work somewhere. And when that experience doesn’t match expectations, they don’t hang around.

In fact, 70% of employees say culture is the main reason they stay in a role, while engaged employees are 87% less likely to leave.

At the same time, only 32% of employees are actually engaged at work. That gap tells you everything; we’ve got a culture problem in most organizations, whether we admit it or not.

And there’s another layer. Trust in leadership is slipping, with trust in managers dropping from 46% to 29% in recent years.

So when we talk about culture, we’re really talking about trust, retention, performance, and long-term business health all rolled into one.

What we’re actually trying to change when we talk about culture

Before jumping into solutions, you might want to pause for a second.

Because culture isn’t the values written on your website or the slide deck from your last leadership offsite. Culture is what actually happens when no one’s watching.

It shows up in:

Who gets listened to (and who doesn’t)
What behaviors get rewarded
How decisions are really made
What people feel safe saying (or not saying)

As SHRM puts it, culture is “the invisible yet powerful force that shapes behaviors, attitudes, and values within a company.”

So if we’re serious about how to change workplace culture, we need to focus less on messaging and a lot more on behavior.

Start with a real, honest look at your current culture

Here’s where things often go wrong.

Leaders assume they already know what the culture feels like. But when you actually ask employees, you get a very different story.

If we want to change culture, we need to start with reality, not assumptions.

That means:

Running proper listening sessions (not just surveys)
Looking at patterns: who’s leaving, who’s progressing, who’s silent
Paying attention to what people don’t say as much as what they do

And the data backs this up. Leadership behavior directly impacts culture for 82% of employees, and when leadership is aligned, engagement jumps by 1.7x.

So this step isn’t optional, really, it’s essential.

Define the culture you actually need (not just what sounds good)

It’s easy to come up with nice-sounding values: collaboration, innovation, integrity. Most companies have some version of these already.

But vague values don’t change behavior. If you want to shift culture, you need to get specific.

You need to ask:

What behaviors will actually help us succeed in the next few years?
What needs to stop immediately?
What are we willing to tolerate and what aren’t we?

For example, with hybrid work and AI, you might need to lean more into:

Trust instead of control
Outcomes instead of presenteeism
Learning instead of perfection

Organizations are already adapting in this direction, especially as AI and rapid change reshape work.

The key is making culture practical, not aspirational.

Get leadership aligned because everything starts there

If there’s one thing that makes or breaks culture change, it’s leadership behavior. Not what leaders say but what they actually do.

We’ve all seen it: leaders talk about openness, but shut down dissent; or they talk about flexibility, but reward long hours. That disconnect kills culture change instantly.

And the impact is huge. Leadership quality drives up to 70% of the variation in employee engagement, and authentic leadership can boost team performance by 90%.

So before anything else, we need to:

Align leaders on expected behaviors
Hold them accountable for culture, not just results
Support them with coaching not just one-off training

Because culture doesn’t trickle down through emails. It shows up through leadership habits.

Bake culture into how the business actually runs

This is where culture change becomes real or falls apart. If culture only lives in messaging, it fades, if it’s built into systems, it sticks.

We need to embed culture into:

Performance management: If collaboration matters, it needs to show up in performance conversations, not just lip service.
Hiring: You’re not just hiring skills, you’re hiring how people work with others.
Promotion decisions: Nothing signals culture faster than who gets promoted.
Recognition: People repeat what gets recognized. It’s that simple. In fact, 53% of employees say recognition is a key reason they stay.

When systems reinforce culture, behavior follows naturally.

Build trust through transparency (even when it’s uncomfortable)

Let’s be honest, trust is fragile right now. Employees are more skeptical, more informed, and less willing to accept vague answers.

For example, only 45% of UK employees trust their organization to use AI in their best interest, which says a lot about broader trust levels.

So if we want to shift culture, we need to:

Be clear about decisions, even the tough ones
Explain the reasoning, not just the outcome
Create space for real conversation, not just updates

Transparency isn’t about over-sharing, but about being real.

Make inclusion part of the culture, not a side initiative

Inclusion is often treated as a separate workstream. In reality, it’s central to culture. When people feel included, everything improves, including engagement, retention, and performance.

Organizations with diverse leadership teams are 36% more likely to outperform, and inclusive cultures drive significantly stronger engagement.

And on a human level, it matters just as much. When people feel valued, they report higher engagement and belonging.

So, inclusion isn’t a “nice to have.”

Focus on the everyday moments that actually shape culture

Culture isn’t built in big launches, but in small, everyday interactions.

It’s in:

How feedback is given
How mistakes are handled
How decisions are explained

These moments define what’s really acceptable, which is why we need to equip leaders with:

Coaching skills
Emotional intelligence
Clear decision-making principles

Because at the end of the day, culture is just patterns of behavior repeated over time.

Measure it, track it, and keep adjusting

If you’re not measuring culture, you’re guessing, and culture isn’t something you “fix” once; it evolves constantly.

You should be looking at:

Engagement trends
Attrition patterns
Internal mobility
Leadership effectiveness

Even strong cultures can slip. There’s already been a 4.3% drop in favorable workplace sentiment between 2024 and 2025, which shows how quickly things can shift.

So this needs ongoing attention, not a one-off project.

Balance performance with well-being (because you can’t ignore either)

One of the biggest tensions right now is performance vs. wellbeing. But the reality is, they’re connected.

Employees are increasingly valuing what some call “emotional salary”; things like flexibility, purpose, and support.

And when leaders model healthy behaviors, burnout drops significantly (by up to 40%).

So culture change isn’t about choosing between performance and people, but about designing an environment where both can exist.

Expect resistance and plan for it

Let’s not sugarcoat it, culture change is hard. You’ll likely run into resistance, usually from:

Middle layers of management
People who succeeded under the old culture
Teams worried about losing control or clarity

The key is not avoiding resistance but managing it. That means:

Identifying culture champions early
Addressing concerns directly
Showing quick wins to build momentum

People believe change when they see it working.

Real-life example: How Patagonia turned purpose into a high-performance culture

Patagonia is often talked about as a “purpose-driven company,” but what makes it genuinely useful as a case study is that their culture isn’t just values-led: it’s operational, measurable, and consistently reinforced.

The shift: making purpose the operating system, not just a message

Patagonia didn’t treat purpose as a branding exercise. They embedded it into the structure of the business itself.

Their mission (“we’re in business to save our home planet”) isn’t just a statement. It directly shapes decisions, from hiring to supply chain to employee policies.

Even ownership reflects this. After restructuring, the company committed to directing profits toward environmental causes, reinforcing that purpose isn’t optional, it’s structural.

As Corley Kenna, Chief Impact and Communications Officer at Patagonia, put it in their Work in Progress Report:

“We want to show our employees, customers and community where we are doing well, and where we have work to do.

“We are not perfect, as this report will show, but we remain steadfastly committed to improving all parts of our business, from making the highest-quality products to supporting our employees and community of activists and ambassadors. This report is a transparency tool, not a victory lap.”

That mindset (treating culture as something to continuously improve, not celebrate prematurely) is a big part of why their approach holds up over time.

How culture shows up in everyday work

What’s interesting about Patagonia is how visible their culture is in day-to-day behavior.

They’ve built a work environment where:

Employees can take time off for environmental activism
Flexibility is normalized (not negotiated)
Decisions are guided by environmental and social impact

This might sound small, but it signals something bigger: trust.

And it’s consistent across the organization. Culture isn’t confined to leadership messaging; it shows up in policies, benefits, and expectations.

The stats: What this culture actually delivers

What makes Patagonia especially compelling is that the outcomes are measurable.

From an employee experience perspective:

91% of employees say it’s a great place to work, compared to 57% at a typical company
94% say they’re proud to work there
95% feel good about the company’s contribution to society

Those numbers are unusually high and point to something deeper than satisfaction. They reflect alignment.

There are also clear signals on retention and loyalty, including the fact that Patagonia’s employee turnover is estimated at around 4%, dramatically lower than industry averages.

And on the business side, Patagonia has donated $140M+ to environmental causes and continues to commit 1% of sales annually

That combination (high engagement, low turnover, and sustained business performance) is exactly what most culture transformation efforts aim for.

Why this culture works (and why it’s hard to copy)

It’s tempting to look at Patagonia and focus on the perks, such as surf breaks, activism leave, flexible schedules.

But those aren’t the real story.

The real story is consistency. Everything, from hiring to benefits to decision-making, is aligned to the same core idea: purpose over short-term profit.

That level of alignment is rare. And it’s why the culture holds together, even as the company grows and evolves.

What you can take from this as people leaders

There are a few practical takeaways here if you’re thinking about how to change workplace culture:

Culture becomes powerful when it’s embedded in systems, not just statements
Purpose needs to show up in decisions, not just messaging
Trust and flexibility are signals of culture, not perks
Alignment across leadership, policies, and behavior is what drives results

Patagonia didn’t build its culture through a single initiative. It built it through thousands of consistent decisions over time.

And that’s the real lesson; culture change doesn’t happen in a launch moment, but in what you reinforce every day.

Become an Insider (free sign-up) to access exclusive content and templates custom-made to help make your day-to-day (and culture changing efforts) easier.