Steps to Change Corporate Culture: The Top 8 to Get Right

Big Steps to Change Corporate Culture
Just like a company’s strategy and people, workplace culture cannot remain stagnant.  A corporate culture needs to constantly shift and align with the marketplace realities, business priorities, and talent management strategies.  Unfortunately, leadership teams often wait too long to take the big steps to change corporate culture to match their new strategies.

Underestimating the Performance Impact of Culture
We define culture as the collective stuff (e.g., core values, beliefs, attitudes, knowledge, stories, communications, practices, and behaviors) that define how things get done on a day-to-day basis.  Our organizational alignment research found company culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high and low performing teams and organizations in terms of:

• Revenue growth
• Profitability
• Customer retention
• Leadership effectiveness
• Employee engagement

If you want to transform any part of your organization, people must begin to think, act, and work in different ways.  Changing the way people think, act, and work requires high levels of strategic clarity, empathy, and rigor.

Desired Culture and Conflicts
Unfortunately too many companies have an unclear definition of how they expect employees to behave and allow ambiguous and conflicting performance metrics and goals to percolate across the organization.

• Desired Company Culture
  In low growth companies, only 48% of employees report that the desired company culture is clearly explained to employees compared to 83% in high growth organizations.
• Decision Making Culture
  In low growth companies, only 44% of employees report a healthy balance of short- and long-term decisions compared to 84% in high growth organizations.

How can you expect to perform at your peak if behavior and performance expectations are unclear or if day-to-day decisions undermine the long-term strategies to change?

Ways to Change Corporate Culture
There are several steps to change corporate culture available to change leaders.  For example, you can hire new leadership, update your values, shift how people are held accountable and rewarded, or restructure the organization.   While all four options have some merit depending upon what you are trying to accomplish, here are the eight big steps to change corporate culture:

1. Ensure Strategic Clarity and Believability
   Strategy doesn’t happen in isolation — it must flow through your people and your culture. The most effective leaders know that before they can shift mindsets or change team norms, they must first ensure that everyone understands and commits to the strategic aspirations and goals.

   A clear and believable strategy provides the foundation for purpose, meaning, and connection — the three essential ingredients of any successful culture transformation. Without clarity of direction, even the most well-intentioned cultural initiatives lack the traction and commitment required to succeed.

   Our Organizational Alignment Research shows that strategic clarity alone explains 31% of the performance difference between high- and low-performing teams and organizations. When employees understand where the company is going, why it matters, and how success will be measured, execution becomes not just possible — but probable.

   Don’t make the mistake of trying to transform culture before your strategy is clearly defined, widely understood, and grounded in current marketplace realities.

   So, ask yourself — is your strategy clear and believable enough to guide your people through change?

2. Define Your Needed Culture
   Once your strategic direction is clear, the next step is to define the culture you need to make it happen. Effective leaders don’t leave culture to chance; they intentionally shape it across ten workplace cultural dimensions to support and accelerate their strategic priorities. Strategically aligned cultures ensure that ways of thinking and working help turn strategies into results.

   By clearly articulating the required behaviors and mindset required for success, you provide a roadmap for ensuring every initiative, policy, and leadership action reinforces the strategy.

3. Assess Your Current Culture
   Take an honest, unbiased look at your existing workplace culture. If you want meaningful change, you must clearly understand the current state of your organization’s health, performance expectations, and strategic alignment. Only then can you pinpoint the cultural realities that are accelerating — or obstructing — your success.

   Ask yourself: Is your culture truly healthy, high performing, and strategically aligned enough— or is it undermining the very goals your people and business are trying to achieve?

4. Identify Your Most Impactful Cultural Shifts
   After mapping the gap between your current culture and the culture required to achieve your strategy, the next step is to pinpoint the one or two cultural shifts that will have the greatest impact on performance and execution. Focus is critical — trying to change everything at once dilutes effort and stalls progress.

   Once you identify these key shifts, define precisely what the change will look like in practice and outline actionable steps to embed it throughout the organization. Clear expectations, aligned behaviors, and targeted initiatives turn cultural aspirations into measurable results.

   Ask yourself: Do you know which one or two bold moves will meaningfully elevate performance and ensure your strategy succeeds?

5. Plan Steps to Change Corporate Culture
   At this stage, it’s time to turn your cultural vision into a concrete action plan. Identify and train culture champions — leaders and influencers who can model the behaviors, reinforce expectations, and inspire others to embrace the change. Equip them with the tools, resources, and support they need to drive alignment between culture and strategy.

   Develop a clear, step-by-step roadmap for change that ties each initiative to specific objectives, key performance indicators, deliverables, and milestones. This ensures accountability, visibility, and measurable progress.

   Culture champions play a critical role in creating emotional engagement and connection. They help employees understand why the change matters, how it impacts them, and how they contribute to organizational success — turning strategic imperatives into behaviors people are motivated to adopt.

6. Spread the Word of Culture Change
   For culture change to take root, the majority of employees must understand and believe in it. The goal is not just communication — it’s comprehension and commitment. Each person in the organization should be able to clearly articulate what the culture shift entails, why it matters, and how it will accelerate both people and business strategies beyond the status quo.

   Make the message consistent, transparent, and personal. Help employees see their unique role in the transformation and how their actions contribute to collective success. When people understand how culture change benefits the organization, their teams, and themselves, they are more likely to move from resistance or passive awareness to active ownership — and that’s when real change begins.

7. Lead by Example
   Change management training research tells us that culture change starts — and either succeeds or fails — at the top. Leaders, high performers, and culture champions must consistently model the behaviors they want others to adopt. This is your opportunity as a leader to demonstrate, in both words and actions, what it truly means to live the company’s values and embody the desired culture.

   When leaders “walk the talk,” they inspire trust, accountability, and follow-through.  Recognize and reward those who exemplify the new culture, and hold accountable those who don’t. Nothing reinforces desired behavior more powerfully than visible leadership alignment — because people believe what they see far more than what they hear.

8. Continuously Renew
   Change management consulting experts know that culture isn’t a one-time initiative — it’s an ongoing evolution. Encourage employees at every level to share feedback, insights, and ideas for strengthening the culture. Your people are the true experts on how work gets done, and their perspectives are invaluable for sustaining momentum and driving meaningful improvement.

   When employees feel heard and see their ideas shape real change, engagement deepens and ownership grows. The more they participate in creating a positive, high-performing environment, the faster and more naturally your culture will move in the desired direction.

The Bottom Line
Building a winning, aligned culture requires courage, discipline, and persistence. Approach the challenge with objectivity, thoughtful planning, and transparent communication. Model the desired behaviors consistently, reinforce them visibly, and be willing to adjust your approach as the organization evolves.

To learn more about the steps to change corporate culture, download The 3  Research-Backed Levels of a High Performance Culture that Leaders Must Get Right