How to Not Lose Your Company Culture During Change

Is It Possible to Lose Your Company Culture During Change?
Yes — it absolutely is possible to lose your company culture during change. Company culture is not just a slogan or a set of posters on the wall; it is the way work actually gets done. It is reflected in how employees think, behave, and collaborate daily. Corporate culture assessments encompass both the explicit and implicit values, norms, and assumptions that drive critical business practices.

In essence, culture defines your organization. Our Research on Organizational Alignment found that culture accounts for 40% of the difference between high and low performing companies across revenue growth, profitability, customer loyalty, leadership effectiveness, and employee engagement.  Culture is not just important — it is what helps or hinders your people and business strategies.

Protecting the Best Parts of Your Culture During Change
Company cultures naturally evolve, but major shifts — such as a new strategy, leadership changes, restructuring, talent transitions, mergers, or acquisitions — can put cultural identity at risk. Strategies and organizational changes only succeed if they move through and are supported by your culture.

Ask yourself: Is your culture healthy and strategically aligned enough to withstand major change? Or could it become a barrier to your people and business strategies? The reality is that without intentional effort, you are at risk.

Steps to Ensure That You Keep Retain The Culture You Want

1. Be Strategically and Culturally Proactive
   Leaders who aim to preserve the best aspects of their culture must prepare in advance. Waiting until cultural norms are eroded or ignored invites conflict, disengagement, and misalignment. Instead, proactive leaders and selected culture champions invest time and effort to anticipate potential “culture clashes,” ensuring change is integrated smoothly from a cultural standpoint.
2. Assess and Align Organizational Health, Performance, and Culture
   Success begins with clarity and a structured plan. Assess your culture to determine what to start, stop, and continue across three levels — what we call the Little, Medium, and Big Cs of culture:
   • • Little C – Organizational Health: The shared values and behaviors across the organization.
     • Medium C – High Performance: How to maximize employee effectiveness and engagement.
     • Big C – Strategically Aligned: How work is actually accomplished to drive strategy forward.

   Effective cultural interventions thoughtfully address all three Cs, ensuring that changes flow through people and processes, enabling real implementation. For example, one client discovered misaligned decision-making processes between two merging divisions, while another realized its risk-taking norms conflicted with a new offering. Both addressed these misalignments early, avoiding major setbacks.

3. Actively Involve Stakeholders
   Actively engage key stakeholders to understand their concerns, values, and priorities. Co-create a plan that leverages strengths and addresses gaps. While it is necessary to acknowledge real impacts on employees and customers, focus on the opportunities and benefits of the change.

   A practical rule: invest 2-3 times as much effort in ensuring cultural alignment as in managing strategic or financial elements.

4. Communicate the Plan Broadly
   Once you have assessed, involved stakeholders, and planned proactively, communicate openly and transparently:
   • • What you know.
     • What you do not know.
     • When you will be able to fill in the gaps.

   Use clear, compelling language and encourage feedback. Allow time for employees to understand the rationale, urgency, and vision behind the change. Open discussion fosters engagement and trust.

The Bottom Line
Change management consulting experts know that major organizational change is a cultural test. Protecting your culture requires proactive planning, stakeholder involvement, and clear communication. By assessing organizational health, aligning performance, and embedding strategic priorities into cultural practices, you reduce the risk of losing what makes your company special.

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