Are you reacting fast enough to external change?

Cultural agility is one of the biggest hidden barriers to building a fit-for-purpose culture, yet it’s surprisingly simple to get right. Organisations (and leaders) sometimes find adapting to new ways of working and changing circumstances very challenging, and this is reflected in their strategy. 

In some ways, a strategy not adapting quickly enough is understandable. Leadership teams invest time, energy, and goodwill in creating a bold strategy. It fits, but for the world as it was. Then the market shifts, technology evolves, and societal expectations move on. And instead of adapting the strategy, they cling on, hoping small tweaks will be enough, when the actual reality is that a change in organisational mindsets to encourage agile ways of working would be the best place to focus.   

Has there been a shift in 8 years?

 At Culture Impact, we are reviving our research into the alignment of Strategy and Culture.  In 2017, we commissioned our research paper “Does your culture support your strategy?”, which identified ‘The company is unable to react quickly enough to outside changes' as the second most problematic barrier to success. However, with world leaders and rising levels of innovation inflicting rapid change across the world, we questioned – have businesses got better at reacting as a necessity to external conditions?  

With these questions in mind, we revived the survey in 2025, and the results are in. Reacting to change remained the second greatest barrier that HR professionals felt the organisation needed to overcome to accelerate strategic success, suggesting it's just as much of a problem as it was in 2017.

The common reasons leaders struggle to manage culture in ever-changing times  

Leading culture under these conditions is tough for three main reasons. 

1. They’re using an outdated strategy  

If an organisation has already gone to the trouble of designing a culture to deliver its strategy, it’s gone further than most (and deserves credit). But when the strategy becomes outdated, so does the target culture. Pressing ahead with culture initiatives that no longer serve the business may still feel good, but they won’t move the dial. 

 

2. The culture isn’t evolving with the strategy  

If strategy is being adapted, great! But the culture must evolve too. During the pandemic, we saw supply chain strategies shift from ‘just in time’ to ‘just in case’; innovation move from long R&D cycles to rapid prototyping. These changes worked, not by accident, but because they were underpinned by new behaviours, symbols and systems – the channels that create culture. Just a few examples of modified ways of working that turned cultural aspirations into a reality, include: 

• Leaders role-modelling vulnerability and psychological safety, enabling people to flag risks early (behaviours). 

• ‘Ask me anything’ sessions and the celebration of learning mindset role models, to build openness and curiosity (symbols). 

• Real-time dashboards for agility, and internal talent marketplaces to redeploy skills fast (systems). 

3. Confusing culture and climate  

Many leaders get the two mixed up. Climate, the organisational mood, is what you can track through your engagement surveys. It can change quickly. Culture doesn’t. If external change is impacting climate, that’s a great early warning system. You’ll learn how people feel, but you won’t learn why. Reacting to climate without a cultural lens can leave you exhausted from chasing symptom after symptom, without understanding the cause. This will undermine longer-term efforts. 

So, where do you start in a world that keeps shifting? 

The answer, in part, lies in leadership. Leaders need to move, to shift mindsets and behaviours relating to change, and how they model adaptability. When leadership resists change, organisations slow down too. And slowness can be risk. 

The paradox? Tackling organisational inertia starts with leaders slowing down. Taking time to pause, reflect, and ask: 

• What’s changing in the world around us? 

• How might it impact our customers, our people, our purpose? 

• Should our strategy change and, if so, what culture will enable us to deliver it? 

Culture isn’t a one-off design project. It’s living and breathing, shaped by internal and external forces. If leadership doesn’t listen, scan, and adapt, culture efforts stall. Worse, they risk becoming performative. 

The leaders we see thriving in uncertainty are those who adapt, not reactively, but thoughtfully. They build cultures that thrive in change, not in spite of it.