Should you ignore the skeletons in your legacy culture?

This Halloween, we are examining a horror story that many leaders face: the legacy culture that a fresh start cannot simply sweep away. The skeletons in an organisation's closet. 

When organisations look to change direction or for a clean slate, they look to appoint a new CEO or executive team, tasked with bringing a new vision and culture that will drive performance and results. However, to build a different future, leaders first need to understand what the past has taught their employees. If this is overlooked, the skeletons will continue to haunt the organisation's success. 

In this blog, we'll explore why organisational skeletons (legacy cultures) are so powerful, and why this must be addressed by leaders if you want to move an organisation forward.

The skeletons in the organisation 

Every organisation has a memory. Employees remember...

• Previous restructures

• The leaders who promised change and delivered little

• The bully manager who was protected

• The employee who spoke up and paid the price

• Who was promoted and why

  
  

Before any new leader walks through the door, these memories have signalled to employees what gets rewarded, what gets punished, who gets listened to, and what happens to people who challenge the status quo. 

These experiences form what Edgar Schein describes as an organisation's underlying assumptions, the deeply held beliefs that determine how people interpret events and make decisions. These assumptions are often invisible but incredibly powerful. And because of their power, a new values statement or direction won't erase those lessons or anxieties overnight.

Why you must acknowledge the skeletons from the past 

Recently, we heard a CEO explain that he had no interest in revisiting the problems of the organisation's past. His view was simple. - "We need a fresh start."

On the surface, this sounds sensible. Why dwell on previous mistakes? Why reignite old grievances? Surely, it is better to focus everyone on the future? Unfortunately, our experience suggests that when organisations fail to acknowledge past cultural realities, employees quickly see the management denial and the lack of courage to fix the wrongs of the past, and the message becomes:

"We know what happened here, but leadership doesn't want to talk about/ do anything about it."

When experiences remain unspoken, they do not disappear. They lurk in the shadows of your culture, blocking any change or progress that you try to make. For example, an organisation may roll out new software or invest in a customer service training package, but if the lessons and assumptions of the past have never been addressed, people won't change their patterns of behaviour, stagnating progress. 

The better approach

One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is assuming that talking about past cultural failures will create negativity.

In reality, the opposite is often true.

• Employees already know what happened.

• Acknowledging it creates credibility.

• Ignoring it creates scepticism.

  
  

The most effective leaders we work with do not attempt to erase the past.

Instead, they ask:

• What can we learn from our cultural history?

• Which aspects of the culture have served us well?

• Which assumptions no longer serve us?

• What experiences have shaped employee trust?

• What truths need to be acknowledged before we move forward?

  
  

With these questions, they start understanding yesterday well enough to create something better tomorrow.

Closing thoughts

A new leader can change direction, and a new strategy can change priorities, but sustainable culture change requires something harder. Leaders must look honestly at the culture they inherited, understand how it was created, and consciously decide which parts they want to carry forward and which parts they are prepared to leave behind. If we just refuse to look at the skeletons, they will haunt performance from the shadows until the organisation is ready to confront them.