Culture Is a Communication Highway: It Needs Real Engineering

Workplace culture is still too often mistaken for perks, smiles, and motivational posters. But culture is far more critical and far less fluffy. It’s a complex highway connecting the people doing the work with the people who strategize it.

Yes, culture is rooted in values, human behaviors, mission statements, and programming. No doubt. But how those things play out every day is an intricate web of roads, exits, and signs that need real engineers to keep them running smoothly.

When that highway is clear and aligned, the business moves fast.

When it’s congested or broken, everything slows down. Productivity, morale, growth, and performance begin to suffer.

Suddenly, “No Exit Here” and “Detour” signs start popping up everywhere.

What I Ask CEOs in Interviews About Culture

In executive interviews, I’ve sat across from CEOs and asked them questions that tend to catch them off guard:

• What’s the economic impact of your current culture?

• What business processes are broken?

• What infrastructure is failing your people?

• Who isn’t performing, and what’s being done about it?

These aren’t soft questions. Culture isn’t soft work.

I’m not the HR executive you hire to maintain what’s already working. I’m the one you bring in when it’s time to dig deep, clear the roadblocks, and rebuild something powerful. And when you do this work long enough, patterns emerge. You begin to see what drives culture forward and what holds it back.

The Truth About Culture Change

Over the years, I’ve helped organizations grow, realign, and scale. Through that often-challenging work, I’ve learned three truths that apply whether you’re the CEO, the Head of HR, or a manager trying to make a difference.

1. Not Everyone Will Stay on the Journey

It’s uncomfortable, but it’s reality.

Some people won’t make the shift, and that might include executives, managers, or even well-liked employees. They may resist change, avoid accountability, or try to protect how things have always been.

If you’re serious about cultural change, you must be prepared to make tough calls. That may include parting ways with those unwilling or unable to evolve.

Culture work is leadership work. Sometimes leadership requires letting go in order to move forward.

"If you want to make everyone happy, don't be a leader. Sell ice cream." – Steve Jobs

2. There Are Enemies Within the Walls

Culture is shaped not only by people but also by systems, processes, and technology.

Often, the biggest cultural blockers are not-so-obvious:

• Outdated tools and software

• Inefficient workflows

• Budget allocations that no longer serve the mission

• The ever-present phrase: “That’s how we’ve always done it”

To build a high-performing workplace, every system, tool, and process must align with your goals. Anything that doesn’t serve those goals needs to be rethought or removed.

"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." – Peter Drucker

3. Culture Change Takes More Time Than You Want to Think

Yes, you’ll see quick wins. But real, sustainable culture change doesn’t happen in a quarter or even a year.

It takes time, discipline, and alignment across the organization. That doesn’t mean progress is invisible at the start. It simply means the transformation requires endurance, reinforcement, and strategic layering over time.

To make culture stick, you must embed it into:

• Performance management

• Recognition and rewards

• Compensation and benefits

• Talent development

• Technology and governance

• Talent acquisition

• Communication strategies

• Financial planning and analysis

• Executive coaching frameworks

"Most people overestimate what they can do in one year and underestimate what they can do in ten." – Bill Gates

Leading Culture Transformation Starts Now

If you’re in a leadership role, be it HR, operations, finance, or the C-suite, there are actions you can take today to make culture real, measurable, and transformational:

1. Have the candid conversations. Be honest about what’s not working. Identify who is struggling. Address behaviors that don’t align with your culture goals.

2. Get the data. Culture is not a feeling. It is a collection of observable and repeatable behaviors. Survey your teams, listen with intention, and collect insights that expose the real story.

3. Tweak, adjust, monitor. Culture is a living highway. It doesn’t shift once and stay that way. Ongoing attention is required to evolve it in line with business priorities.

For HR, This Means More Than HR

To do this well, HR professionals must move beyond traditional “people practices” and engage with the full business.

They need to be:

• Financially fluent

• Operationally informed

• Strategically aligned

• Performance-focused

The best culture architects are not just passionate about people. They are deeply connected to how the business runs, grows, and performs.

When culture becomes aligned, intentional, and performance-driven, everything accelerates. People grow. The business grows. And the space between strategy and execution becomes clear.

If your organization is ready to embrace this kind of transformation, I invite you to explore more on this website, where I share my approach, philosophy, and results.

Illustrations provided by ChatGPT.

Posted:  25 July 2025

Christopher A. Hudson, SHRM-SCP, Associate CIPD

www.christopherhudsonhr.com