Do not start by changing the culture to drive the improvements, follow it first

Start with small processes that eventually leads to cultural change

May 03, 2025

What’s the company’s culture? Why do you want to change it? Is it really needed?

When I became a manager, I understood the importance of a great culture. Yet, I had a hard time describing what’s culture, what’s a great culture, and how to make actionable actions to influence it for the better.

I didn’t study Anthropology, if you did, please, point out any misconception in the comments!

When I ask people what’s company culture for them, it usually reduces to:

Company culture refers to the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and practices that define how a business operates and how its employees interact.

Long story short, how decisions are made.

Then, I read The Staff Engineer’s Path by Tanya Reilly, and it contains a great way to understand your company’s culture, and what people refer to.

When people ask about culture, they might refer to:
How much autonomy will I have?
Will I feel included?
Will it be safe to make mistakes?
Will I be part of the decisions that affect me?
How difficult will it be to make progress on my projects?
Are people nice?
We can say that our culture is how we behave in our day to day, how we make decisions, and based on which values.

I find this way of describing the company’s culture very on point. You can answer to those questions to people you are onboarding, and you can spot any issues in certain areas of the culture.

Tanya even goes further, and provides 7 dimensions in which you can describe the company’s, business unit, tribe, or team culture.

Here is a shorter version of the 7 dimensions based on Tanya’s book.

Secret vs. Open.
How much does everyone know? Information is currency? Calendars are private?
Slack channels are invitation only? Does everyone have access to everything? Even messy first drafts?
Oral vs. Written.
What gets shared by word of mouth, and what gets shared written down? How much writing and review is involved in decisions? Features come with formal specifications, or you need to go to the person that made the feature?
Top-down vs. Bottom-up.
Where do initiatives come from? A completely bottom-up culture is one where
employees and teams feel empowered to make their own decisions and champion the initiatives they think are important. But, when those initiatives need support, they slow down.
Fast vs. Deliberate.
Rapid decisions and pivot abruptly to try a new opportunity. Or you need to show that you've thought through the whole plan before start executing?
Back channels vs. Front doors.
How do people in different groups talk to each other? Formal path of communication, via the teams' managers for example, or people can send friendly DMs cross teams?
Allocated vs. Available.
How much time does everyone have? Are teams understaffed or overworked? Are you able to absorb new work as they appear, or does it end in the backlog and needs to get prioritized in the next cycle? (it can mean next quarter OKRs review)
Liquid vs. Crystallized.
Where do power, status, and reputation come from? How do you gain trust? Clear
hierarchy? Are you in a specific point in the hierarchy, and as others move up into the latter, you also move? Or you are more Liquid, where it offers room for change and you need to move yourself to be promoted in the organization?

I use these 7 dimensions a lot to understand my clients company’s culture, and why they are struggling to drive the needed change.

Understand your company’s culture first

Screenshot of an Engineering Strategy Workshop session

As part of my coaching and consulting engagements, I ask leaders which is their company culture based on those dimensions. Interestingly, I receive kind of two main responses:

That’s not the type of company I want to be part of.
That’s why we’re not able to drive the necessary change, because the culture isn’t helping us, we need to change it first so that we can do the necessary changes later

Culture is never black or white, but a grey scale in multiple levels.

Plus, I’m sure that you will describe your company’s culture differently if I ask you for the overall company culture, your tribe’s, or your team’s.

The leaders that I support in their journey understand that culture is important, and they want to improve it for better.

BUT, I distinguish two scenarios. Improving company’s culture as:

C-level, like CTO or CIO.
Middle management, such as VPs or Heads of Engineering, Engineering Managers, or technical leaders like Staff or Principal Engineers.

In this article, I focus on the group that driving a company cultural change is more challenging, the middle management.

Aiming to drive a company cultural change as
a middle management is a recipe for burnout.

When I talk to middle managers and Principal Engineers about their challenges, they often aren’t about culture as their challenge or goal that they want to accomplish, but as a blocker to achieve the desired outcome.

Principal engineer: I want to drive this initiative to accomplish A, but it would be easier if we had a more Y culture. How can I influence my leadership to change this culture so that I can accomplish the other thing?

Aleix: Well, you don’t aim to change the culture. Cultural change takes time, requires constant leadership support, and a lot of patience. By the time you achieved that, the challenge you have now will no longer matter. Instead, follow the culture. It is the path for less resistance to achieve what you aim to achieve.

If the approach, plan, strategy, you name it, isn’t possible due to the company’s cultural restrictions. Then the problem is your approach that’s not possible in that context. You need to find another way that fits into the company’s culture way of working.

Yes, it can mean that you need to play the company’s rules like being in the right meetings, with the right people. It can even mean that you need to move into the management career to influence the decisions where it happens. Not everyone wants to do it, but some has to.

Focus on achieving your goals and overcoming your challenges within the scope of action you have first. Once you are in the middle of the progress, aim to influence the culture as part of journey.

Cultural change is part of the process

The best way to influence your company culture is part of succeeding in high stake business challenges. You shouldn’t aim for a highly disruptive new way of working for the company, but “the adjacent possible1”.

If you are part of an organization with a top-down approach, secretive, and oral based communication, you can start influencing the company’s culture by driving your initiative by making the information available and written. But keeping the approach top-down. You don’t want to change too many ways of doing stuff at the same time.

This way, when you…

When you succeed

Achieve your business objectives first, delivering company and customer value.
You create trust between the all parties. High level leadership, and teams.
You show that by doing X, Y, Z, you achieved your objectives. Company’s love success, and we all try to repeat success. By doing so, the next time you face a similar challenge, the default approach will be the new ways of working.

When you fail

You learn why you failed. You don’t blame the culture, but understand why that approach didn’t succeed. Then you adapt your methods, and try new approaches.
You don’t create high resistance to change due to disruptive new ways of working. That can prevent any new improvement initiatives in the future.
- The worse that can happen is that the people stop believing in the change.