You know the drill. The strategy is solid. The leadership team is all in. The PowerPoint slides are flawless. The consultants have given their enthusiastic thumbs-up.
And yet… six months down the line, nothing has changed. The same bottlenecks. The same resistance. The same frustrating feeling that your grand vision has been politely ignored.
So, what went wrong? Simple: your strategy didn’t fail—your culture rejected it.
Culture eats strategy (and nicks your dinner money too)
Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” But let’s be honest -culture doesn’t stop at breakfast. It’ll eat your business objectives for lunch, hoard information like a jealous dragon, and casually undermine your change initiatives while nicking your dinner money just for fun.
Here’s the hard truth: No matter how brilliant your strategy is, culture determines whether it actually happens.
The culture-strategy clash
Most leaders assume that rolling out a strategy means people will magically follow it. But human behaviour doesn’t work that way. Consider these classic contradictions:
- Leadership says: “We need to innovate.”
- Culture whispers: “But we punish failure, so don’t take risks.”
- Leadership says: “We are customer-first.”
- Culture nudges: “But we measure success on internal KPIs, not customer impact.”
- Leadership says: “We value collaboration.”
- Culture laughs: “Except we still reward individual performance over teamwork.”
See the problem? Strategy tells people what to do, but culture decides how (or whether) they actually do it.
How to spot a culture-strategy mismatch
If your big plans feel like they’re wading through treacle, your culture is likely blocking your strategy. Here’s how to tell:
❗ Leaders say one thing, but their actions don’t match.
❗ Middle managers nod in meetings but stall change in practice.
❗ Your teams are confused about priorities because old habits still rule.
❗ People secretly believe this initiative will fizzle out, just like the last one.
❗ Key metrics show little to no real movement.
Sound familiar? It’s time to stop tweaking the strategy and start fixing the culture.
How to align culture and strategy
The good news? Culture isn’t fixed—it can be reshaped. The bad news? It won’t happen overnight (and not, it won’t be down to an inspiring all-staff email).
Here’s what actually works:
1. Role-model relentlessly
If your leaders don’t embody the change, no one else will take it seriously. Want a more collaborative culture? Stop rewarding lone wolves. Want a customer-focused approach? Get leaders spending time with customers, not just looking at reports.
2. Reward the right behaviours
If you say “take risks” but punish failure, guess what? No one will take risks. Align incentives, promotions and recognition with the behaviours you want to see.
3. Change the story, not just the policy
People don’t engage with strategies; they engage with stories. Share real-world examples of employees living the new culture. Make them the heroes of your change journey.
4. Find your culture champions
Top-down mandates don’t work on their own. You need grassroots culture influencers – people who already live the change you want to see. Identify them, empower them and watch the momentum build.
5. Say It. Say it again. Then say it some more.
You might be sick of repeating the message, but your people are just starting to hear it. Reinforce change through multiple channels, in multiple ways, for far longer than you think is necessary.
Make culture your strategy’s co-pilot
The best strategy in the world won’t work if your culture is stuck in the past. Before you blame execution, ask yourself: Have we actually aligned our culture with this strategy? If the answer is no, start there.
So, what’s one cultural shift that could make your strategy unstoppable? Let’s talk in the comments!
