Culture isn’t a document or a mission statement at an organization—it’s how people behave when no one’s watching. Because it’s built over time, reshaping culture can feel like turning a cargo ship: slow, sensitive, and full of resistance. But it can be done.
Here are four business leaders who faced the challenge head-on—and came out with more connected, more cohesive, and more human workplaces as a result.
1. Sara Green-Hamann: Creating Culture in a Remote Organization
Sara Green-Hamann, owner of Tallwood HR Consulting and a former CHRO, helped one of her clients—two B2B marketing companies under one umbrella—tackle a long-standing internal divide.
“Employees at both organizations felt as though the other wasn’t carrying its weight,” says Green-Hamann. That dynamic showed up in engagement surveys and strained communication.
The goal: a unified, collaborative, and inclusive culture—despite being fully remote.
Green-Hamann helped launch a self-selected employee engagement team that aligned its mission with DEI objectives. To foster informal connection, the company hosted monthly “coffee breaks” on Zoom.
A monthly digital newsletter spotlighted personal milestones, and All Hands meetings shifted from annual to monthly. “Employees appreciated the transparency, the ability to hear directly from the CEO and the ability to engage in Q&A sessions,” she says.
Policy changes backed up the culture shift: PTO became FTO (Flexible Time Off), Short-Term Disability expanded to full compensation, and Bereavement Leave was lengthened.
Most crucially, the leadership asked for feedback and used it.
“Having a group of influential advocates for the company… helped build goodwill early on,” says Green-Hamann.
The result: more engagement, more trust, and a stronger sense of belonging.
2. Jacquelyn Berney: Letting Go of Fear to Build Ownership
For Jacquelyn Berney, President of VI Marketing and Branding, the culture challenge was emotional. “Our old culture was marked by fear—fear of making mistakes, fear of stepping on toes, fear of speaking up,” she says. “People were mostly polite, but they weren’t always honest. It kept things safe, but small.”
The new goal? A culture of ownership, candor, and clarity. “We’ve built a space where people feel safe enough to challenge ideas, bring forward problems, and lead from wherever they are,” says Berney. That meant embracing discomfort: “That discomfort is often where growth lives.”
The change started with truth-telling. “We called out what wasn’t working and why,” Berney says. Leadership became less about control and more about coaching, and feedback was reframed. “We made it clear that candor is a form of care.” says Berney. “That feedback is a gift.”
The challenge? Breaking old habits. “People don’t stop being fearful just because leadership says ‘it’s safe now,’” she says. That meant consistency, grace, and slowing down so people could “catch up emotionally.”
Berney’s advice for others: “Start by telling the truth… Show up consistently. Be the culture you’re asking others to embrace. Celebrate progress, not just outcomes.”
3. Tracey Beveridge: Scaling Culture Without Losing People
Tracey Beveridge, HR Director at Personnel Checks, led her company through a different challenge: transitioning from startup culture to a sustainable, scalable model without losing what made the company special.
“We recognized that the culture that worked as we were growing was not sustainable or realistic for a larger organization,” says Beveridge. But they didn’t want to “risk losing highly valued members of the team who might find a change in culture challenging.”
The solution was inclusion and ownership. “We involved everyone in the company,” she says, including the entire team in writing the company mission statement.
“Of course, the senior management team guided the discussions,” Beveridge notes, “but giving everyone this input into our priorities and culture has ensured that everyone feels they have a voice and are listened to.”
That collaborative approach helped ease the transition—and preserved the company’s core identity.
4. Angus McCallum: Breaking Down Silos at Scale
Angus McCallum, Managing Principal at Valent Communications, recalls a high-stakes cultural overhaul at a Fortune 20 insurance company.
The problem wasn’t technical. It was cultural.
“Systems and IT executives, managers and front-line employees were ingrained in their own historic cultures,” says McCallum. “Each tended to think that theirs was ‘the best’ and that ‘the others’ had it wrong.”
The solution was a yearlong series of interactive, in-person events. Each session tackled key issues through presentations, small-group discussions, and open forums.
“They talked and worked with ‘others’ who turned out not to be so ‘other’ in person,” says McCallum.
The impact was immediate. Integration accelerated, and the events became so popular they were continued as a regular part of company management. “Culture changed across the board,” says McCallum.
Today, that same approach is being used to improve performance and cohesion in hybrid and remote environments.
Culture Change Takes Work—But It Works
These leaders didn’t rely on posters or platitudes. They invested in relationships, transparency, and shared ownership. They told the truth, listened carefully, and stayed consistent. In each case, culture wasn’t something imposed—it was something co-created.
And while every company’s journey is different, the lesson is the same: With the right commitment, culture change is absolutely possible.