Want Culture Change? Use These 7 Principles

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As calls for culture change have become commonplace in U.S. society, many blame culture for today’s ills: The world is changing too quickly because of technology, global crises, and generational shifts; everyone is too polarized, isolated, and anxious; and hope is on life support.

So what’s the fix? News headlines and social media feeds proclaim that institutions and organizations that no longer serve us need to be fixed or reimagined. They are passé, toxic, or broken beyond repair. No matter their political persuasion, many believe we need to reform, rebuild, or even tear it all down in order to begin again. We need culture change.

There’s no shortage of culture change advice, from consultants, business gurus, advocates, and scholars. When you boil it down, much of it encourages tackling culture change through specialization or simplification—by focusing on particular settings (like workplaces, schools, or communities), characteristics (like leadership styles, habits, or mindsets), or outcomes (like improved performance, well-being, or trust). These approaches have merit, but they are also limited because they often separate or isolate some parts of culture from others—a tendency that can lead to quick fixes, blind spots, and unintended consequences.

To fill this gap, I use the science of culture to better understand how people break, unmake, and remake culture. Integrating academic expertise and hands-on experience—with tech companies, media networks, investors, nonprofits, government agencies, schools, and other organizations—I developed a new, comprehensive framework for intentional culture change.

The framework outlines seven evidence-based principles grounded in the science of culture and behavioral change. And it invites changemakers to ask seven key questions, informed by these principles, that empower them to motivate, activate, and achieve meaningful culture change. Along with my colleagues at Stanford SPARQ, a behavioral science “do tank” at Stanford University, we have studied and field-tested these principles. They work.

Seven Principles for Intentional Culture Change

1. People are shaped by—and in turn shape—culture.

   Ask: Who is building our culture?

2. Cultures are made up of four key interdependent parts (ideas, institutions, interactions, and individuals) known as the culture cycle.

   Ask: Are our culture’s key features aligned?

3. Culture change takes both top-down and bottom-up efforts.

   Ask: Is the push for change coming from the top or bottom?

4. Culture change is easier when it leverages existing core values and harder when it challenges deep-seated defaults and biases.

   Ask: What are your hidden cultural norms and defaults?

5. Culture change can feel like a threat.

   Ask: Who might resist the change, and why?

6. Culture change is not a linear path.

   Ask: Are you in it for the long and winding haul?

7. Timing matters.

   Ask: What contextual factors may help or hinder culture change?

Learn How Culture Works—And How to Navigate and Wield It

The key to changing culture is to understand it—to embrace its complex glory and learn how to navigate and wield it. Changemakers can maximize their odds of effectively driving change by using these seven evidence-based principles—and by exploring the key questions necessary to rethink and remake their cultures anew.

No matter what kind of culture change you’re driving—from redesigning work to decarbonizing daily life to advancing women’s professional sports— or where you’re coming from—as a professional, parent, C-suite exec, or GM—culture change works through a similar set of social and psychological forces. For instance, by targeting a shift in values, norms, and practices among school leaders and teachers, a district in Forest Grove, Oregon, was able to improve student performance. Changing school culture to focus more on “we” than “me” can engage and empower students and help close achievement gaps.

That said, transforming cultures is far from simple. Cultures are complex, mighty systems with many moving parts and competing influences. The success of any given change initiative can be difficult (if not impossible) to measure or predict. For example, research shows that although business leaders have worked to combat employee burnout by changing workplace cultures to highlight well-being, they still show a bias against high performers who have strict work-life boundaries, viewing them as less worthy of promotion.

Robust research demonstrates that intentional culture change happens when people understand how to navigate the hidden social and psychological dynamics at play, and if they learn to recognize the levers of culture they can use to influence those dynamics for good. We’ll continue to explore how to put the framework into action, with a focus on the building blocks of culture. Because people make their cultures, they have the power to change them.