At present’s prevailing HR working fashions stay targeted on danger mitigation, management, and retribution. However within the fashionable office, is this method holding your organisation again? And if that’s the case, what’s the choice?
With over 20 years’ expertise working intently with HR leaders on mediation and battle decision, David Liddle, CEO of The TCM Group, has developed a brand new path ahead for HR in 2026 and past.
By remodeling your HR group right into a Individuals and Tradition operate – the place the main target shifts away from restrictive HR processes and insurance policies in direction of compassion, dialogue, and equity – you may turn into a trusted, strategic participant outfitted to construct a high-performing office.
On this Tradition Pioneers dialog, David shares the small print of this radical shift in direction of folks and tradition: why it’s so desperately wanted, what it seems like in follow, and the way pioneering folks leaders are already adopting it. He additionally reveals the pivotal second he realised the present system was damaged – and the way an enormous paper shredder sparked change.
Whether or not you’re a Chief Individuals Officer, HR chief, or tradition champion, this dialog will problem how you consider your function – and encourage you to reclaim it.
Watch the complete interview under.
A little bit extra about David Liddle…
David is an inspiring, participating and entertaining keynote speaker, workshop facilitator and podcast visitor. He’s a globally famend authority within the fields of mediation, battle administration, teaching, human sources, folks & tradition, tradition change, management and organisational improvement (OD). In 2025, David was recognised as HR’s most influential thinker by HR Journal, and he’s a member of the celebrated Thinkers 50 Radar. He’s the writer of two extremely acclaimed books, and is engaged on two extra. We discover considered one of his new books, Individuals and Tradition, on this dialogue (attributable to be launched on third January 2026 and out there to pre-order now).
Key dialogue factors
Outdated and ineffective HR fashions
- David discusses the outdated nature of current HR programs and processes, which had been designed for a control-based organisational construction.
- He explains that many HR processes are targeted on danger mitigation reasonably than enabling high-performing relationships.
- David highlights the retributive nature of HR programs, which frequently result in blame, punishment, and sanctions.
- He emphasises the necessity for a shift in direction of compassion, dialogue, engagement, perception, studying, and equity in HR processes.
A private second of change (involving an enormous paper shredder)
- David shares his background in mediation, restorative justice, and anti-racism, resulting in his work in battle decision in workplaces.
- He describes his preliminary expertise in 2001 as woeful and insufficient, with HR programs avoiding or overreacting to conflicts.
- David recounts a pivotal second in 2013 when he shredded a grievance process to focus on its ineffectiveness and promote a decision framework.
- This second marked a shift in his profession from being a company band-aid to having strategic conversations with management about organisational tradition.
Introduction to the Individuals and Tradition Working Mannequin
- David outlines the 5 domains of the Individuals and Tradition working mannequin: Individuals, Tradition, Technique, Justice, and Worth.
- The Individuals area focuses on creating people-centered workplaces, emphasising engagement, proactive listening, and servant management.
- The Tradition area includes co-creating tradition with intentionality and deliberateness, chaired by the Chief Individuals Officer and CEO.
- The Technique area aligns company technique with the folks plan, making tradition and other people the highest strategic precedence.
The Justice and Worth Domains
- The Justice area introduces a contemporary type of transformative justice, mixing restorative justice with procedural, distributive, and pure justice.
- David emphasises the significance of understanding justice and delivering it by means of dialogue, perception, and studying reasonably than retribution.
- The Worth area shifts from conventional worth chains to strategic worth, stakeholder worth, and social worth, specializing in measuring and driving worth as folks leaders.
- David discusses the function of the folks operate in creating new facilities of excellence, upgrading outdated ones, and specializing in core matters like decision, wellbeing, and inclusion.
Widespread traits amongst pioneering folks leaders
- David shares examples of profitable folks leaders who’re already implementing the Individuals and Tradition working mannequin.
- David highlights the commonalities amongst profitable folks leaders, together with utilizing values as a golden thread, connecting values to behaviors and capabilities, and constructing belief within the folks operate.
Sensible steps for implementing change
- David suggests making a tradition hub, chaired by the Chief Individuals Officer and CEO, to drive organisational tradition.
- He advises gathering knowledge to establish areas for enchancment and utilizing cultural audits and maturity indicators.
- David introduces the inexperienced pen, pink pen experiment, encouraging folks professionals to steadiness empathy and dialogue with formal, inflexible processes in HR insurance policies.
- He emphasises the significance of getting collaborative conversations with varied stakeholders, together with managers, staff, and unions, to recalibrate HR insurance policies.
Name to motion
- David highlights the strategic function of the folks operate in creating high-performing, revolutionary, and productive workplaces.
- He concludes by encouraging listeners to pre-order his ebook, Individuals and Tradition and to remain tuned for his upcoming initiative, The Individuals Chief.
The TCM Group is the proud Occasion Companion of Tradition Pioneers – a marketing campaign to each assist organisations driving impactful tradition change, and commend those that are main ahead and difficult the established order at work.
