Abstract: Many organisations averted troublesome tradition conversations in 2025, letting points fester. Widespread issues embody hybrid working habits that swimsuit people moderately than groups, underperforming ‘untouchable’ colleagues and government behaviour that contradicts firm values. Good engagement scores typically masks deeper cultural issues about how work really will get achieved. Left unchecked, these points drain power and undermine technique. Easy interventions will help: crew ‘evaluate and refresh’ classes, stronger teaching abilities, collaboration workshops and tradition diagnostics. The bottom line is confronting uncomfortable truths moderately than practising ‘wilful blindness’ that permits issues to spiral.
Operating with a good friend to kick off our New Yr, we slipped into conversations about work and the way we had been feeling about coming again in 2026. “I’m not wanting ahead to it,” my good friend mentioned. “I’ve acquired to have a number of awkward conversations that I averted earlier than Christmas, beginning with my boss.”
The troublesome conversations in query had been all about behaviour. A crew member’s poor efficiency had gone unchecked for a while. Her boss’s unhelpful outbursts had been undermining crew members and making a tradition of concern and micro-management. Leaders had been making knee-jerk choices with out understanding the ramifications on the broader organisation and, in the end, the shopper.
Wanting again throughout 2025, these examples are typical of the challenges many organisations confronted of their day-to-day work (and the awkward tradition conversations that had been averted). With an amazing change agenda, tight sources and unsure landscapes, tackling pervasive cultural points appeared too huge a hill to climb.
However left unchecked, sub-optimal tradition at greatest drains power and at worst undermines technique supply and results in severe reputational injury.
The awkward tradition conversations we averted in 2025
Reflecting on Pecan’s work with purchasers final 12 months, here’s a round-up of the commonest and awkward tradition conversations folks have been avoiding.
Widespread crew tradition points
- Hybrid or flexible-working habits that swimsuit the person, not the crew:For instance, a boss insisting that the crew come again to the workplace 5 days every week as a result of that’s how they like to work, or a colleague who now leaves early daily to choose their youngsters up from faculty.
- Underperforming crew members who’re perceived to be too beneficial to sort out their behaviour: For instance, an IT specialist who has deep material experience however who doesn’t talk proactively with different crew members, or a gross sales supervisor who hits their targets however has a disrespectful communication fashion.
- That crew that’s troublesome to work with: For instance, a crew that’s gradual and unresponsive or by no means follows the method it’s meant to.
Widespread organisational tradition points
- Good engagement scores imply folks assume the tradition is match for the longer term: When engagement scores paint a rosy image of the organisation’s well being it may be troublesome to steer leaders that methods of working could have to evolve to ship the technique. Engagement scores let you know whether or not folks need to get out onto the pitch to play, not how they’ll play once they’re there.
- The chief crew’s behaviour doesn’t replicate the said values of the organisation: For instance, collaboration is an organization worth, however executives work in siloes with competing priorities.
- Tradition shouldn’t be getting the eye or funding wanted to alter: For instance, tradition change is proscribed to communication campaigns.
Tips on how to confront awkward tradition conversations in 2026
These are some easy steps that may be taken to confront every of those cultural challenges.
1. Workforce tradition conversations
Run a ‘evaluate and refresh’ session on methods of working
- Arrange a brief nameless survey to grasp what’s working and what’s not
- Use the output as the idea for a crew dialog (it may be helpful to make use of a facilitator for this to create a secure area to open up and assist tackle any crew chief bias).
- Agree on what’s already working nicely and what to alter for the crew to be more practical.
It’s typically small issues that get in the way in which of a crew working at its greatest. Left unresolved, these points construct up, inflicting resentment and inefficiency. Operating a ‘evaluate and refresh’ session each six months retains the cogs working easily and helps new crew members hit the bottom working.
Sharpen up efficiency teaching abilities throughout all folks managers
Distant working is usually blamed for a scarcity of productiveness when all of the proof suggests this isn’t the case. In truth, many crew members overwork and battle to set boundaries when working at residence.
As a substitute, put money into creating teaching abilities in anybody main folks. Make certain the coaching focuses on mindset in addition to approach and make sure the method is totally embedded into day-to-day practices.
Deliver groups collectively for a ‘proactive collaboration’ workshop
Facilitate a session to determine a brand new imaginative and prescient for working collectively. This could embody ‘what attractiveness like’ and the advantages for every crew of working on this manner. Assist them share their sincere reflections on how they work at their greatest/worst and the priorities to concentrate on.
2. Organisational tradition conversations
Begin constructing buy-in for tradition change by working easy interventions
Ask for 3 phrases to explain the present tradition and three phrases to explain the tradition wanted to ship the technique. This may be achieved by way of your folks survey, with focus teams or simply with the manager committee to begin with – it’s an effective way to get a way of the shifts wanted
This exercise can create urge for food for a fuller tradition diagnostic to grasp the cultural strengths to protect and blockers to remodel. It doesn’t have to be pricey or time-consuming – just a few weeks gives you the perception you want.
The three-words train often makes it obvious that your engagement survey doesn’t let you know a lot about whether or not methods of working are match for technique supply. It tells you numerous about how folks really feel in regards to the organisation, their degree of dedication and how you can enhance it. What you want as well as is perception into how folks work round right here.
When you begin to form a easy description of the tradition you want, you may assess the diploma to which the manager crew show these behaviours in the way in which they work.
- Add values-based inquiries to your folks survey
- Introduce a 360 device tailor-made to your values and behaviours
- Facilitate government self-reflection utilizing interviews and crew dialogue
Tips on how to change office tradition in 100 days
A roadmap for accelerating behaviour change in your organisation.
Don’t let wilful blindness maintain you again from awkward tradition conversations
Creator Margaret Heffernan popularised the time period ‘wilful blindness’ to explain a psychological phenomenon the place people, teams, or organisations ignore apparent dangers or truths as a consequence of discomfort, incentives, or cognitive biases.
While these awkward tradition conversations aren’t at disaster stage, regularly avoiding uncomfortable truths and candid conversations hampers efficiency and leaves area for issues to spiral. Wilful blindness has cropped up in lots of scandals which have hit the headlines from the BBC to the Met Police – don’t let this turn into the norm in your organisation.
Key takeaways
Which awkward dialog have you ever been avoiding? Right here’s how you can transfer from consciousness to motion:
- Schedule common crew ‘evaluate and refresh’ classes. Create area each six months for sincere dialogue about what’s working and what’s not. Small frustrations compound rapidly – tackle them earlier than they erode belief and efficiency.
- Distinguish engagement from tradition health. Your engagement scores let you know if folks need to play, not how they’ll play as soon as they’re on the pitch. Add culture-specific questions to grasp whether or not your methods of working actually help technique supply.
- Put money into teaching functionality throughout all managers. Distant working isn’t the productiveness drawback – poor efficiency conversations are. Develop the mindset and abilities that assist managers tackle behaviour points confidently and constructively.
- Examine government behaviour in opposition to said values. If collaboration is a worth however leaders work in silos, you’ve acquired a credibility hole. Use 360 instruments and facilitated reflection to carry management accountable.
- Act earlier than points attain disaster level. Wilful blindness permits issues to spiral. Begin with easy interventions that construct buy-in and create momentum for deeper tradition change.
