Enterprise has taken a unsuitable flip. For the reason that 2008 monetary disaster, greatest observe has led firms to consider that the path to driving higher productiveness and efficiency is to ascertain a office tradition that prioritises function, which means, and the way individuals really feel. In consequence, organisations have grow to be more and more inward-looking, preoccupied extra with symbolic function statements and curated inner experiences than delivering actual worth to the enterprise or its clients. Nevertheless, in right now’s difficult financial local weather, and with UK productiveness at an all-time low, this navel-gazing strategy is just not solely proving ineffective, however can also be actively holding firms again. What started as a well-meaning shift in direction of cultivating happier workers has grow to be a dangerous distraction from real worker engagement and efficiency.
This cultural drift didn’t occur in a single day. It was fuelled by over a decade during which low cost capital and traditionally low rates of interest diminished the strain to carry out, whereas a wider cultural shift in direction of extra inclusive groups and the introduction of distant work additional inspired organisations to show their gaze inwards.
The intention – to have interaction workers and encourage contribution – was the appropriate one. However what went lacking was the essential hyperlink between productiveness, tradition and technique. As a substitute of aligning function with efficiency, we over-indexed on how individuals felt. Tradition resembled extra of a temper board than a enterprise technique, and firms turned extra targeted on inner conversations than exterior affect.
This hasn’t delivered outcomes or engaged workers. In accordance with the Gallup State of the International Office 2025 report, UK staff are a few of the most disengaged in Europe, with solely 10 p.c (down from 20 p.c in 2009) saying they felt engaged at work in 2024.
This misunderstanding round firm tradition has formed how firms reply to the productiveness disaster. In a bid to re-engage staff, many organisations have doubled down on getting workers again to the workplace by making a feel-good tradition, providing pizza Fridays and inspirational values etched on workplace partitions.
Nevertheless, high-performing workers don’t need superficial enjoyable or perks; they need a transparent framework of what success appears to be like like. They wish to really feel understood, recognised, and acknowledged. They wish to understand how their work contributes to the enterprise’ success, and that their effort issues. This isn’t achieved via beanbags or branded values, however via readability, route, and alignment.
Expertise scarcity or administration failure?
This breakdown in efficiency tradition hasn’t simply distorted how companies take into consideration values, but in addition eroded how they function. Over time, many organisations have misplaced the flexibility to handle successfully, attributing efficiency points to a scarcity of expertise relatively than a failure to align and direct.
Reasonably than equipping managers to drive outcomes, companies have defaulted to top-down communications that cascade via layers of management with none actual accountability or follow-through. In consequence, managers are now not held accountable for managing individuals, initiatives, and efficiency successfully. As a substitute, they defer upwards, escalating on a regular basis choices and looking for fixed sign-off, making a bottleneck on the prime and disempowered groups on the backside.
The consequence of that is that leaders assume the problem with their organisation’s productiveness is a scarcity of expertise, when in truth it’s a structural and managerial failure. In response, companies usually flip to consultants or double down on tech options to bypass the problem, relatively than rebuilding the core functionality they’ve misplaced: competent administration that hyperlinks tradition to outcomes.
Realigning office tradition with efficiency
What firms want is a renewed give attention to a office tradition that explicitly hyperlinks worker contributions to efficiency, development, and buyer values. That doesn’t imply going again to the times of top-down, inflexible company rulebooks. It means constructing a tradition that’s clear, meritocratic, and unafraid to handle poor efficiency and to have the exhausting conversations the place needed.
This implies setting a enterprise technique that the entire organisation understands and prioritises, making certain that each worker’s efforts and actions are targeted on driving it ahead.
A key aspect of this includes cultivating an inclusive surroundings during which workers from all ranges really feel that they’re each in a position, and inspired to contribute to the enterprise’ general goal. This doesn’t imply a feel-good tradition of obscure values, quasi-spiritual gobbledegook and superficial enjoyable, however one the place readability, route, and trustworthy suggestions are embedded into the every day routine of efficiency practices and expectations.
Managers should unlock the contributions of their groups not solely via encouragement however via accountability. If leaders wish to make room for brand new potential, they have to be keen to handle exits when efficiency doesn’t serve the enterprise technique.
A profitable office tradition isn’t an inner mission, however a strategic asset. It’s grounded in meritocracy and exterior relevance, all the time wanting outward to clients, rivals, and evolving market shifts. Tradition is just not perks or ping pong, however a transparent and constant surroundings the place persons are aligned to the organisation’s objectives and function, the place individuals’s contributions are each understood and heard, and the place efficiency expectations are the shared language.
David Snell is the co-founder of Arrival
