One Person at a Time

One Person at a Time
by Mustafa Athar Rizvi

What is organisational culture? And how do you change it?

Organisational culture is often described through values, behaviours, policies and shared beliefs. Organisations try to influence culture through engagement surveys, leadership programmes, performance measures and carefully worded value statements. All of these may have a role to play. But culture is ultimately experienced somewhere far more immediate. It is experienced in the interaction between two people. It is present in how a leader responds when someone disagrees. In whether an employee feels heard or dismissed. In what happens when a mistake is made, a difficult question is asked or someone needs support. Culture becomes visible in the small, repeated moments that tell people what is genuinely valued and what is merely stated.

Why, then, do organisations want to change it? Usually because something is no longer working. Engagement may be declining. Trust may have weakened. Teams may be protecting themselves rather than collaborating. Leaders may be achieving results while leaving people diminished in the process. The instinct is often to search for an organisation-wide solution: a new framework, a culture campaign or a set of measures that will compel people to behave differently. But can culture really be transformed as a collective abstraction?

Eunice Liefferink’s journey with Schuitema began in 2009, when she encountered the Care and Growth leadership model through a leadership development programme. One of her most important insights was that leadership is determined by intent – and that genuine leadership is fundamentally about contribution. Later, while responsible for employee engagement in a corporate organisation, Eunice faced a familiar dilemma. The organisation wanted to improve its engagement score from around 50% to 75%, yet its executives were not being measured against that goal. She asked Etsko Schuitema what appeared to be the central question: How do you shift the culture of an organisation when the people at the top are not being held accountable for shifting it?

His response was strikingly simple:

“The way that you shift culture is through one interaction at a time. That is how transformation happens.”

For Eunice, it was a liberating realisation. Every interaction, whether with a director, a manager, a colleague or even someone standing across a counter – is an opportunity to make an impact. Culture does not wait for the entire organisation to move at once. It changes individual by individual, encounter by encounter. This does not remove responsibility from senior leaders. Leaders have an especially significant influence because their behaviour shapes the conditions in which others act. But it reminds us that culture is not something “the organisation” does independently of the people within it. Every person contributes to what becomes normal.

From a Care and Growth perspective, the crucial issue is the intent governing each interaction. Am I here primarily to get something from this person, control the outcome or protect myself? Or am I here to contribute what is appropriate – to give attention, honesty, guidance, support or accountability where it is due? The distinction matters because people experience our intent through our conduct. A leader may use all the correct language while still communicating self-interest. Conversely, a difficult conversation can strengthen trust when the other person recognises that its purpose is to help them grow rather than to punish, diminish or control them.

Culture change therefore begins before any new organisational value is announced. It begins when one person chooses to engage another with a different intent.

One conversation may appear too small to transform an organisation. But organisations are made from conversations, decisions and human encounters repeated over time. Change enough of those encounters and the culture cannot remain the same.

Want to learn more about how to lead your team with greater purpose, strengthen organisational culture, and unlock potential? See: www.schuitemagroup.com

Note: We have a course scheduled for November ’26. If you’d like more information feel free to contact us.

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# Executive Coaching
# Diagnostics
# Organisational Culture Transformation
# Leadership Development Programmes

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