The Slippery Soap of Culture

Article by Anna Rimhagen

Earlier this year, at the conference Agila Sverige, Cecilia Bjuhr shared a metaphor that I really liked. She spoke about Den hala tvålen i transformationen — the slippery soap of transformation. It is one of those images that immediately evokes a lived experience. We all know what it feels like to try and grasp a wet bar of soap. Just when we think we have hold of it, it slips from our fingers. We reach again, adjust our grip, and try once more, only to discover it has moved. The harder we try to possess it, the more elusive it becomes.

Cecilia’s metaphor applies not only to transformation but to organisational culture itself. In fact, one could argue that culture is the ultimate slippery soap.

We often speak about culture as though it were an object. We talk about changing culture, measuring culture and fixing culture. The language suggests that culture is something we can eventually get hold of; something that, with enough effort and expertise, can be designed, implemented, and finally secured. Organisations invest enormous energy in culture initiatives, values campaigns, and transformation efforts, only to discover that culture continues to evolve in ways that are difficult to predict and impossible to fully control.

The reason for this is that culture is not a thing. In fact, culture is much closer to a verb than a noun – culture is something we do.

It is something we continuously create through the way we interact with one another. It exists in conversations, decisions, priorities, and assumptions. It is found in the way power is exercised, conflict is handled, mistakes are treated, and in the way success is shared. Culture exists and evolves in the living fabric of human interaction.

For the Swedish translation of Etsko Schuitema’s book Transforming Culture we chose the title Kulturbyggare, which means Culture Builders. The title emphasises culture as something that is constantly being built and we are all active participants in its creation. Whether we realise it or not, each of us is a culture builder, every day.

The culture we experience tomorrow is being built today through the interactions we have with one another.

This understanding lies at the heart of Schuitema’s work on organisational culture and leadership. Throughout the Care & Growth literature, we argue that the real challenge of culture transformation is not changing systems or structures, but transforming the intent that people bring into their interactions. This is a profound shift in perspective: it moves our attention away from culture as an object, as something we have. Culture is something we create, or perhaps more accurately: it is something we are constantly creating.

The distinction matters because it fundamentally changes what we pay attention to. When we think of culture as an object, we naturally focus on programmes, interventions, frameworks, and methodologies. These are not unimportant, but they can easily become substitutes for the deeper work. We begin to imagine that culture lives in mission statements, value posters, governance models, or transformation roadmaps. Yet culture can survive the absence of all of these things, just as it can remain stubbornly unhealthy in their presence.

The Care & Growth thinking invites us to look deeper. It asks us to consider the intent operating beneath behaviour. Are people here primarily to get, or are they showing up primarily to give? Are they focused on extracting value from the system, or contributing value to it? Are they using their position to advance themselves, or to enable the growth and success of others?

These questions matter because culture is, in many respects, collective intent made visible.

When enough people approach their work from the intent to get, a particular culture emerges.

• Trust begins to erode because interactions become increasingly transactional.
• Information becomes a source of power rather than a resource to be shared.
• Collaboration is offered selectively.
• Accountability feels punitive.
• People protect themselves because they experience others as competitors for scarce resources, recognition, or influence.

It becomes a culture of internal competition and scarcity.

When enough people approach their work from the intent to give, something different begins to emerge.

• Trust grows because people experience one another as collaborators rather than competitors.
• Knowledge flows more freely.
• Feedback becomes developmental.
• Accountability becomes an expression of care rather than control.
• People bring discretionary effort because they feel part of something meaningful.

The culture becomes characterised by generosity, courage, and accountability.

Importantly, this does not happen because someone successfully implemented a culture programme. It happens because people repeatedly choose contribution over self-interest.

This is where the metaphor of the slippery soap becomes particularly useful. Many leaders carry an implicit hope that there will eventually come a point where the culture is fixed. Once the transformation is complete, they imagine, the organisation will have arrived. The desired culture will be established and can simply be maintained.

But culture does not work that way.

Culture resembles a garden far more than it resembles a machine. A garden is never finished. It requires continuous care, attention, pruning, nourishment, and cultivation. The moment we stop tending it, natural processes begin to move it in a different direction.

Perhaps this points to another misconception that often limits our understanding of organisations. We frequently describe organisations as systems, something mechanical: a collection of components that can be adjusted, controlled, and optimised from the outside.

An organisation is something more than that.

An organisation is a living organism. It grows, adapts and responds to its environment through the countless interactions of the people who are part of it. Its character is continuously shaped by the intentions, trust, fears and choices of those people, and by the degree to which they respond to one another with generosity and courage. In that sense, the organisation is not separate from its members; it is the living consequence of how they relate to one another.

Machines and systems can be fixed. Living organisms need constant nurturing.

Culture behaves in exactly this way. The trust that exists today cannot be stored for tomorrow. The quality of the culture depends on the quality of the ongoing interactions that produce it. Like a garden, it is always becoming something.

This idea resonates strongly with a theme explored in It’s All About the Spirit: the spirit with which we engage in our work ultimately matters more than the mechanics of the work itself. Two people can perform exactly the same task and follow exactly the same process, while bringing entirely different intentions to the activity. One may act from self-interest, while the other acts from service. Outwardly, the behaviour appears identical. Inwardly, however, something profoundly different is occurring.

Over time, these differences in intent accumulate.

What we call culture is the collective manifestation of countless individual choices regarding how we show up for one another. Therefore, culture cannot be owned by leadership, HR, or a  transformation office. It belongs to all of us, because all of us are building it. Every interaction leaves its mark and every conversation contributes something. Every act of generosity strengthens the fabric of the organisation, while every act of selfishness weakens it. Whether we realise it or not, we are all culture builders!

Perhaps this is why the metaphor of the slippery soap is so useful. It reminds us that culture is never finally achieved. It is never completed. It remains alive because it is continuously being built, shaped and rebuilt through the choices we make together.

Therefore, the slippery soap is not a problem to be solved, but a reminder of reality. Culture was never intended to be caught. It was never intended to be ready or finished. It remains alive precisely because it is continuously recreated through human interaction.

The task of leadership, is not to capture culture but to participate consciously in its creation. The task is to keep creating the conditions in which people choose contribution over extraction, generosity over selfishness, and courage over cowardice.

The task for all of us is to return, again and again, to the question at the heart of maturity and growth: am I here to get, or am I here to give? Every interaction answers that question and contributes to the culture we build together.

P.S. If you understand Swedish, don’t miss Cecilia’s talk from Agila Sverige: Den hala tvålen i transformationen.