8 Projects where culture makes all the difference

8 Projects Where Culture Makes All the Difference

IIn many strategic situations, culture is not just a matter of atmosphere — it is either a lever for success or a major source of blockage.

When culture is taken into account, transformations gain in fluidity, meaning, and lasting impact.

When it is ignored, we unintentionally create invisible obstacles that eventually become costly — both humanly and strategically.

What all the successful projects below have in common is the decisive role that culture plays in collective performance.

1. Building a culture (e.g., “customer-centric with responsible environmental impact”)

When an organisation wants to become more customer-centric, it often focuses on tools (NPS, CRM, customer journeys) or training.

But the real shift is cultural:

• moving from “we execute” to “we understand and anticipate customer needs,”
• daring to challenge established practices,
• strengthening listening, collaboration, and responsiveness,
• sometimes delegating more authority to frontline teams.

Without cultural transformation, these initiatives remain technical or compliance projects — especially for sustainability-related efforts. They fade out quickly and make little sense to employees.

2. Integrating Functions or Departments

When two departments must collaborate or merge (e.g., Marketing + Product, IT + Operations, two HR teams), their functional cultures can be radically different:

• decision-making pace
• level of formalisation
• relationship to risk
• communication style
• working methods (agile vs. structured, operational vs. strategic, etc.)

If these differences are not addressed:

• processes jam,
• misunderstandings multiply,
• personal tensions surface,
• shared objectives become unreachable.

Cultural work creates a shared language, clear expectations, and compatible ways of working.

3. Building or Managing Multicultural (International) Teams

International teams can be rich, innovative, and highly performant… if cultural differences are acknowledged.

They can also generate friction when organisations ignore:

• communication styles (direct vs. indirect),
• perception of hierarchy,
• conflict-management norms,
• working rhythms,
• relationship to time or commitments.

Supporting these teams, raising awareness, building common rituals, and making expectations explicit prevents unnecessary misunderstandings and accelerates collaboration.

4. Successful Onboarding

Onboarding is often treated as an administrative formality… yet it is the moment when culture is most visible.

New joiners learn more in three weeks than from a year of corporate messaging:

• Who really decides?
• How do people collaborate?
• Is it acceptable to ask questions?
• Is taking initiative encouraged or seen as risky?
• Are mistakes learning opportunities or failures?

A strong cultural onboarding:

• shortens adaptation time,
• supports team integration,
• increases loyalty,
• prevents the emergence of unaligned micro-cultures.

5. Implementing New Ways of Working (Agile, Hybrid, Remote)

Changing tools is easy; changing behaviours is cultural.

For example:

• Agile requires more transparency, feedback, and collaboration.
• Hybrid work requires rethinking trust, coordination, and accountability.
• Remote work requires a more explicit communication culture.

Without cultural alignment, new practices collide with old habits.

6. Digital Transformation (or Any Transformation)

In any transformation, culture can be:

• an accelerator (curiosity, experimentation, collaboration), or
• a brake (fear of change, silos, strong hierarchy).

Organisations often underestimate the cultural impact of:

• new technologies,
• digitalised processes,
• automation of tasks.

Success depends more on people’s understanding and adoption than on the technology itself.

7. Building a “Responsible Performance Culture”

Typical ambitions:

• strengthening accountability,
• increasing transparency,
• establishing a feedback culture,
• aligning behaviours with strategy.

These initiatives fail when organisations focus only on indicators instead of addressing:

• the manager’s role,
• tacit norms,
• behaviours that are actually rewarded.

8. Harmonising Leadership Practices

When each manager “does things their own way,” culture becomes inconsistent and teams receive contradictory messages.

Aligning leadership practices requires deep cultural work, especially in:

• how feedback is given,
• how priorities are managed,
• how recognition is expressed,
• how communication flows.

The decisive role of culture in collective performance

Across all these projects, culture is not a peripheral factor — it is the centre of gravity.
When culture is addressed, transformations become smoother, more meaningful, and more sustainable.
When it is ignored, invisible obstacles arise, ultimately costing organisations heavily — both humanly and strategically.

Now that the importance of culture in projects is no longer up for debate, let’s look at what corporate culture actually is — and explore the methods to understand it and transform it effectively.