Does Culture Eat Strategy for Breakfast?

The resounding answer from the panellists and audience was a clear “Yes!”.

The key takeaways from the session included:

1. A strong culture is fundamental to delivering an organisation’s strategy.
2. Reputational damage takes time to rebuild and undermines strategic delivery.
3. Culture can be proactively set, managed and assessed.

1. A strong culture is fundamental to delivering strategy

Colm O’Reardon, Secretary General of the Department of Higher Education, discussed the concept of “Culture as a Strategic Enabler in the Public Sector.” He highlighted the civil and public sectors’ long-standing tradition of delivering public services in a fair, transparent and value-driven way, as their culture demands.

Colm emphasised the challenge of delivering reforms and enhanced public services with the urgency required while adhering to the probity and risk management processes inherent in civil service culture. He raised the question of whether a revised culture is needed to balance these competing priorities.

He also noted how hybrid working models and a stronger approach to governance have renewed the focus on the importance of culture in supporting strategic delivery.

Angela Fitzgerald, CEO of HIQA, reinforced this idea, stressing the importance of a strong culture and reputation for HIQA as Ireland’s regulatory authority for healthcare. She highlighted how credibility is essential for the organisation to fulfil its statutory responsibilities. Angela noted that as organisations grow and evolve, so do their cultures. For HIQA, this growth, coupled with the challenge of remote and hybrid working across multiple locations, prompted a recent cultural review.

2. Reputational damage takes time to build and undermines strategy

The panel referenced several recent reputational controversies rooted in cultural issues, including the damage caused to RTÉ, several high-profile charities and the Irish banking sector. Orla Nugent, Deputy CEO of the Higher Education Authority, cited Warren Buffet’s well-known quote: “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

The panellists unanimously agreed a proactively managed culture is far easier than rebuilding it after damage has occurred. A damaged reputation significantly undermines an organisation’s ability to deliver on its objectives and regain trust.

Marion Kelly, CEO of the Irish Banking Culture Board (IBCB), shared how the IBCB has worked with member banks to rebuild public trust following the banking crisis. She outlined the severe reputational damage caused by behavioural and cultural issues, particularly the Tracker Mortgage Scandal, which led to extremely low public trust in banks and the mistrust internal staff had in speaking up coupled with low cultural engagement metrics.

Marion highlighted that it took seven years of proactive cultural management to shift sentiment from negative to more positive, and even now, the journey remains ongoing.

Rebuilding this trust was driven by the following:

• Regular external trust assessments and internal staff surveys focused on factors like integrity, accountability and fairness.
• Leadership involvement and a cultural framework tailored to align the entire organisation’s actions with its purpose and values.
• Proactively addressing gaps between desired and actual culture through clear actions and accountability measures.

IBCB’s seven-year journey to date underscores the complexity and time required to rebuild trust and reputation after cultural failures. A proactive approach to managing culture, rooted in accountability, transparency and alignment with purpose, provides the foundation for long-term success and resilience.

3. Culture can be proactively set, managed and assessed

Angela Fitzgerald shared how HIQA embeds a strong culture in the face of change. She outlined how organisations can actively manage culture by:

• Defining a target culture in collaboration with leadership.
• Aligning HR, communications and business processes to support this target culture.
• Regularly assessing culture to track progress and identify gaps.

HIQA’s recent cultural assessment explored how culture is experienced daily through behaviours and the working environment. Angela outlined the independent assessment process, which included:

1. Defining target culture: Collaborating with the Board and Senior Leadership Team to articulate a desired cultural state.
2. Measuring actual culture: Conducting staff focus groups and surveys across six cultural dimensions, ensuring a safe space for honest feedback without management presence.
3. Reviewing the working environment: Evaluating how the workplace supports the target culture and accommodates hybrid working.
4. Gap analysis: Comparing target culture with actual findings through data analysis and documentation reviews.
5. Recommendations and action plans: Developing a cultural framework and actionable steps to bridge the gaps identified.

Angela noted that the process helped HIQA attract and retain excellent staff while embracing hybrid work as a long-term reality.

Conclusion

The discussion underscored that culture is not a passive element within organisations. Instead, it is a strategic enabler that must be nurtured, aligned with organisational goals and continuously assessed. As the panellists illustrated, getting culture right is critical to long-term success, particularly in times of change and growth.