Culture is a team sport: how HR, Leaders and Managers create a system for growth
Watch a high-performing rowing crew and, from the riverbank, it can look almost effortless.
Eight people move as one. Every stroke is timed. The boat gathers speed. No single rower appears to be working independently, yet each person is making a distinct contribution.
Look more closely, however, and you see the system behind the performance.
There is a coach building capability and creating the conditions for success. A cox helps the crew navigate, respond and stay aligned. Each rower must then translate the plan into hundreds of disciplined, coordinated actions.
If one part of that system breaks down, the impact is immediate. The strongest rower cannot compensate indefinitely for poor timing. A brilliant strategy is useless if the crew cannot put it into practice. And no amount of motivational shouting will help if people are exhausted, unclear about their role or pulling in different directions.
Culture works in much the same way.
Healthy culture cannot be shaped by HR alone
In many organisations, culture is still treated as an HR responsibility.
The People team launches the values, creates leadership frameworks, updates policies and runs engagement surveys. Yet the daily experience of culture is shaped everywhere: in the decisions senior leaders make, the behaviour they tolerate, the meetings managers lead and the conversations that happen when something goes wrong.
This creates a familiar problem. HR may be designing for one culture while leaders and managers are unintentionally reinforcing another.
The organisation talks about empowerment, but decisions are repeatedly pulled upwards. It says wellbeing matters but celebrates constant availability. Leaders ask for openness yet react defensively when someone challenges an idea. Managers are expected to coach their people but are given little time, confidence or support to do it well.
Everyone may be working hard, but they are not rowing together.
That is why I developed the Growth Culture System: a practical way to understand how the people with the greatest influence on culture can work together to create and sustain conditions for human (and business) growth.
Three roles, one connected system
The Growth Culture System identifies three essential roles:
Growth Culture Coaches create the conditions
Usually sitting within HR or the People function, Growth Culture Coaches are the architects of the system. They diagnose what is really shaping the culture, rather than jumping straight to another initiative. They design the systems, behaviours, habits and people practices that enable growth. They connect culture to business outcomes and help the organisation build momentum through focused, achievable steps. Their job is not to “own” the culture. It is to equip the organisation to shape it more intentionally.
Growth Culture Leaders go first
Business leaders have an outsized influence on what people believe is truly valued.
Employees pay attention not only to what leaders say, but to what they do under pressure. Who gets heard? What gets rewarded? Which behaviours are challenged or quietly excused? How are difficult decisions explained? Growth Culture Leaders set the tone by modelling curiosity, learning and growth. They create trust, empower ownership, connect people to purpose and remove the barriers preventing teams from doing their best work. They do not simply sponsor culture change. They demonstrate it.
Growth Culture Managers bring it to life
Managers translate culture into the everyday experience of work. They build relationships, hold meaningful one-to-ones, give feedback and create team habits that support communication, collaboration and learning. They help people grow, not simply deliver more. They recognise progress and make sure success is about how results are achieved as well as what is achieved. This is where culture becomes real: one conversation, meeting, decision and response at a time.
What happens when the system connects?
The power is not simply in defining the three roles. It is in connecting them.
Imagine an organisation that wants people to take greater ownership. HR introduce clearer decision-making tools and build empowerment into leadership. Senior leaders establish meaningful guardrails, delegate visible decisions and resist the temptation to take control when pressure rises. Managers give people room to act, coach them through uncertainty and use mistakes as opportunities for learning.
Each role reinforces the others.
Compare that with HR encouraging autonomy, leaders continuing to approve every important choice and managers stepping in whenever someone struggles. The message people experience will always be louder than the message in the culture strategy.
A connected system creates consistency between intention and experience. It shapes five conditions for sustainable growth, as outlined in our Growth Culture model:
A safe, flexible workplace where people feel equipped to perform
Clear accountability, expectations and ownership
A strong community built on trust and connection
Genuine empowerment, with the autonomy, resources and voice to act
Continuous growth, where learning and progress are recognised
Together, these conditions support three fundamental human needs: autonomy, meaning and growth. They also fuel stronger performance, greater innovation, higher engagement, better wellbeing, stronger retention and improved customer outcomes.
Start with a better conversation
You don’t need another large culture initiative to begin using the system.
Bring HR, business leaders and managers together and ask:
What conditions are we currently creating for people?
Where are our actions reinforcing one another – and where are they conflicting?
What does each role need to start, stop or continue doing?
What is one everyday habit we could strengthen together?
The answers will often reveal why previous culture efforts have stalled. They also create a much more useful starting point than asking HR to develop another programme in isolation.
Many leaders have found our Growth Culture Canvas a helpful tool for visually capturing their culture today, discussing how roles contribute, and identifying clear next steps to shift towards growth.
Join the next Coffee & Culture series
In our next Coffee & Culture series we will explore the Growth Culture System in more depth: the roles HR, leaders and managers play, how they connect and what helps them create measurable impact together.
Join us for practical conversations, fresh perspectives and ideas you can use to turn culture from a well-intentioned ambition into something people genuinely experience every day.
The series starts Thursday 3rd September, 9:30-10am.
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