What was the problem?

A UK public sector giant was, like many, undergoing a process of enormous and difficult change. Entrenched attitudes needed to be challenged and people helped to find a new way of working. A radically revised strategy had been agreed by the Board. But while some senior people felt that the organisation’s old culture was somehow being supported by its habitual language, they had no way to get hold of this problem and do something about it.

What did we do?

We carried out discourse research and analysis – not a huge project, but enough to show clearly exactly how ‘old’ and ‘new’ cultures were being played out through language and subtly set against each other.

We exposed our findings to many parts of the organisation including to the Board, raising awareness and provoking frank discussion of some underlying issues and barriers to change that had remained unspoken. We also worked with the client in other ways to intervene and challenge established language habits, as a way of embedding and enacting desired culture change

What did they get out of it?

For some senior executives, the value was immediate – they enthusiastically seized this way of thinking and talking about something that had bothered them for a long time, but which they had been unable to articulate. The client has also used the work in engagement and internal programmes supporting the transformation and change task they still face.