Rebuilding culture through shared values

Back in 2022, two premium workspace providers came together with a big ambition: to become the industry leader. But even with stunning spaces and talented teams, merging two strong identities brought some natural tension. Rather than simply taking the best of both worlds, they wanted to understand who they were together, finding a way to connect people and shape a culture everyone could believe in.

And because culture is built by everyone, we got to work talking with and listening to people from across the business, at every level. In total, we spoke to more than 50% of people to understand what makes people tick - and what ticks them off - uncovering the common traits, attitudes and beliefs that would help build a unified, authentic culture.

But culture isn’t just shaped from the ground up, it’s lived and modelled by those at the top too. So, the leadership team took part in a burn party - their chance to call out, and quite literally set fire to, the behaviours that needed to be left behind. It was a moment to refocus on the future and define the culture and behaviours that would accelerate the business towards its goals.

All this people‑led insight shaped a brand‑new set of values and behaviours. But that wasn’t job done. It was important to make sure they truly reflected what we heard and that everyone understood what was expected of them. So, we continued to test and refine them with leaders and the culture committee until they were just right.

Then came the big launch. Over a few days, everyone was invited to an in‑person event to hear the CEO and Culture Committee co‑reveal the building blocks of their culture. It was a moment of recognition - to thank people for their involvement in shaping the business - and a moment to reset and create clarity around what’s expected of each other. The feedback said it all: “This is exactly what we needed.”

But for values and behaviours to become part of who we are, they need to live beyond a launch. To make this real, we:

• Created interactive sessions for People Leaders to run with their teams about how behaviours show up in their roles.

• Developed physical booklets for every individual, bringing each behaviour to life in practice.

• Embedded the values and behaviours within performance conversations, focusing on the how as much as the what.

The result is a stronger, more connected culture - one that reflects who they are today while keeping sight of where they’re going next.