Leadership and culture audit

The problem

When two organizations merge, or a company grows quickly or restructures, the leadership and cultural fabric gets disrupted in ways that don't appear on dashboards or in engagement surveys. Senior leaders may sense something is wrong, but find it hard to identify based on general data. Getting the necessary depth requires people to speak candidly about their leaders and work culture, which they will only do if they trust the person asking.

What the engagement involves

  • We begin by agreeing on the core questions the work needs to answer, and the privacy terms every participant will receive.
  • Individual interviews come first, typically with senior leaders, followed by focus groups across levels and functions, drawn from robust and strategic samples.
  • Human-led, AI-enabled analysis begins after the first interviews and continues throughout, so later sessions can explore what earlier ones raise.
  • Partway through, we meet for an interim read: what's emerging, what's surprising, and whether additional sessions are needed.
  • Once the analysis is complete, an interpretation session with you and a small group from your organization tests my reading of the findings, including the puzzles that remain.
  • The engagement concludes with a debrief for senior executives covering a) key findings, b) significant leader training needs, c) cultural gaps, and d) recommended actions, followed by an action-planning session.
  • The process typically takes 6–10 weeks, depending on organization size and the number of interviews.
The engagement, phase by phase A six-phase process. Prepare: core questions established, privacy terms set. Listen: individual interviews, focus groups. Check: interim read, a client checkpoint on what's emerging and surprising, with more sessions if the interim read calls for them. Make sense: human-led, AI-enabled analysis, identifying key themes. Confirm: interpretation, a client checkpoint reflecting on findings and puzzles. Act: findings report and debrief, action-planning session. Analysis runs throughout, from Listen to Confirm. Prepare Core questions established Privacy terms set Listen Individual interviews Focus groups Check Interim read What's emerging and surprising? Make sense Human-led, AI-enabled analysis Identifying key themes Confirm Interpretation Reflecting on findings and puzzles Act Findings report and debrief Action-planning session Analysis runs throughout More sessions if the interim read calls for them

What's different

  • Privacy protection stakeholders can trust. I report themes and patterns, never who said what. No individual is quoted or identified. Findings surface only when they're supported by enough independent voices to be reported without exposing anyone. We finalize and agree to these terms before the first interview, and they're stated plainly to every participant.
  • You test my reading before it becomes a report. As an outsider, I'll never know your culture as well as you do. So the process includes two checkpoints with you: an interim read partway through the interviews and focus groups, and an interpretation session once the analysis is complete. Both work at the level of themes, never individual responses, so the privacy terms still hold.
  • Detail-rich qualitative data. I diagnose leadership and culture using in-depth interviews rather than generic questionnaires or engagement surveys.
  • Clear recommendations and action steps. The report distils the data into specific actions — what to do, not just what's wrong.
  • Independence. As an outside party with no stake in internal politics, I can surface critical themes an internal team might not be able to, and report them without bias.

What the client receives

  • A detailed report identifying key findings, important leader training needs, cultural gaps, and recommended actions for strengthening leadership and culture.
  • A 2-hour debrief of the findings with executive decision makers, explaining key themes and answering questions.
  • A second 2-hour action planning session to translate the findings into a strategic plan for strengthening leadership and culture.
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