6 Ways to Change Your Work Culture — and How Safety Culture Transformation Brings It All Together

The biggest challenge that an organization faces is the evolution of organizational culture as it should either foster innovation, improve engagement, or guarantee improved safety outcomes.

Culture is defined not by policy, but by daily practices, conversations, and decision-making. It requires a deliberate, careful method that orient behaviours towards values and objectives.

Below, we explore six practical ways to change your work culture — then, show how embedding a transformative safety culture with programs like ACT(S) can be the catalyst that makes change stick.

Before you make any changes, understand where you are and where you want to go. Too often organizations try to improve culture without clearly defining the behaviours that support the existing culture — and which ones need to evolve.

Start with honest questions:

• What behaviours do we currently reward — intentionally or unintentionally?
• What behaviours are essential to the culture we want?
• Which behaviours hold us back from agility, innovation, or safety?

This step sets the stage for targeted actions rather than vague aspirations, and ensures everyone understands why change matters.

Culture change isn’t enforced through slogans — it’s fostered through motivation. People are more likely to adopt new behaviours when they understand their personal value, impact, and purpose within the larger organizational mission.

Studies show that employees who feel seen as individuals — not just “resources” — are far more engaged and willing to embrace change. Leadership should connect organizational goals to what matters to employees: meaningful work, growth opportunities, and recognition.

A thriving culture hinges on relationships, which is trust, mutual respect, and cooperation. Close working relationships make individuals feel secure to share ideas, take chances, and support other employees during transitions.

Measures to encourage connectedness are in the form of:

• Investing in training and development.
• Establishing cross-team forums.
• Motivating mentorship and peer support.
• Marking the achievements and the steps made.

This connectedness does not only lead to stronger social relationships, but also to better standards and values as time goes by.

When the employees do not know what they are supposed to do, why it is important and their role in the vision, change fails.

Leadership needs to communicate consistently:

• Define objectives and intended behaviours.
• Represent stories of achievement and difficulty.
• Offer forums of feedback and discussion.
• Relate day-to-day job to greater organizational intent.

Culture does not happen instantly–it is created by repetition, supported by action and incorporated within the daily decision making.

Culture change has one of the greatest coaches in recognition. When leaders model what they want to see, more so those behaviours that reflect their desired values such as collaboration, innovation, or safety, other leaders tend to emulate them.

The recognition can be of the below methods:

• Giving rewards to small progress.
• It is important to recognize a person who came forward.
• Publishing team victories in the company meetings.
• Rewarding practice in accordance with culture.

This strengthens good conduct and creates an indication of what the organization actually cherishes.

Culture thrives in motion, not as a static achievement. It requires:

• Ongoing measurement and feedback loops
• Consistent reinforcement of the desired behaviours
• Revisiting goals and adapting strategies
• Training, coaching, and leadership development

In other words, culture change is a journey — not a one-time project.

While work culture encompasses many dimensions — innovation, collaboration, performance — one area organizations often overlook until it becomes critical is safety culture. It’s the commitment of all levels to identify risk, take care of colleagues, and prevent harm not because policy dictates it but because people appreciate doing what is right.

Traditional safety initiatives are compliance-based: acting in accordance with the regulations to avoid penalties. However, real safety culture transformation shifts the mindset from compliance to commitment — where employees look out for one another because they genuinely care about each other’s well-being and success.

This change is a reflection of the larger change in culture: it must be reinforced and learned and begins with commitment of leadership, passes through engagement, and communication with all the team members.

To bridge culture and safety in a way that’s measurable and sustainable, many forward-thinking organizations are turning to structured transformation programs — and ACT(S) (Accelerated Culture Transformation through Safety) stands out as a powerful example.

ACT(S) goes beyond traditional training. It combines evidence-based frameworks with practical implementation strategies that embed safety into everyday leadership and team dynamics.

What ACT(S) Offers:

• Leadership Engagement: Leaders align on vision and behaviours that truly support a positive safety culture.
• Capability Building: Teams and supervisors gain the ability to identify the risks and work in a proactive manner.
• Continuous Learning: Safety is encoded in the DNA of the organization through the process of coaching and feedback loops.
• Trust and Communication: ACT(S) establishes trust-based leadership on all levels, instead of the command-and-control approach.

Through incorporating safety culture change into the wider network, ACT(S) assists companies in instilling resilience, involvement and human-focused leadership into their operation.

And since safety is a shared concern: frontline workers and executives, investments in safety culture can often have performance effects, morale, and reputation effects.

It is not an easy task to change organizational culture. Begin with clarifying behaviours, motivating others, connecting, communicating effectively, rewarding progress and treating culture as an ongoing endeavour.

And by purposely applying safety culture transformation via frameworks such as ACT(S), you are protecting your people and creating a space within an environment where trust, engagement, and performance can thrive.

Ready to be a leader of the culture you desire to live in?

The accelerator your organization needs is the implementation of ACT(S).