For any leadership team, a business transformation or restructuring is an all-consuming effort. The focus is on financial models, operational efficiencies, and difficult decisions about the organisation’s structure.
When the new plan is finally announced, there is an understandable sense of relief—a feeling that the hardest part is over.
This is a dangerous illusion.
The restructuring is not the finish line; it is the starting line for the most challenging and critical phase of the turnaround: the cultural rebuild. The organisation that emerges is not a clean slate. It is an entity carrying the emotional debris of change—a workforce grappling with uncertainty, broken trust, and the loss of colleagues.
A financially sound company with a broken culture is not a successful transformation. It is a future crisis in waiting, and the board’s governance responsibility has never been more critical.
The Anatomy of a Post-Transformation Culture
Leaders must be ruthlessly honest about the cultural reality they are facing:
- Trust is Fractured: The social contract has been broken. Employees who remain are often sceptical of leadership’s motives and fearful of what comes next.
- “Survivor’s Guilt” is Real: High-performers may feel a sense of guilt for keeping their jobs while colleagues were let go, leading to disengagement and reduced morale.
- Institutional Knowledge is Lost: Key people have departed, taking with them valuable experience and informal networks that made the business run smoothly.
- Focus is Scarce: The rumour mill is in overdrive. Without a clear and compelling vision for the future, the remaining team will be consumed by anxiety rather than focused on execution.
Rebuilding is a Governance Imperative, Not Just an HR Initiative
In this fragile state, culture cannot be delegated; it must be governed. The board and C-suite have a direct responsibility to oversee the rebuilding process with the same rigour they applied to the financial restructuring. This requires a pivot from spreadsheets to strategy, from numbers to narrative.
At Advisors Collective, we guide leaders through a disciplined framework for cultural recovery:
Acknowledge the Past, Then Define the Future – You cannot build a new future without first honouring the difficulty of the past.
- Communicate with Candour: Leadership must be relentlessly visible, acknowledging the pain of the transition and being transparent about the challenges ahead.
- Listen Intently: Create forums for employees to voice their concerns without fear of reprisal. This is not about consensus; it is about demonstrating respect and gathering crucial intelligence from the front lines.
- Co-Create the “New Way”: Involve the remaining team in defining the values and behaviours that will define the new culture. People will support what they help to build.
Identify and Empower Your Culture Carriers – Your culture will be rebuilt by your people, not by a poster on the wall.
- Find Your Believers: Identify the influential individuals at all levels who are resilient, respected, and believe in the company’s future. Empower them to be champions for the new culture.
- Celebrate New Heroes: Actively look for and publicly celebrate examples of the desired new behaviours. This sends a powerful signal about what is now valued.
Reinvest in the Survivors – Your remaining employees are your most critical asset. They need to see a tangible commitment to their future.
- Invest in Development: Launch targeted training and development programmes to fill skills gaps and show people there is a path for growth within the new organisation.
- Fight Burnout Proactively: The remaining team is carrying a heavier load. Leaders must be vigilant about managing workloads, promoting well-being, and ensuring people have the resources they need to succeed.
The period after a restructuring is a moment of profound vulnerability and immense opportunity. It is a chance to intentionally design a more resilient, focused, and human-centric organisation.
For boards and leadership teams, governing this cultural rebuild is not the soft part of the job; it is the hardest, and most important, work of all.
Sources:
- ‘Getting organisational redesign right’ – mckinsey.com
- ‘The Board’s Role in Nurturing Culture’ – hbr.org
- ‘How to Maintain Morale After Layoffs’ – gallup.com
