Workplace culture has a powerful influence on safety, yet it’s often misunderstood. The term “culture” is frequently used without a clear definition, and its impact on workplace behaviour—particularly safety—is rarely explored in depth. As a result, many safety professionals struggle to grasp how cultural dynamics shape daily decision-making. So, they do nothing.
When it comes to shifting workplace culture, three key challenges often stand in the way: vague definitions of culture, reliance on outdated approaches, and an overemphasis on education as a solution.
What Does Culture Really Mean?
The common phrase “culture is the way we do things around here” oversimplifies a much more complex reality. Culture isn’t just a set of rules or values—it’s a range of views, beliefs, norms and behaviours people hold or do without thinking about it. In Safety 2.1 – The Safety Envelope I call this ‘automaticity’—the unconscious way we adopt cultural behaviours simply because that’s what members of a group do. And each person typically belongs to many groups and when we join a new group we quickly find out what this particular group’s culture. If we want to become a member of the group, we follow the cultural prescriptions.
Crucially, culture belongs to the group—not management or even each of the individuals within the group. Culture is a collective phenomenon, with group membership often fluid and evolving over time. While organisations can establish safety protocols, whether those rules are followed depends largely on the group’s cultural norms—unless extreme punishments are enforced, which is obviously undesirable.
For example, a team might collectively choose to bypass certain safety procedures—not as a conscious or formal decision, but as an organic outcome of unwritten group expectations.
Why Cultural Change is So Challenging
While culture can shift rapidly, these changes are often temporary. Consider a school classroom: students behave one way when the principal walks in and another when they leave. The same dynamic plays out in workplaces—we often change our behaviour when we are in a different group. We don’t necessary think about it, when the boss walks in on our workplace we change our behaviour.
Many traditional methods for changing workplace culture—such as training programs, rewards, and punitive measures—fail to create lasting impact. Training tends to focus on individuals, ignoring the social nature of cultural behaviour. Similarly, reward systems often lead to surface-level compliance, where employees perform safe behaviours only when they know they’re being observed.
However, this doesn’t mean organisations are powerless in shaping cultural norms. It simply means they need to take a more strategic approach.
Principles for Driving Cultural Change
Successfully shifting workplace culture requires more than just policies and procedures—it demands an understanding of human behaviour and social dynamics. Here are some key principles:
- Focus on reinforcing positive behaviours. Culture is shaped by habits, not one-time decisions. The goal should be to introduce small, repeatable actions that become ingrained in daily routines over time. These small changes will over time combine into more comprehensive cultural changes.
- Recognise that telling people to change rarely works. Real cultural shifts happen when new behaviours are subtly embedded into the work environment—not through directives, lectures, or checklists but through repetition.
- Accept that culture is not always obvious, even to the cultural members. They do things because that’s what they have done in the past, without even thinking about it.
- Accept that culture is fluid and ever-changing. Culture isn’t a fixed target. It evolves in response to internal and external influences, meaning change efforts should be adaptable rather than rigid.
- Avoid over-reliance on metrics. Surveys and questionnaires fail to capture the reality of workplace culture. They reduce culture to abstract numbers and self-reported perceptions, which often have little connection to actual behaviours. Culture isn’t what people say—it’s what they do. Meaningful change comes from real, lived group practices, not tick-box exercises.
This is Not Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS)
One very important point: this is not Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS). It is the direct opposite. BBS is based on a theory from the 1930s, better suited for training your dog where to ‘go potty’ than changing human behaviour. This isn’t the place for an in-depth discussion, but if you want to understand the foundation of this cultural change theory, I explain it in Safety 2.1 – The Safety Envelope in more detail.
Practical Steps for Cultural Change
The most effective way to shift group culture is by creating opportunities for small safety behaviours to take root. Rather than positioning these efforts as formal training or mandates, we should subtly encourage positive behaviours to emerge naturally—without rewards or punishments. Why? Because, unsurprisingly, people don’t want to hurt themselves or others and will naturally gravitate toward ‘good’ behaviour when the environment supports it.
One of the most powerful levers for change is identifying and subtly influencing key group members. These individuals are often informal leaders whose actions carry weight among their peers. Encouraging them to embrace safe behaviours—without incentives or penalties—can create a ripple effect that spreads through the entire team.
For example, in one manufacturing company, a group of older women affectionately known as “the aunties” took it upon themselves to reinforce certain positive safe behaviours. Their influence extended beyond formal policies, shaping the habits of younger workers through respect and example. Over time, their efforts resulted in a genuine cultural shift—one driven by people, not policies. Without management playing any role in this.
But do not misuse these early adopters, this is not social engineering. They may lash back and destroy the trust this whole process depends on.
Conclusion: Culture is an Ongoing Journey
Shaping workplace culture requires a departure from conventional thinking. By focusing on the power of group dynamics, fostering small behavioural shifts, and recognising that culture is an evolving process, safety professionals can create environments where safe practices become the norm—not the exception.
This article provides a starting point for understanding cultural behaviour in safety, but only just; it is a complex topic that needs more explanation than I can offer here. For a deeper dive into practical strategies, Safety 2.1 – The Safety Envelope explores how organisations can embed meaningful cultural change in the workplace. The journey toward a strong safety culture isn’t about quick fixes—it’s about consistent, thoughtful engagement with the realities of human behaviour.