OPINION (UGNEWSLINE) – For much of the corporate world, change used to be something organizations prepared for. It arrived with a restructuring, a new strategy, a merger or a new system and leaders would mobilize people around a defined period of transition.
That way of thinking is becoming harder to sustain.
Over the past five years, organizations have had to navigate a succession of disruptions and shifts: a global pandemic, remote and hybrid working, rapidly evolving technology, artificial intelligence, changing employee expectations, restructuring and acquisitions. The next significant change is rarely as far away as we imagine.
Change, in other words, is no longer an occasional disruption to work. Increasingly, it is the environment in which people work. That changes the question for leaders. It is no longer enough to ask, “How do we manage this change?” We must also ask, “Have we built a culture that is ready for the next one?”
My experience has taught me that culture becomes most visible when certainty disappears. Processes and structures matter during transformation, but culture determines how people respond to them. Do they trust their leaders? Do they understand why a decision has been made? Can they speak up? Will they take ownership or wait to be told what to do?
These are not abstract questions. They determine whether change gains momentum or becomes a source of organizational friction.
At Absa Uganda, we have deliberately worked to build a culture where success is understood as a collective responsibility. That means working across functions rather than in silos, taking ownership of problems, sharing knowledge, challenging ideas constructively and stepping up when moments matter.
These behaviors do not become embedded just because they appear in a culture document. They have to be reinforced through leadership development, performance management, employee engagement, communication, recognition and most importantly, leaders modelling the behaviors they expect from others.
This is particularly important during periods of uncertainty. Employees experience an organization primarily through their immediate leaders, and they watch what leaders do even more closely when the future is unclear.
A leader who communicates openly, including when they do not have every answer, builds trust. A leader who listens creates inclusion. But empathy cannot mean ambiguity, and supporting people through change does not mean lowering the bar. Good leadership requires both compassion and clarity: understanding what people are experiencing while remaining clear about expectations, accountability and performance.
We will have an opportunity to put this philosophy into practice as colleagues from Standard Chartered join Absa Bank following the integration of its Wealth and Retail Banking business. The cultural question is not how quickly we can make incoming colleagues conform to our way of working. That would confuse integration with assimilation.
A stronger approach is to create a shared environment in which people understand how we collaborate, make decisions and serve customers, while also recognizing the experience, perspectives and strengths they bring. Every integration should be an opportunity for mutual learning.
The objective is not to transfer culture. It is to enrich it. That principle extends beyond mergers and acquisitions. Whenever organizations bring together new teams, technologies, generations or ways of working, leaders have a choice: protect the existing culture at all costs, or allow it to evolve without losing the behaviors that make the organization effective.
So how do we know when culture is actually working?
Engagement surveys and culture metrics matter, but they are not the final test. The stronger evidence is found in everyday behavior.
Culture is taking hold when collaboration happens naturally rather than because it has been mandated. When colleagues proactively help one another and share knowledge. When people can challenge an idea without challenging the person. When employees can speak up regardless of hierarchy. When line managers become champions of change rather than simply administrators of it.
It is also visible in decisions. When leaders consistently make choices aligned with organizational values, particularly when faced with competing priorities, culture has moved from aspiration to habit.
And ultimately, customers feel the difference. They may never see an organization’s culture directly, but they experience it through the responsiveness, consistency and quality of every interaction with its people.
We cannot predict every disruption the next five years will bring. We can, however, influence how our organizations respond when it arrives. That is why culture should not be treated as the softer side of transformation. It is part of the infrastructure of transformation.
The real competitive advantage may not be knowing what change is coming next. It may be having a culture ready for whatever comes.
By Henry Tumusiime, Human Capital Director – Absa Bank Uganda.
