THE CULTURE RESET
Leading with Intention Creating Connection by Design
by
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Chapter 1: The Culture Crack Culture has always been a bit of a shapeshifter, easy to feel, harder to define. It’s the undercurrent that influences how people behave, collaborate, and belong. Yet for all our talk of values and purpose, most companies have traditionally relied on physical presence as the scaffolding that held it all together. We didn’t always realise it, but so much of what we labelled as “culture” was really just proximity in disguise. Then came Covid. When the news hit in March 2020, to go home and lockdown, many of us woke up to a world that had changed overnight. Office lights dimmed across the globe. Laptops were hauled home, makeshift desks were carved out of kitchen or bedside tables, and the rush-hour commute became a nostalgic relic almost instantly. But beneath the sudden quiet, something deeper fractured: our understanding of workplace culture. For years, we had been telling ourselves a story: that culture lived in the walls of our office buildings. Culture was largely seen by employees as a decoration on the walls with slogans on posters, key words or phrases that were chimed in all hands, and themes and visuals of employees ‘having a great time at work’. It was the hum of a buzzing open-plan office, the communal fruit bowl, Friday drinks and office parties. It was the big moments: strategy off-sites, onboarding weeks, team meetings around a boardroom table, or Town Halls in the atrium. Culture, we believed, was something you could see, touch, and even cater to. But what if that belief was always a bit of a myth? What if the so-called “office culture” many leaders celebrated was actually just a performance - one that rewarded visibility over value, charisma over contribution, and presence over purpose? Was it truly culture - or just a well-dressed illusion that masked deeper cracks in how people really felt, connected, and thrived? With Covid, many of our long-held beliefs about culture were blown away almost overnight. The familiar physical symbols vanished. No more corridor chats, in-person meetings, or shared rituals that once defined our sense of connection. We shifted from offices to online, from handshakes to hyperlinks, and with that came an unsettling question: If we’re not in the office, do we still have a company culture?
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About the Book
The way we work has changed - permanently. But while our workplaces have transformed, many of our assumptions about culture, leadership and connection have not. Too often, culture is still treated as something that happens naturally when people share space, rather than something leaders must intentionally design in a world where work can happen anywhere. The Culture Reset is not a book about remote work, nor is it an argument about where work should happen. It is about Leadership – and the intention required to create meaningful connection, trust and belonging when proximity can no longer be relied upon. In organisations spanning geographies, locations, operating models and ways of working, connection is no longer a by-product of place. It must be created – by design. Deliberate, and shaped through the everyday choices leaders make. Drawing on over two decades of experience leading global teams before, during and after the pandemic, this book explores how culture has shifted - and what truly sustains it. It moves beyond policies and perks to focus on leaders: the behaviours they role-model, the trust they build, and the shared meanings that hold organisations together. Ultimately, it shows why connection is no longer optional. It is foundational to performance, resilience and long-term success. The real risk organisations face today is not where people work. It is whether leaders are leading with intention - or leaving connection to chance.