Culture change training helps leadership teams and senior managers shift how work actually gets done. It covers diagnosing culture from everyday behaviour, choosing a few priority behaviours, leader role-modelling, aligning meetings, recognition and decisions, bringing middle managers along and tracking whether anything changed. Bodhih designs it with the ADDIE model around each organisation's real situation.
- Recommended: 2 days in person for a leadership team, or 4 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 90-day culture sprint
- Level: Advanced · In person · Live virtual · Blended
- Designed with the ADDIE model and customised to your context
- Offered by Bodhih since 2008 to 2,000+ organisations across 7 regions
Also known as: leading culture change, culture transformation workshop, organisational culture change program, culture change leadership training
Where and how: culture change training as an in-person workshop in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Jaipur; as a live online course; or delivered overseas in Dubai, Singapore and across the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
Last reviewed by Siddharthan VGJ, Founder · Bodhih Training, Bengaluru
Why culture is back on the leadership agenda
Mergers, new strategies and AI tools all promise new ways of working, and most stall in the same place: the old habits. People still wait for the senior-most person to speak, still hide bad news until month-end and still get rewarded for heroics instead of prevention. A values refresh rarely touches any of that.
Leaders shape culture far more through what they tolerate, reward and ask about than through what they announce. Culture change training gives a leadership team a shared, practical way to work on those everyday signals together, and to check honestly whether anything is shifting.
31% of CHROs are emphasising workplace culture in 2026, up from 15% in 2025.
40% of CHROs expect greater transparency in leadership in 2026.
What participants will be able to do
See the culture you have
Describe the current culture through observed behaviours, stories and decisions rather than survey adjectives or wall posters.
Pick the few shifts
Agree three to five specific behaviour shifts that matter for the strategy, written so anyone could spot them on a normal Tuesday.
Role-model visibly
Commit each leader to personal signals, such as how they respond to bad news, that the organisation will notice within weeks.
Rewire the systems
Change meetings, recognition, promotions and decision forums that quietly reward the old culture.
Bring the middle along
Equip middle managers to translate the shifts for their teams and to raise what is blocking them.
Track real change
Set up a simple culture dashboard of behaviour signals and pulse questions reviewed every quarter.
Who should attend
- Leadership teams going through a merger, acquisition or integration
- CXOs and function heads launching a new strategy or operating model
- Founders and leaders of fast-growing companies whose early culture is stretching
- Senior managers leading an AI rollout that changes how teams work
- CHROs, HR business partners and culture leads designing a culture agenda
- GCC site leaders building a distinct culture within a global organisation
Program outline
Recommended design, customised to your context after a short needs analysis.
01Reading the culture you actually haveModule 1 · 2.5 hours+
- Culture as the habits people follow when nobody is watching
- Stories, rituals, rewards and decisions as evidence
- A quick behaviour audit using your own last month
02Choosing the few behaviours that matterModule 2 · 2 hours+
- From values words to observable behaviours
- Linking each shift to a strategic outcome
- Keeping what works from the old culture
03Leaders as signalsModule 3 · 2 hours+
- What leaders ask about, praise, tolerate and punish
- Personal role-modelling commitments for each leader
- Handling the leader who says yes and keeps the old habits
04Aligning meetings, recognition and decisionsModule 4 · 2.5 hours+
- Redesigning one leadership meeting around the new behaviours
- Recognition and promotion signals that match the shift
- Who decides what, and how fast
05The middle-manager layerModule 5 · 90 min+
- Why culture change stalls at the middle
- Giving managers the story, the tools and permission
- Listening loops that bring blockers back up
06Tracking change and the 90-day sprintModule 6 · 90 min+
- A culture dashboard of behaviour signals and pulse questions
- Quarterly leadership reviews of culture progress
- Planning the first 90-day culture sprint
Sample training plan: 2-day hands-on design
This two-day design is a working session for a leadership team, not a lecture about culture. Day one builds an honest picture of today's culture from stories, meeting observations and pulse data, then narrows the agenda to three to five behaviour shifts tied to the strategy. Day two turns to the levers: each leader's personal signals, the leadership meeting itself, recognition and promotions, the middle-manager layer and a simple culture dashboard. The team leaves with a 90-day culture sprint and named owners.
The leadership team can describe its current culture from evidence and agree the few behaviour shifts that matter for its strategy.
- 09:30–10:00Three words, then proofEnergiser
- 10:00–11:00Stories people tellGallery walk
- 11:15–12:15Mirror of our own meetingDiagnostic
- 12:15–13:15From values to Tuesday behavioursBuild sprint
- 14:00–15:00Which shifts, reallyDebate
- 15:15–16:15Integration on the groundCase clinic
- 16:15–17:30What we will stop toleratingReflection
The leadership team can model the shifts, align meetings, recognition and decisions, bring middle managers along and track progress.
- 09:30–10:00What people will noticeEnergiser
- 10:00–11:00Signals I sendRole-play
- 11:15–12:15Redesign the leadership meetingBuild sprint
- 12:15–13:15What we rewardGroup challenge
- 14:00–15:00The middle-manager voiceFishbowl
- 15:15–16:15Our culture dashboardBuild sprint
- 16:15–17:30The first 90-day culture sprintAction planning
Every session’s activity, timings, outputs and materials, plus pre-work, a 90-day reinforcement plan and how impact is measured. Free, emailed to you instantly.
Recommended: 2 days in person for an intact leadership team (09:30–17:30 each day), or 4 × 3-hour live virtual sessions, plus a 90-day culture sprint with monthly reviews. A sample design: every Bodhih program is customised after a short needs analysis.
How long is leading culture change training?
The recommended design is two full days in person for an intact leadership team, or four live virtual sessions of three hours, followed by a 90-day culture sprint with reviews at 30, 60 and 90 days.
What activities are included in leading culture change training?
Leaders back culture words with evidence, walk a gallery of employee stories, review their own meeting, debate behaviour shifts, practise role-modelling moments, redesign their leadership meeting and recognition, hear a middle-manager fishbowl and build a culture dashboard and 90-day sprint.
How we deliver it
Your evidence, not generic models
Pre-work collects real stories, meeting observations and pulse data, so the diagnosis reflects your organisation rather than a textbook.
Whole-team working sessions
The leadership team works as a team, making real decisions about behaviours, rituals and rewards during the program.
Honest mirrors
Facilitators replay recorded leadership meetings or observation notes, so leaders see their own signals as others see them.
Sprints, not campaigns
Change runs in 90-day sprints with a few visible moves, reviewed and adjusted, instead of a one-time launch event.
Tailored versions
For mergers and integrations
Leaders from both organisations map where cultures clash in daily decisions and agree which habits to keep, blend or retire.
For AI-era ways of working
Focuses on experimentation, sharing mistakes, trust in new tools and how leaders reward learning rather than only certainty.
Leadership team plus manager cascade
Two days for the leadership team, followed by half-day culture sessions that middle managers run with their own teams.
How we measure impact
We measure through the Evaluate stage of ADDIE. Leaders take an AssessAll pre-assessment, such as Change Leadership & Adaptability, and teams complete the Team Psychological Safety and Speaking-Up Pulse for Team Members and Their Managers. Both are repeated as a post-assessment at day 90. A 30-60-90 day follow-up reviews leaders' role-modelling commitments, changes made to meetings and recognition, and the agreed behaviour signals on the culture dashboard.
Pair this program with AssessAll, Bodhih’s AI assessment platform, for pre- and post-program skill measurement.
Frequently asked questions
What is culture change training?
Culture change training is a program that helps leadership teams shift how work actually gets done in their organisation. It moves beyond values statements to specific behaviours, the leader signals that reinforce them, and the meetings, rewards and decisions that keep a culture in place. It ends with a practical plan and a way to track progress.
How do leaders change company culture?
Leaders change culture mainly through what they repeatedly do: what they ask about, what they reward, what they tolerate and how they make decisions. Pick a few clear behaviour shifts, model them visibly, change the systems that reward old habits and check progress regularly. Announcements help only when daily signals match them.
How long does culture change take?
Noticeable shifts in specific behaviours can appear within one or two quarters if leaders and systems change together. Deeper change across a large organisation usually takes years. Working in 90-day sprints with a few visible moves keeps momentum and lets leaders see early whether the effort is working.
What is the role of middle managers in culture change?
Middle managers decide what the change looks like for most employees, because they run the meetings, allocate the work and give the recognition. If they are not equipped or convinced, change stalls in the middle. The program includes a module and an optional cascade so managers can lead the shift with their teams.
How is culture change different from change management?
Change management usually supports a specific project, such as a new system or restructure, with planning and communication. Culture change targets the everyday habits and beliefs behind how people work across all projects. They overlap, and Bodhih also runs a separate change management program for project-based change.
How do you know if culture change is working?
Track a handful of observable behaviour signals alongside short pulse questions, and review them quarterly. Examples include how early bad news surfaces, who speaks in leadership meetings and how decisions are made. Combine these with AssessAll pre and post assessments and leaders' own role-modelling commitments.
Is culture change training available in Bangalore and online?
Yes. Bodhih runs culture change training for leadership teams in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai and Pune, usually at the client's office or an offsite venue. Master trainers also travel to Riyadh, Dubai and Singapore, and a live virtual version suits distributed leadership teams.