In today’s fast-moving tech-enabled world, innovation and agility turned into excellent customer service is the lifeblood of organisational success. Yet, in many organisations, authoritarian cultures linger, stifling creativity and slowing progress. The truth is that rigid, top-down models can’t keep pace with the speed of change. Yet, paradoxically, such leadership styles are enjoying a renaissance, with many progressive, people-centred practices now dismissed as “too woke” or “too costly.”
From suggestion boxes to true Ownership Cultures
I’ve seen many organisations stall at the stage of being very good and struggling to attain excellence. I personally struggled to achieve excellence in the organisations I first led, and it took me a while to realise that building truly empowered and inclusive cultures, or ‘ownership culture’ as we used to call it during my time at Siemens, is the only way to achieving this. I learnt that whilst occasionally having the right idea or inspiration myself, most good ideas came from people working on the factory floor or on the job.
Our early attempts at bottom-up initiatives, such as the classic suggestion schemes (we all remember those) failed because they lacked true ownership at the working level. Ideas without accountability rarely translate into impact.
The breakthrough came when we shifted to improvement initiatives that gave employees real agency: Whether through Six Sigma projects, Lean programmes or Hackathons, these weren’t just management exercises, and the specific label didn’t matter. They became impactful platforms for creativity, collaboration and excellence, all driven by true ownership culture.
The Ingredients for Success
Across all these approaches, the formula for success was consistent:
- Empowering leadership that trusts people to act.
- Time, space, and budgets allocated and supported by management for these bottom-up innovation projects.
- A clear Purpose—‘the Why’—to unite and inspire.
- A strong cultural foundation built on shared values and compliance — paired with the freedom to think radically. We called these individuals “culturally sensitive disruptors,” people who challenged the status quo, but always within the framework of our values. This balance describes ‘the How’ for driving success.
- True inclusion, that never allows an improvement project to start until the team represented people from different backgrounds, experiences and insights.
Miss any of these elements, and results will be compromised.
The blockers: middle Management
As in all organisations, driving this change in the organisations I led was never easy. You will all recognise or even have been one: the blocking middle manager. They didn’t always like their own teams taking charge of how to improve things. It felt counterintuitive, and we worked hard at introducing training and language like ‘truly inclusive teams’ and ‘leading from behind’ rather than mostly from in front, as had been the norm. In the end though, it took strong senior management leadership of encouragement, and leading from the front in the right moments, to drive through the change. Over time, the blockers became fewer. Many were converted, some moved on, and the path to excellence was finally clear.
The New Challenge to progress: An Attack on Progressive Values
Today, a new threat looms: the erosion of progressive values. If leaders cave in on issues like social mobility, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), or climate action, they risk undermining the very engagement that fuels bottom-up innovation and the journey to excellence as described above. This is especially critical in a world facing a war for talent.
I attended the CIPD conference in Manchester late last year and I listened to a panel discussion asking if ‘HR is dead’. I must confess to being very confused. Of course, AI will help automate many HR policies and processes, and so it should. It is an opportunity to invest in digital innovation and skills training to create a future-ready workforce. It will also provide much better data and insights to make more informed people and cultural decisions, and we should embrace this for better fact-based decision-making. Indeed, I believe that HR has historically not made a strong enough case for the value of inclusive and people centric leadership, and here is a chance to change that.
This AI argument, however, misses a point: People Directors should above all be the custodians of culture. Ensuring company processes, values and development plans – ‘the How’. They must help leaders stay true to these values and create safe spaces for those who feel vulnerable. Without this, the promise of people-centric leadership collapses. And I don’t see AI changing this, indeed I think the use of AI makes it more important.
A Troubling Trend
Here’s a sobering statistic: 50% of UK businesses have abandoned EDI initiatives. I ask myself if their EDI initiatives were ever genuine? I suspect not. Did AI create this trend? Of course it didn’t. It’s leadership and support for people centric values that is collapsing. Or, more to the point, it appears that it never existed in 50% of our organisations.
And here is the most important question – which half of organisations will thrive in the long run? I have a strong view on that, in a world of changing employee expectations, that value inclusiveness.
Call to Action for People Leaders
The time for passive observation as progressive, people-centric leadership comes under attack is over. Leaders who believe in people-centric values and HR leaders as the custodians of these cultures must step forward as the architects of progressive and inclusive cultures — not merely the implementers of policy. Speak up and influence the boardroom. Embed EDI, climate action, and social mobility into the DNA of your organisation. Create safe spaces where every voice matters. Invest in leadership development that champions empowerment over control, that builds human connections and compassion over writing such important practices off as ‘too woke’ and expensive.
If you agree, then help your organisations speak out—not in a negative tone, but by showing why progressive leadership delivers better results and making sure that the future belongs to leaders who empower and include – not control. This is a societal, not just a workplace responsibility.
I wrote this piece for vocL – a social enterprise and leadership programme, that I have co-founded which helps leaders grow confident in their voice, stay true to progressive, people-centred values, and shape a more inclusive and sustainable business culture and discourse. It also offers the opportunity to network and connect with other leaders who share these values — helping them influence a more progressive national debate and shape policies that build a stronger, more responsible economy. We invite you to learn more and join the conversation at www.vocL.uk or contact us via email info@vocL.uk