Organisational Culture and Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends HR Directors and HR Business Partners, Organisational Development Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-OD-014

Before you join: Participants should have experience working in a team, managing people, supporting organisational change or contributing to HR initiatives.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Organisational culture shapes how decisions are made, how risks are raised, how customers are treated and whether strategy survives contact with daily work. Leaders often announce new values or operating models without changing the routines, incentives, behaviours and symbols that employees experience. The result can be inconsistent service, failed transformation programmes, low trust, avoidable conduct issues and disengagement among key talent.

This course equips participants to diagnose culture systematically and lead credible culture change. Participants use Schein’s three-level model, the Competing Values Framework, cultural network analysis and behavioural design to identify the norms affecting performance. They examine the leadership practices that create trust, accountability, inclusion, psychological safety and ethical conduct. The course also addresses culture during restructuring, mergers, digital transformation, regulatory remediation and growth, where subcultures and informal influence frequently determine implementation results.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings with sector-based cases, diagnostic work, group analysis, leadership simulations and structured application planning. Cases reflect issues such as bank conduct reform, public-sector service improvement, post-merger integration and NGO programme delivery. Participants leave with a culture diagnostic, stakeholder and influencer map, leadership behaviour charter, culture-change communication plan and measures for tracking adoption.

The course is suited to HR and organisational development professionals, business leaders, transformation managers and senior managers responsible for shaping team culture. It is particularly useful for professionals asked to improve performance or implement change where formal structures alone have not produced the required behaviour.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose organisational culture using Schein’s three-level model and evidence-based data collection
  • Assess cultural strengths, risks and subcultures using the Competing Values Framework
  • Translate strategy into observable leadership behaviours, team norms and management routines
  • Apply Kotter’s change process to plan culture-change interventions and stakeholder engagement
  • Use ADKAR to identify individual adoption barriers and targeted support actions
  • Map formal and informal influence through cultural network analysis
  • Design culture measures combining behavioural indicators, employee listening data and operational metrics
  • Produce a practical culture-change action plan with governance, communications and review points

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Conduct credible culture conversations with senior leaders using evidence rather than opinion
  • Identify hidden norms that affect accountability, risk reporting and cross-functional work
  • Lead culture-change initiatives with clearer behavioural expectations and ownership
  • Handle resistance by distinguishing capability, motivation, trust and structural barriers
  • Build a reusable portfolio of culture diagnostic and change-planning tools

For your organisation

  • Links stated values to daily leadership routines, people processes and decision rights
  • Identifies cultural risks before they become conduct, retention or performance problems
  • Improves change adoption through targeted stakeholder, communication and manager actions
  • Creates consistent expectations for accountability, collaboration and customer service
  • Provides measurable indicators for tracking culture interventions and leadership commitments

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain how culture influences performance, conduct, decision-making and change outcomes.

  • Schein’s three-level model distinguishes artifacts, espoused values and underlying assumptions
  • Cultural diagnosis separates stated norms from observed routines and decisions
  • Culture strength, alignment and adaptability assessed against strategic and operational demands
  • Subcultures mapped by function, geography, profession, hierarchy and customer interface
  • Psychological safety differentiated from comfort, consensus and permissive performance standards
  • Ethical climate indicators identify conduct risks before formal control failures
  • Culture narratives traced through onboarding, recognition, meetings and crisis responses

Participants can plan and conduct an evidence-based culture diagnosis for a defined business issue.

  • Diagnostic questions linked to business outcomes, employee experience and risk indicators
  • Document review examines values statements, policies, communications and decision records
  • Semi-structured interviews test consistency between leadership messages and employee experience
  • Focus groups surface shared assumptions, friction points and informal operating rules
  • Observation protocols capture meeting dynamics, challenge, recognition and decision behaviours
  • Employee survey results interpreted alongside turnover, absence, complaints and customer data
  • Triangulation methods distinguish isolated opinions from recurring cultural patterns

Participants can use culture frameworks to interpret patterns without reducing culture to labels.

  • Competing Values Framework compares clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy orientations
  • Denison model links mission, adaptability, involvement and consistency to performance
  • Cultural dimensions distinguish power distance, uncertainty avoidance and individualism patterns
  • Framework selection follows the business question, available evidence and intervention purpose
  • Typology results tested against observed behaviours rather than treated as fixed diagnoses
  • Tensions between innovation, control, speed and inclusion made explicit
  • Culture profiles translated into implications for leadership, structure and people practices

Participants can identify leadership behaviours that reinforce or undermine desired culture.

  • Leadership shadow assessed through priorities, attention, decisions, rewards and reactions
  • Role modelling converts abstract values into visible choices under pressure
  • Leader standard work establishes recurring routines for communication, coaching and review
  • Accountability conversations distinguish commitments, consequences, support and follow-through
  • Psychological safety built through inquiry, fallibility and constructive response to challenge
  • Inclusive leadership practices address voice, participation, bias and belonging
  • Recognition systems reinforce desired behaviours without rewarding performative compliance

Participants can translate strategic priorities into the cultural conditions required for execution.

  • Strategy-to-culture mapping identifies behaviours required for priority business outcomes
  • Operating model choices shape collaboration, escalation, autonomy and accountability norms
  • Decision rights clarified using RAPID roles and escalation thresholds
  • People processes tested for consistency with declared values and leadership expectations
  • Performance management connects objectives, behavioural standards, feedback and consequences
  • Recruitment and selection assess culture contribution rather than culture similarity
  • Onboarding routines communicate operating norms through practical early experiences

Participants can design a sequenced culture-change approach for a defined organisational challenge.

  • Kotter’s eight-step process structures urgency, coalition building and sustained change
  • ADKAR analysis identifies awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement gaps
  • Behavioural design specifies prompts, friction, incentives and feedback loops
  • Change hypotheses connect targeted behaviours to measurable business outcomes
  • Intervention portfolios combine leadership actions, process changes and employee involvement
  • Quick wins selected for credibility, visibility and strategic relevance
  • Change risks assessed through readiness, capacity, competing priorities and trust

Participants can identify influential stakeholders and build engagement plans for culture change.

  • Stakeholder analysis classifies influence, interest, impact and likely change response
  • Cultural network analysis identifies trusted connectors, brokers and informal opinion leaders
  • Sponsor coalitions define visible commitments, decisions and communication responsibilities
  • Manager cascades convert enterprise messages into locally relevant team conversations
  • Resistance analysis distinguishes principled challenge, uncertainty, loss and political opposition
  • Listening channels capture feedback from frontline employees and underrepresented groups
  • Engagement plans sequence consultation, participation, communication and reinforcement actions

Participants can create culture-change communications that make required behaviours concrete and credible.

  • Change narrative links strategic context, human impact and specific behavioural expectations
  • Message maps prepare leaders for consistent communication and difficult questions
  • Sensemaking conversations address ambiguity through inquiry, interpretation and shared action
  • Stories selected to demonstrate decisions, trade-offs and consequences behind stated values
  • Two-way communication designs include feedback loops, response owners and visible actions
  • Leader communications tested for candour, consistency, relevance and behavioural specificity
  • Rumour management addresses information gaps without dismissing legitimate concerns

Participants can establish practical measures, governance and review routines for culture change.

  • Culture scorecards combine leading behavioural indicators with lagging business outcomes
  • Pulse surveys measure clarity, trust, voice, accountability and perceived follow-through
  • Qualitative coding converts interview and focus-group evidence into recurring themes
  • Balanced scorecard logic links culture measures to customer, process and people results
  • Measurement baselines established before interventions alter employee perceptions and routines
  • Governance forums review actions, barriers, accountability and escalation decisions
  • Evaluation cycles use Plan-Do-Study-Act to refine culture interventions

Participants can apply culture and leadership methods to restructuring, integration and transformation scenarios.

  • Merger integration assesses cultural compatibility, non-negotiables and integration risks
  • Restructuring communications address identity, workload, fairness and trust concerns
  • Digital transformation examines autonomy, experimentation, data use and learning norms
  • Regulatory remediation connects conduct expectations with supervisory evidence and control routines
  • Remote and hybrid work agreements define visibility, collaboration and inclusion practices
  • Application plans prioritise actions, owners, milestones, measures and review dates
  • Peer challenge tests intervention assumptions, feasibility and unintended cultural consequences

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Culture diagnostic question set
  2. Schein-based culture analysis template
  3. Stakeholder and informal influencer map
  4. Leadership behaviour charter
  5. Culture-change communication plan
  6. Culture scorecard and action plan

Who should attend

  • HR Directors and HR Business Partners — align people practices with required cultural change
  • Organisational Development Managers — diagnose culture and design targeted interventions
  • Transformation and Change Managers — improve adoption during major business change
  • Senior Managers and Department Heads — establish accountable, high-trust team environments
  • Learning and Development Managers — build leadership programmes around observable behaviours
  • Risk, Compliance and Conduct Managers — address behavioural drivers of conduct and control failures

Skills and tools covered

Culture diagnosisLeadership behavioursChange leadershipInfluence mappingBehavioural measurementCulture action planning

Tools and standards

Schein’s Three Levels of Culture, Competing Values Framework, Kotter’s Eight-Step Process, ADKAR Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce models, followed by case analysis, group diagnosis and facilitated discussion. Participants interpret culture evidence, compare leadership responses and work through change scenarios involving resistance, conflicting subcultures and weak accountability. Simulations develop skills in culture conversations, stakeholder engagement and leadership communication. Structured application planning connects each framework to a current organisational issue. Facilitators provide feedback on diagnostic logic, behavioural specificity, practical sequencing and measures of progress.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience working in a team, managing people, supporting organisational change or contributing to HR initiatives. Familiarity with their organisation’s strategy, values, performance processes and current business challenges will help participants apply the material quickly. The course assumes confidence discussing workplace behaviour and organisational issues with peers. No previous qualification in organisational psychology, organisational development or change management is required. Statistical analysis, specialist HR systems knowledge and prior use of formal culture assessment instruments are not required.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have experience in management, HR, organisational development, transformation or a related professional role. No previous study of organisational psychology or formal change-management certification is required.

Bring an anonymised culture, leadership or change challenge from your workplace if possible. Useful materials include values statements, employee survey themes, transformation objectives or examples of recurring team issues.

It suits HR and OD practitioners, senior managers, change leaders, learning professionals and conduct or risk managers. Participants gain most when they have some influence over team practices, people processes or change delivery.

The course concentrates on the relationship between culture, leadership behaviour and organisational performance. It goes beyond individual leadership skills by covering diagnosis, subcultures, informal influence, behavioural systems and culture measurement.

Participants can use the templates to diagnose a local culture issue, define required behaviours and engage relevant stakeholders. The action plan provides a starting structure for discussions with sponsors, managers and HR colleagues.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided among instructor input, cases, group analysis, simulations, discussion and application planning across the ten modules.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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