The Challenge
A large healthcare organization found itself at a crossroads. With fewer resources (time, staff, and funding), it needed to safeguard the quality of living, care, and wellbeing while also improving employee satisfaction. Fragmentation, unclear roles, rising work pressure, and a lack of shared vision made the transformation urgent.
Our Approach
We carried out a thorough cultural assessment combining document analysis, fieldwork, and foresight methods. This included observations, interviews across services, journey mapping, and scenario development. The boardroom played a central role: we reflected on strategic plans together and exposed blind spots in the cultural logic.
Cultural Analysis
Our anthropological perspective revealed key blind spots:
- Too much focus on processes and technology, too little on culture, stories, and meaning.
- Weak attention to diversity and community building.
- Lack of rituals and rhythm to guide the transition.
- Employees caught in a ‘liminal phase’ of uncertainty without collective guidance.
Strategic Insights
We provided concrete cultural strategies:
- Make wellbeing a core process, not a side activity.
- Use storytelling to build collective ownership of the transformation.
- Integrate cultural sensitivity to reflect the diversity of staff and clients.
- Use rituals and symbols to mark transitions and create rhythm.
- Support leadership in guiding the liminal phase with presence, rhythm, and meaning.
Boardroom Consultancy
Throughout the process, we facilitated deep boardroom dialogues. Executives were challenged to move beyond blueprints and process charts, and to connect strategy with culture. Together, we aligned long-term foresight with day-to-day meaning-making, creating a roadmap grounded in both vision and lived reality.
The Outcome
The organization now has a cultural strategy that balances efficiency with humanity. Wellbeing is embedded alongside care, leaders are more present and connecting, and employees are engaged in co-creating the future culture. The organization is on a stronger path to resilience, prepared for the demographic and systemic challenges of the decades ahead.
