Time for a reset?
Sometimes, even with the best intentions, culture begins to drift. There’s no one reason it happens, and it doesn’t take place all at once. Complacency and comfort slip in, gradually, imperceptibly lowering standards. The act of executing at a world-class level becomes routine and repetitive, so engagement slowly dips. Small transgressions, in themselves not noteworthy, add up to an unmistakable decline.
When this drift happens, it’s hard to spot. Often something just feels off. The numbers look fine, but you’re anxious, unable to figure out why. If you think you’re a victim of cultural drift, it could be time for a reset.
We had our own experience of this at Singular, a search company I run, earlier this year. We’d started 2026 pretty well, but I was restless. Nothing was “wrong” necessarily, but I was concerned that I was missing something. Then, over a single weekend, two of our team members (who’d been with us for several years) resigned. Over email. One on Saturday, then the second on Sunday.
At first, I was shocked - I didn’t see it coming at all. Then I was angry. I mean, resigning over email? There are less than 10 people in the whole business, so it’s not like we had no relationship or lots of process.
After an hour or so, though, I began to see a little more clearly. We needed a plan, of course. And when I reflected on how we were going to replace them, it became obvious that this was an opportunity to revitalise a culture that, although it was hard to see before the resignations, was showing serious signs of drift.
I’d worked with clients in the past dealing with similar issues and developed a three-step approach to cultural resets that’s simple and effective, so we decided to employ it in our own situation.
Step one is recommitting to your Vision, Mission and Objectives, sometimes referred to as “renewing your vows”. Finding a sense of purpose, passion and direction is crucial in organisations that have lost their way, and this is where you should start. Usually, you don’t need to change the big picture goals, but resetting Objectives can be a powerful signal that you’re entering a new phase. On other occasions, just reminding yourself and your team why you do what you do is enough.
Step two is reviewing and refreshing your Values. This was a big focus for us at Singular - while we felt that three of our four Values were still fit for purpose and represent what we’re building, the fourth lacked punch. We changed it from “Exceeding Expectations” to “World Class Energy”, defined and discussed it, and reinvigorated the others with new examples and associated behaviours.
Step three is all about taking action. With a renewed commitment to our Vision, Mission and Objectives, and a set of Values full of life and meaning, we mapped the specific things we could do to inject more vigour into our culture and make sure that we didn’t drift again. We rewrote our interview questions for new hires, made changes to our reward and recognition programmes and adjusted our approach to weekly meetings.
It’s only been a few months, but the business feels different - in fact, that was true almost immediately. Once the drift problem had been surfaced and spoken out loud, people recognised it and were relieved that something was being done.
Course correction is part of any journey. So the key question to ask is, is it time for a reset?
(If you think it might be, and you haven’t yet taken the free Versapia Culture Assessment, it’s a great place to start. Head to https://app.versapia.ai/assessment to get started now.)