In a world defined by accelerating change and technological disruption, the approach to workplace culture must evolve. In a recent conversation with Luke Fisher on Culture In Action, Tom Kegode, a Workplace Innovator and Transformation Leader who led culture change at Lloyd’s Banking Group, shared his blueprint for fostering adaptability, accelerating change, and ensuring human connection remains the core focus of any organisation.
Tom, who designed Lloyd’s initial hybrid work model and spent 16 years driving internal change before embarking on a new freelance chapter, argues that culture isn’t a project to be completed, but a continuous process of evolution.
Here are the top takeaways from his practical, human-centred approach to culture change:
Shift from ‘Transformation’ to ‘Evolution’
Tom argues that the language we use to describe change impacts how people approach it. The term “transformation” implies a final, finished state, which is no longer realistic given the pace of global change.
“I’ve stopped talking so much about transformation recently. I’ve started talking much more about evolution because I think transformation signals that at some point it will be done, whatever it is that we are looking at. But actually, in a world of constant change, today’s the slowest it’s ever going to be in our lifetime.”
The emphasis must therefore be on building change fluency—the capability for continuous, iterative movement. This mindset shift is critical for leaders and teams to maintain momentum without suffering from “change fatigue.”
Accelerate Change with the 30-Day Work Lab
To inject pace and focus into culture initiatives, Tom developed the Work Lab—a sprint-thinking methodology adapted from his background in innovation teams. This structured, 30-day process acts as an accelerator, ensuring ideas move from concept to action rapidly.
The Work Lab involves a core squad of leaders (to unlock blockers) and catalysts (to provide ideas and lived experience) and follows a three-phase structure:
Phase 1: Identify (10 Days): Fall in love with the problem. This phase focuses on deep customer and colleague research, defining the real challenge, and setting clear success metrics.
Phase 2: Co-Creation (10 Days): Workshop, ideate, and co-create a product or solution. This is where quick tests and nudges are designed.
Phase 3: Activation (10 Days): Define the pathway for implementation and launch the solution on “Activation Day.”
This method not only delivers results quickly but, crucially, builds internal capability. “The impact is long lasting after that in the way that they work and the way that they build that kind of culture of pace and delivery,” says Tom.
A key micro-technique within this process is the “rapid ideate and decide” session, proving that even complex decisions can move from ideation to collective agreement within a single hour under strict facilitation.
Build Momentum from the Grassroots
While leadership commitment is essential, sustainable culture change is driven by a movement from the middle and the bottom. Tom championed two critical communities:
A. Activated Leadership
Tom focused on developing a cohesive leadership community (e.g., the top 350 HR leaders) through regular events focused on connection, strategic alignment, and reflecting on successes. This shifts the leadership team from a disparate group to a powerful, aligned force.
B. The Catalyst Groundswell
Beyond the top tier, Tom scaled an organic community of “work heroes” into 7,000 catalysts across the organisation. These colleagues were given training in storytelling and radical candour, and empowered to spend 10% of their time actively removing blockers and designing better experiences.
“When you combine that combination of leaders and then a groundswell movement of grassroots catalysts for change, and empower them… that’s really key.”
This approach ensures that change is not perceived as top-down imposition but as a co-created effort driven by those with the most lived experience.
Leaders Must Master Short-Form Storytelling
The digital age has fundamentally changed how people consume information. Leaders must adapt by incorporating short-form video storytelling into their communication toolkits.
Tom notes that attention spans are now measured in seconds—”the length of time of a sneeze”—and leaders only have three seconds to “stop the scroll.” His innovative sessions coached senior leaders on this format, with surprising results.
The most powerful outcome of these sessions was the facilitation of multi-generational exchange. Next-gen employees, native to platforms like TikTok, coached senior leaders on being concise and authentic.
“The impact of working with a coach who is at the very early stage of their career and the opportunity that they’ve got for that knowledge exchange and to learn across generation was the most powerful thing for them.”
This shift requires leaders to be deliberately unpolished and vulnerable, injecting a necessary humanity into their communications that traditional corporate emails lack. As Tom saw, the positive feedback from teams was immediate: “They were like, ‘This is so refreshing. Thank you so much for being open and sharing, you know, you are the vlogger now.'”
Optimise Work by Asking ‘Why’ and Hitting the Brakes
In order to make space for change, Tom advocates for actively eliminating redundant work and challenging established norms.
A. Throw a Stop Party
Instead of simply adding new initiatives, organisations must actively identify what to stop.
“I like to call them stop parties. We’ll be like, ‘What are the things that we are going to stop? Let’s have a party, put some music on, and be like, “What do you want to stop?”’… You need to stop things to start rebuilding.”
This creates the energy and capacity required to focus on new directions.
B. Make Meetings Matter
Meetings often over-consume time because they try to achieve too many objectives at once. Tom introduces the three A’s of meetings—Agenda, Attendees, and Action—to ensure every meeting is necessary and efficient.
He also champions moving away from the 30-minute default setting and using hybridity of the end-to-end experience. This means consciously deciding which stages of a process work best virtually (e.g., quiet, inclusive ideation on a whiteboard) and which require in-person connection (e.g., richer conversation).
“It’s creating that environment and almost again… I can go in there and be like, ‘Well, why?’… I keep asking why five times and I’ll end up getting to a point where people are like, ‘Actually, I’m not quite sure and it doesn’t really make sense. Maybe we should stop that.'”
Adaptability is Key, But Humanity is the Differentiator
Tom asserts that adaptability is the most sought-after leadership skill today, according to McKinsey data. However, as the world becomes increasingly high-tech and automated, human skills become the ultimate differentiator.
“One of those most sought-after skills is going to be those human skills of empathy and judgement. And culture is the differentiator in this environment.”
He warns against the risk of defaulting to an “always-on” culture, stressing that “our brains are not machines” and we need to build in space for reflection and rest.
Ultimately, the goal of technology and AI should be to enhance our human virtues, not replace them. By automating transactional work, employees are freed up to focus on the truly meaningful, human-centred tasks that create value.
Tom’s powerful account of celebrating “Customer Heroes” at Lloyd’s illustrates this point: “It’s those small touches of those interactions that make people feel really special and actually feel part of the. The value that they’re adding is really appreciated.”
“How can we be human in the face of a highly tech-enabled world? Because that will be the differentiator and that’s what will create that kind of team experience and that kind of feeling of, ‘I want to be part of this team.'”
Conclusion
Tom’s insights provide a clear framework for any leader looking to navigate the complexities of modern work. By reframing change as evolution, using structured methods like the Work Lab, and deliberately prioritizing human connection and adaptability, organisations can build resilient, thriving cultures that accelerate at pace while remaining deeply authentic.
