Key insights from Mark Back, Jeff Heslop, Scott Walton, Melissa Alexander, John Newton, and our live panel on turning improvement initiatives into lasting cultural change.
On November 11, 2025, Lean Methods hosted a lively, interactive panel discussion titled “From Initiative to Culture.” Hosted by Mark Back, Senior Vice President of Business Development, the session brought together seasoned Lean and continuous-improvement leaders to explore the often-overlooked terrain that determines whether a transformation succeeds or quietly fades away: culture.
As Mark put it, culture is “the terrain we walk on”—flat and fast in some places, swampy and treacherous in others. Drawing on decades of real-world experience across manufacturing, healthcare, market research, aviation, and energy, panelists Scott Walton, Melissa Alexander, John Newton, Jeff Heslop, and Mark himself unpacked how to navigate that terrain through the classic transformation phases: Assess → Align → Plan → Deploy → Sustain.
The conversation echoed the core idea from our earlier article Culture-First Transformation: The Multiplier of Change—technical excellence alone is rarely the bottleneck. The real multiplier (or killer) of improvement is how well the initiative is woven into the cultural fabric of the organization.
Here are the standout insights from each phase:
1. Assess – Peeling Back the “Family Portrait”
Organizations love to show their best side. Scott Walton reminded us that trust and one-on-one conversations are the only reliable ways to uncover the real frustrations hiding behind polished dashboards. John Newton shared a pandemic-era healthcare story where the data screamed “bad leadership,” but the real culprit was unequal pay between W2 and contract nurses—something only visible once you “put your shoes on and go see.”
Data tells you where to look; gemba and honest conversations tell you what you’re actually looking at.
2. Align – From Agreement to True Commitment
Jeff Heslop, trained as a Black Belt during the legendary Jack Welch era at GE, was blunt: “You can get agreement with a nod, but alignment often requires accountability tied to consequences.” While few companies today would send the famous Welch email (“Thank you for your service…”), the principle remains—people move when the stakes are clear.
Melissa Alexander introduced the delightful “Stinky Fish” exercise: everyone writes down the thing that’s rotting in the corner that nobody wants to mention. Once it’s on the table (and the laughter starts), real alignment becomes possible.
Alignment isn’t heads nodding—it’s stakes (and sometimes humor) that make people move.
3. Plan – Keeping Ambition Grounded in Reality
John Newton described trying to roll out tiered daily management across 500+ leaders in mere months—an “impossible task” until they decomposed the work, sized the required resources, and forced the hard conversation: “If we can’t resource this properly, we must shrink scope or extend timeline.”
Melissa added a painful but unforgettable lesson: never assume capacity. One over-promised data request pushed a BI analyst to the breaking point and delayed an entire project.
Under-resourced ambition kills more initiatives than resistance ever does.
4. Deploy – Turning Resistance into Breakthrough
Scott Walton’s advice on resistance was gold: Give people the benefit of the doubt first. Most pushback isn’t malice—it’s fear, lack of clarity, or genuine insight you haven’t heard yet. Make feedback visible, circle back transparently, and resistance often melts.
Melissa proved the power of the small pilot: a 10-person test in a global field-data transformation became the proof point that won executive funding and stakeholder buy-in for 8,000+ workers worldwide.
Smart, highly visible pilots and transparent feedback turn skeptics into evangelists faster than any PowerPoint ever will.
5. Sustain – The Ultimate Culture Litmus Test
Jeff Heslop delivered the sobering closer: GE’s spectacular Six Sigma run died slowly after Jack Welch retired. Metrics, bonuses, and top-down pressure created alignment—but when the champion left, the cultural roots weren’t deep enough to survive new leadership.
Sustainment, the panel agreed, is where you discover whether improvement has truly become “the way we do things around here” or was just another flavor-of-the-month initiative.
If the improvement still depends on one heroic leader or a bonus structure, it’s not culture yet—it’s just a program with an expiration date.
Assess with humility – Create safe spaces early; the truth is usually one trusting conversation away.
Align with stakes and humor – Tie accountability to what people value (compensation, recognition, or simply not looking foolish), and use exercises like Stinky Fish to surface elephants without drama.
Plan realistically – Force the resource conversation upfront. Under-resourced ambition is the #1 killer of good ideas.
Deploy boldly… but not all at once – Love a pilot, love quick wins, but beware “death by a thousand cuts.” Choose the right cadence: sometimes a focused big bang on one value stream beats endless creeping incrementalism that exhausts everyone before the benefits show up.
Sustain through identity – Build systems (daily management, leader standard work, recognition) that survive the departure of any single champion.
Culture isn’t a side dish to your improvement initiative—it’s the plate everything else sits on. Get the plate right, and even modest efforts multiply dramatically. Ignore it, and even the most brilliant technical solutions eventually crack and fall through.
Want to explore these ideas further? Keep an eye out for Lean Methods’ upcoming Lean Agile for OpEx course (premiering Q2 2026)—a practical blend of Lean, Agile, and cultural change principles born from real-world collisions between methodologies. Learn more and enroll today.
In the meantime, ask yourself: What’s the cultural terrain like where you’re trying to drive change right now—solid ground, hills, or swamp? The answer will tell you everything about your odds of success.
Which phase—Assess, Align, Plan, Deploy, or Sustain—feels like the biggest cultural challenge in your organization today? (And do you lean toward “pilot everything” or “just rip the Band-Aid off”?) Drop a comment below; we’d love to hear your war stories.
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