How to Win the Culture Change War
Leaders don’t need better messaging. They need to regain control of the narrative.
A tech CEO recently brought me in because his organization was fighting change. He had done everything right. At least, that’s what he thought. After months of work, he’d introduced two new leadership principles: “AI-first mentality” and “bold risk-taking.” They looked good on slides but felt empty in real life. But that was the least of the problems.
Nothing was changing, and teams kept working the same old way.
The CEO was convinced the problem was communication. He wanted to double down on town halls, emails, and prettier slides. But words alone weren’t enough. His change story was making people feel worthless and even disrespected.
The CEO treated culture change as a brand campaign when it was actually a narrative war. And he was losing.
The Battle of Competing Narratives
Culture isn’t a marketing problem needing a catchy slogan. It’s a battlefield where competing stories fight for dominance. To create a new one, you first need to understand what you’re up against.
Every organization runs on invisible stories built over years: shared experiences, victories, unspoken norms, and failures. These stories shape everything, from who gets promoted and what gets you fired, to which ideas survive and what “doesn’t work here.”
Like myths, they stick because there’s some truth in them.
When leaders announce a culture change without considering the current narrative, people feel a sense of loss, as I wrote here. This is more than hurt feelings; it attacks their identities. While you’re excited to promote “AI-first,” your veteran manager feels his skills are worthless. While you push “bold risk-taking,” your legal team mourns the careful approach that got you this far.
Most leaders focus on the future—excited about possibilities and growth. However, people’s identities are rooted in the present and the past. Our sense of worth comes from our expertise, reputation, and relationships. Every vision of tomorrow seems to question the value of our achievements.
Ford faced this when pivoting to electric vehicles. EVs seemed soft, challenging the company’s tough reputation. This wasn’t just an outside perception. The shift to electric pushed out veteran internal combustion engineers who couldn’t adapt, signaling that Ford was abandoning its legacy.
Rather than replacing “tough” with a shiny new principle, Ford doubled down on it. It made toughness the foundation of their EV strategy, creating electric versions of the iconic F-150 pickup and a Mustang-inspired SUV. Rather than dismissing the narrative, Ford fully embraced it.
This is the challenge most organizations face. The more passionately you sell the future, the more people cling to their existing narrative. You must either respect that story or reframe it. Ignoring the existing narrative will only guarantee defeat.
How to Win the Narrative Battle
Culture change is a battle over identity, and better messaging alone won’t win it.
That tech CEO’s problem ran deeper than communication. While he promoted “AI-first,” his team privately called the board “where innovation goes to die.” Every time he encouraged “bold risk-taking,” people remembered how finance always blocked big ideas. His aspirational narrative crashed against their lived reality.
The harder he pushed his vision, the stronger the opposing narrative grew. By ignoring their reality instead of working with it, he accidentally strengthened the very resistance he was trying to overcome. People weren’t ignoring him because they didn’t care; their experience was more powerful than his words.
To win the narrative battle, you must reframe the existing story.
Political scientist E.E. Schattschneider said it best: “The definition of the alternatives is the supreme instrument of power. He who determines what politics is about runs the country.” The same is true in your organization. Whoever defines what your company is really fighting about controls the narrative.
Steve Jobs understood this better than anyone. Apple’s famous “1984” ad didn’t just show IBM as “old technology.” It reframed IBM as everything people fear: conformity, bureaucracy, and the crushing of creativity. The Macintosh wasn’t just a better computer. It was leading the rebellion against soul-crushing institutions.
Jobs knew that when you define the conflict, you win.
Schattschneider called this conflict displacement: changing the battle you’re fighting when you’re losing the current one. The most important fight, he argued, “is always the battle over which battle matters most.”
In your organization, someone already defined that battle. You can either fight on their terms or change the narrative, like Jobs did. Culture change is not just about messaging but about reframing the conflict.
The real fight is over competing narratives: Who’s the enemy? What does success look like? What does your organization stand for?
If you want people to support your story, give them one worth fighting for.
5 Ways to Win the Narrative War
1. Define the Long Game
Don’t create a narrative just for your current strategy. Create one that will define your culture for years to come.
Jeff Bezos didn’t create Amazon’s “Day 1 versus Day 2 mentality” in response to a specific moment. He built a narrative that would preserve the startup spirit as the company grew. “Day 1“ companies stay hungry, customer-obsessed, and resilient. “Day 2” companies become complacent, bureaucratic, and inward-focused.
As Bezos wrote, “Day 2 is stasis. Followed by irrelevance. Followed by excruciating, painful decline. Followed by death.”
His narrative wasn’t about a particular moment. It was addressing Amazon’s biggest long-term threat: becoming complacent. Whenever leaders face tough choices, the “Day 1 mentality” keeps them focused.
What lasting narrative could guide your organization through multiple changes and challenges? How can you create a story that works for years, not just months?
2. Find a Common Enemy
Nothing unites people like a shared threat. Enemies bring people together. Finding an external frustration can replace internal enemies with external ones.
The enemy isn’t always a person or competitor. It can also be an idea worth defeating.
When JetBlue launched, it didn’t compare itself to competitors. Instead, the airline focused on something all passengers hate: the miserable flying experience. JetBlue declared war on what makes flying miserable—that impersonal, dehumanizing experience we all know too well. Employees fly too, so everyone who’d been treated poorly by another airline was eager to join this fight.
The enemy wasn’t each other. It was the industry’s broken approach to customer service, something both customers and employees could relate to. This unites departments because everyone shares the mission of creating the opposite of what most airlines offer.
What external forces, broken systems, or industry problems could unite your team? How can you redirect competitive energy away from internal battles and toward a common external opponent?
3. Reframe the Conflict
Change fails when it doesn’t connect to a real conflict. People live with constant tensions: new vs. old, us vs. them, innovators vs. traditionalists. Empty words like “agile” or “customer-centric” fall flat because they don’t tap into these real battles.
Patagonia realized its “environmentally friendly” message was falling short. While true to its values, many customers saw it as a trade-off: lower performance, higher price. So Patagonia heightened the tension. It reframed the battle as a war on wasteful consumption. Its famous Don’t Buy This Jacket campaign wasn’t just a clever line. It challenged customers to buy less, repair more, and keep things longer.
This was a fight people could rally around—and it worked because Patagonia backed it up with free repair services, used-gear sales, and environmental activism. Vague conflicts don’t change behavior. Real ones do. Turn conflict into a narrative everyone recognizes: make it personal and real.
What trade-offs do people think your change requires? How could you reframe those trade-offs as a fight against something bigger?
4. Create Stories Worth Sharing
A powerful narrative doesn’t need marketing; it spreads by itself.
At Zappos, call center reps have autonomy to make decisions without approval. When a best man’s wedding shoes went missing, the rep didn’t just apologize or issue a coupon. She sent an overnight replacement, gave a full refund, and upgraded his account for life. The customer was amazed and told everyone, “Zappos has earned a customer for life.”
One action became a story that thousands shared, a living narrative that no campaign could buy. This wasn’t the result of a marketing effort but of giving employees real power.
What company rules could spark stories people can’t wait to share? How can your employees’ behavior become evidence of your narrative?
5. Make the Choice Inevitable
The best stories don’t just describe reality; they present a choice. People immediately know which side they want to be on.
Schattschneider called this “the mobilization of bias”—framing the story so that one choice feels obviously right and the other clearly wrong. The goal isn’t neutrality. It’s making people feel there’s only one reasonable choice.
When Netflix declared it wanted “fully formed adults” who could handle “freedom with responsibility,” these weren’t empty words. It backed it with policies that made the choice clear. The travel policy had no spending limits or approval processes. It just said: “Act in Netflix’s best interest.” The message was clear: Responsible adults don’t need rules to do what’s right.
Netflix’s culture memo doesn’t leave much middle ground. You either embrace radical responsibility or you don’t belong there.
What line are you willing to draw, even if it costs you popularity? How will you make that choice so clear that no one can sit on the fence?
Stop Fighting Someone Else’s Story
Stop treating culture change as a messaging problem. Focus on the narrative instead.
Someone in your organization is already shaping that story. They’re defining what drives hope, frustration, or success.
If that someone isn’t you, you’re fighting on someone else’s terms. No amount of inspiring words will change that.
Think about your last failed initiative. What story killed it? Who controlled that narrative? What might have happened if you had completely reframed what the battle was about?
Your people aren’t waiting for better words. They’re waiting for a narrative worth joining.
Give them one.
Connect & Work With Gustavo
New to this newsletter? Subscribe for free.
Let’s connect on LinkedIn
Schedule a free consultation call to discuss your culture design project. and how we help teams and organizations build fearless cultures
Join the Culture Design Masterclass. Master the most effective framework for making culture tangible and actionable. Book your seat now.