How do you convey company culture to employees?

Distil it into a few clear messages, such as maxims, and pair each one with visual examples, challenges and action plans. Bring it together in a piece the team can consult and use, so the culture is practised and not just read.

What role does internal communication play in change management?

It explains where the company is heading, translates the change into concrete behaviours and keeps the conversation alive throughout the process. A well-communicated culture reduces uncertainty and gives the team clear criteria to act on.

FinlabCase study

Finlab “Máximas”: 12 maxims to convey company culture

Finlab wanted to convey its culture in an interactive, memorable way as part of its change management. The answer was “Máximas” (Maxims): 12 maxims built on sketches, challenges and plans, gathered in a book.

ClientFinlab
FormatCulture editorial

The challenge

The challenge was to help the company’s culture reach employees in an interactive way and be memorable for them, as part of the change management process.

Communicating culture is one of the hardest jobs in internal communications. Values tend to stay as abstract words everyone approves of and nobody applies. And when culture is part of a change process, the bar rises: it is not enough for people to know it; it has to help the team understand where the company is heading and what is expected of each person. The usual challenge here is twofold: distil the culture into messages people can remember, and get employees to interact with them instead of just reading them.

The idea

The proposal was to create 12 maxims for the company, built on sketches, challenges and plans, so that every member of the team could become part of the culture and understand it in a fun way.

A maxim is a format with centuries of proven effectiveness: short, emphatic and easy to repeat. Reducing the culture to twelve sentences forces you to prioritise and leaves corporate rhetoric out. But what makes it work is what comes with each maxim. The sketch makes it visual, the challenge puts it into practice and the plan turns it into concrete action. So employees do not just read the culture, they exercise it. Everything was gathered in a book that works both as a reference piece and as an object that accompanies the team through the change process.

What we did

12 maxims created for the company
Maxims built on sketches, challenges and plans
A fun approach so every member of the team understands the culture
Design of a book bringing all the content together

Key takeaways (expert view)

If your culture is not being remembered, boil it down to short sentences and pair each one with something the team has to do.

Distilling is a strategic decision

Twelve maxims force you to choose. The culture that fits in a short sentence is the one that gets remembered and repeated in a meeting. For any brand, and especially for events companies with rotating or temporary teams, reducing values to a few clear sentences is the fastest way to get everyone working to the same criteria.

An exercise for every maxim

A sentence inspires; a challenge teaches. Pairing each maxim with sketches, challenges and plans moves culture from reading to practice. It is a rule every culture handbook should follow: if there is nothing to do with a value, the value stays on the wall. Interaction is what turns it into behaviour.

Humour as a vehicle for change

The ambition was for the team to understand the culture in a fun way. In the middle of change management, where resistance is common, humour lowers people’s guard and opens the conversation. It is not frivolity: it is an effective way to let a serious message in without friction. Using it well means knowing your audience and judging the tone.

Services involved

→Communications agency for the events industry →Live campaigns →All services