DSB is an organisation of 7,000 employees where change is no longer a project but a constant.
The pace is high, the complexity is considerable, and the consequences of mistakes are plain to see.
That is exactly why culture is not just an ambition. It is decisive for how the organisation works in practice.
But how do you create real culture change in an organisation where everyday life is already full of operations, priorities and new initiatives?
At DSB, the answer is not more analyses or new value posters. It is leadership in practice.
Together with People & Performance, DSB has carried out an extensive culture and leadership development programme in which more than 280 leaders have worked purposefully to turn culture into concrete, everyday behaviour.
And the change is well under way.
“What we are hearing is that we are developing a shared language. Leaders talk about their responsibility in a different way, and they increasingly take active ownership of the changes,” says Ann Marie Jakobsen, Deputy Director of HR at DSB.
In other words, culture change does not happen by itself. It is driven by the way leaders work every day.
A cultural movement is under way.
From ambitions to behaviour in practice
Many organisations begin their culture and change work with surveys, values and workshops.
That creates insight, but all too often it stops there.
The insight is not turned into action, and leaders are left without concrete tools to drive the change in their day-to-day work.
DSB took a different approach. The work is based on a fundamental recognition: culture is expressed through behaviour, and behaviour is shaped by leadership.
The approach builds on research into the link between culture, leadership and performance, making it possible to work systematically with the drivers that influence behaviour in the organisation.
This means the effort is not based on general recommendations but on concrete leadership actions designed for DSB’s reality.
Instead of treating culture as an abstract concept, the focus is on the specific behavioural patterns that need to be strengthened to support the strategy.
That is where the difference lies between understanding culture and actually being able to shift it.
From analysis to action
The work began with an analysis of the organisation’s culture based on existing data, interviews and workshops across DSB.
The aim was not only to describe the culture but to understand how it shows up in everyday work, and which behavioural patterns either support or challenge the strategy.
A central part of the work was trio interviews, in which leaders from different parts of the organisation were interviewed together. This gave a more nuanced picture of cross-functional collaboration and made visible the patterns that shape the organisation in practice.
Among other things, the analysis pointed to a need for clearer prioritisation, greater ownership and a stronger focus on the frontline.
But analysis alone does not create change.
Change only happens when insights are turned into action. That is why top management was involved early on in prioritising the most important focus areas. This created direction and legitimacy across the organisation.
Leaders across the organisation then translated the priorities into concrete behavioural agreements in their own areas. This made the culture work an integrated part of the leadership task.
Everyday leadership takes more than training
A key part of the effort was the leadership development programme, in which all leadership teams took part in a structured programme over eighteen months.
But it was not the training itself that made the difference.
It was the work that happened between the modules.
“We have given the leaders concrete take-home commitments between the modules, so they have had to work with the tools in practice. That makes it far more binding,” explains Ann Marie Jakobsen.
Change does not happen in the training room. It happens in everyday work.
“At its core, this is about everyday leadership. It is in the small touchpoints that behaviour is shaped, and that is where the change has to happen.”
By working systematically with commitment, application and follow-up, new leadership actions become part of the leaders’ daily practice.
A shift in the leadership role
One of the clearest changes at DSB is a shift in how leaders see their own role.
Where change could previously feel like something imposed from outside, leaders now increasingly see themselves as active drivers.
“There is now an understanding that as a leader you make a huge difference, and that you have an obligation to be an active change agent,” says Ann Marie Jakobsen.
This does not only change behaviour. It changes how the leadership task is understood.
At the same time, a shared language has emerged that makes it easier to work consistently with committed leadership across the organisation.
When behaviour starts to change
Culture change can be hard to measure directly in the short term. It is, however, clearly visible in everyday work.
At DSB, for example, leaders increasingly reach out across the organisation. They work more systematically with clear expectations and explicit agreements, which creates better coordination and progress.
This has a direct effect on how employees work and how tasks are solved.
At the same time, DSB actively follows up on how the tools are used in practice.
“We have started looking into how leaders use the tools in practice and what actually works. That gives us a much better understanding of the impact,” says Ann Marie Jakobsen.
The work has already set a clear development in motion.
“We have started a snowball that is now rolling through the organisation, and we can clearly feel it in the way leaders work with change and leadership.”
Culture does not shift by itself
DSB’s experience points to one central insight.
Culture change does not happen through analysis alone. Nor does it happen through training alone.
It happens when leaders consistently work with the behaviour they want to see more of and make it part of their daily practice.
When that connection succeeds, the culture begins to shift.
And that is exactly where People & Performance makes the difference.
