About 10 years ago, during an interview, I was asked a question that caught me off guard: Which culture lever have you used to drive change? At the time, I couldn’t answer convincingly. That moment stuck with me—and I realized that many of us might not even be familiar with what these organizational culture levers are.

To create culture change in an organization, it’s essential to understand what a "lever" really means in this context. Think of it as any focused intervention that can disproportionately influence outcomes and reshape the way people work and behave.

Here are 7 critical levers that can drive real culture change in an organization:

1. Talent Acquisition:The most foundational way to drive culture change is to hire people who are aligned with your organization’s values and behaviors. However, while this is highly effective, it’s also one of the slowest levers to work. Rushing to hire technically skilled people without assessing cultural fit can dilute your efforts to transform the culture.

2. Leadership Role Modeling: Culture change in an organization is almost impossible without strong leadership. When leaders consistently demonstrate the desired behaviors, teams naturally mirror them. This is one of the simplest yet most powerful ways to reinforce culture change.

3. Rewards & Recognition: If you want to encourage certain behaviors, reward them visibly. Updating your rewards and recognition programs to spotlight behaviors that align with your culture goals can accelerate culture change across the organization.

4. Training: For culture change to take hold, people need to understand how to live the culture daily. Training provides your team with the tools, skills, and understanding necessary to translate cultural ideals into practical action.

5. Performance Management: Accountability is key to sustaining culture change in an organization. By setting clear expectations and holding people responsible, you reinforce what is acceptable and what’s not. When people consistently fall short of cultural expectations, it’s important to address it—through support first, but also through decisive action when needed.

6. Organization Structure: Structure can either help or hinder culture change. Reporting lines, team compositions, and internal dynamics all influence how people behave. Misaligned structures can cause confusion and reinforce silos, while the right structure can clarify expectations and foster collaboration.

7. Processes & Technologies: Outdated processes and rigid systems can undermine even the strongest cultural intentions. For example, if you aim to foster agility but your workflows are bogged down by layers of approvals, the culture won’t shift. Optimizing processes and technologies to support desired behaviors is essential to enabling sustainable culture change.

Culture isn’t static—it evolves constantly based on intentional actions. Sustainable culture change in an organization requires a thoughtful mix of these levers, with senior leaders and HR teams playing pivotal roles in shaping, reinforcing, and scaling the desired behaviors.