Sarah Hills: So, there is often confusion around the terms culture and climate. We need to understand that, you know, climate is a little bit more changeable. And to help look at some actual examples of this, I'm joined by Rachel today. Hello, Rachel.

Rachel Cox: Hi, Sarah. So, I've worked as an HR consultant, an HR leader, within various organizations, mainly within SMEs and fast-changing commercial businesses.

Sarah Hills: And that's interesting cause if you're working, kind of, with fast-changing, you know, then actually you've really probably, you know, appreciate climatic change because it is, kind of, like, reflecting the current, kind of, circumstances and perceptions and feelings, whereas it's very different to the underlying culture embedded in organizations.

Rachel Cox: Yeah, so I think what's important to remember is actually sometimes climate can be-, situations can feed into climate that is not within the organization’s control. Culture, we're all very, sort of, comfortable with and, as HR practitioners or leaders within organizations, we're all very aware of what it should look like, what our DNA is and, and how we-, how we look to have our colleagues face that back to us. But what can be trickier is that climatic element and I think it's been-, it's important for leadership teams, boards of directors, people who are leading organizations and people managers within organizations to understand how climate can affect their organization.

And as they're seeing changes throughout the life of their, their business to make sure that their teams are coming along with them, so making sure that that communication is open, that people have got the ability to spot when things are changing and when adaptations need to make. And then obviously going back to their teams and helping them through those changes, as well.

Sarah Hills: Yeah, that's really good, actually, really key, you know, when you say the ability to spot, because this is what sometimes can happen. You know, people or leaders, or people, can react in a bit of a knee-jerk, kind of, reaction, can't they? And if they don't understand that actually, it is just a climate element, the-, you know, whether that's from an external or internal influence, actually it's not-, it's often not best to have that knee-jerk reaction because it's not actually anything to do with the underlying culture.

Rachel Cox: Yeah, exactly right and I think when you have an example where perhaps a leader, a manager of a team who's gone into a different team to work and you see a difference in performance, that is again something else to, to be mindful of and will, again, help that development of thought around, around that process.

Sarah Hills: Definitely and, you know, as you said, you know, change is fast paced, you know, change is continuous, it's complex, so it's really important to have that differentiation of that understanding of the difference between culture and climate.

How culture differs from climate​

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How culture differs from climate