Organisational culture today is in constant motion shaped by people, refined through conversations, and strengthened by shared ownership.
At People Matters TechHR India 2025, the session “Culture in Motion: Turning Employees into Owners of Change”, moderated by Indu Kapoor, Head HR, Infosys Consulting, brought together four leaders who’ve mastered the art of navigating this dynamic terrain: Preemita Singh, President & CHRO, Havells India; Rohit Vishal Gupta, CHRO, Varun Beverages; Dimple Kaloya, Head of HR – GSC India & Group Functions GSC HTCs, HSBC; and Vishal Chopra, SVP – Marketing, Keka.
The discussion centred on a defining question for today’s organisations: How can employees move beyond adapting to change to truly owning it?
A Multi-Generational, Multi-Speed Workplace
Indus Kapoor set the tone by pointing out that the modern workplace is turbulent due to a combination of generational transitions, global economic shifts, and the AI revolution, all of which are placing ‘huge pressure on leaders to drive business strategy while nurturing culture.’
Rohit Vishal Gupta began by painting a candid picture of the generational paradox. “Organisations are stuck in an era,” he remarked. “Gen Zs are entering the workforce, but ways of working are still built for millennials.”
When asked how to bridge the gap between a senior ‘think tank’ and the more vocal younger workforce, Rohit remained pragmatic: “At the end of the day, business has to happen. But how you get there, without compromising outcomes, can be made better by including those impacted by it.”
Gen Zs, Rohit explained, “are masters at reading unsaid messages. If you think that by not telling them, they don’t know, they know.” His prescription is simple yet transformative: transparency. Not necessarily revealing every strategic detail, but communicating with honesty about what is happening and why.
More than a boardroom agenda.
Dimple Kaloya took this conversation from the macro to the micro as she spotlighted the real agents of cultural continuity, the middle managers. “Culture is not defined in boardrooms or strategy papers. It’s defined in everyday decision-making.”
She pointed out that real culture takes shape in how employees act when leaders aren’t in the room. And this is where managers, who are often the “front line of culture”, play a defining role.
“Managers need to be fully included in decision-making, involved in designing objectives and outcomes, and empowered to make decisions, even if they sometimes make the wrong ones.”
Dimple underscored the importance of observable behaviours: “What gets seen gets replicated.” For her, culture thrives when there is psychological safety, when managers feel safe enough to show vulnerability, take risks, and model the behaviour they want to see.
Tech as the culture connector
If culture is about people, can technology help it move faster and more meaningfully?
Vishal Chopra, speaking from a marketing and tech vantage point, offered an outsider’s lens: “We all understand the idea of a ‘single view of customer.’ Imagine if we built a single view of an employee.”
He stressed that skills are the new currency of culture. With AI-powered HR systems, organisations can now map employee skills, track growth, and even assess cultural alignment through data-driven insights. “Technology can only enable you to get these insights,” he noted, “but if you are sincere enough to act on them, you can strengthen culture, one employee at a time.”
AI, he said, is already making this possible. “Imagine training AI not just for technical fitment but for cultural attributes. It can score resumes, filter candidates aligned to your values, and give recruiters more time to focus on meaningful interactions.” In his view, AI amplifies empathy. It allows HR to listen better, faster, and more consistently.
The churn that creates change
When Preemita Singh took the mic, the conversation turned reflective. She began with a truth leaders often forget: “Culture is contextual.” What works at Havells, an organisation she describes as “highly informal, conversational, and people-centric”, may not translate directly elsewhere.
Preemita’s lens combined philosophy, psychology, and neuroscience. “Whenever we deal with cultural transformation, there will be resistance,” she said. “Our role is to create psychological safety, spaces where employees can speak freely without fear of judgement.”
Drawing on the ancient metaphor of Manthan, the churning of the ocean that produced both nectar and poison, she said, “Any cultural transformation will have desirable and undesirable outcomes. The role of leaders is to create safety for that churn to happen and to accept both results with empathy.”
Her model of the CHANGE champion beautifully captured what it takes to lead transformation:
C – Courage and Curiosity
H – High IQ
A – Adaptability
N – Nurture grit and Growth mindset
G – Grit
E – Empathy
Her reference to neuroscience was particularly evocative: “Just as the brain reshapes through neuroplasticity, organisations evolve by repeating new behaviours. Culture change, too, is habit-building at scale.” Cultural change, she reminded, begins with leaders who embody these traits.
From seriousness to sincerity
The panel put forth their insights with a rapid-fire round that revealed the rituals each leader swears by to keep culture alive in tough times.
For Rohit, it was simple: “Talk, talk, talk. Honest, empathetic conversations are the lifeblood of culture.”
For Preemita, it was “Haasya Raas”, the ability to laugh, even at oneself. “Can I bring lightness when the team gets too serious? Can humour be my bridge to honesty?” she asked. Indu Kapoor correctly dubbed it "Death by Seriousness”, a reminder that culture thrives when people may smile, speak, and stumble without fear.
For Dimple, it was personalisation: “Change only sticks when it hits you personally. When you see yourself in the story of transformation.”
For Vishal, it was sincerity. “Change lasts when there is sincerity, even if there are disagreements.”
The final word
Culture, as this conversation revealed, is a continuum of trust, openness, and shared ownership rather than a campaign or HR exercise.
It is the unseen framework that keeps everything together as businesses negotiate the world of artificial intelligence, hybrid work, and multigenerational teams. Employees go from being followers of culture to its most ardent supporters when there is openness, communication, empathy, and humour.