Culture by Design — Aug. 27, 2026
- Randall Sellar
- 5 days ago
- 5 min read
Each week, I pick out a few articles that really made me pause and reflect. They might not be the biggest news stories, but they show where leadership, work, and organizations are going.
This week, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about this theme:
Knowing that change is coming isn’t the same as being ready for it.
Employees know they need new skills.
Organizations know AI will change how work gets done.
Leaders know technology is affecting workplace culture.
And yet, knowing something needs to change and actually creating the conditions for change are two very different things.
That gap between awareness and action might be one of the biggest leadership challenges organizations face right now.
Here are five articles I think are worth reading this week.
1. Workers Know They Need to Adapt. So Why Isn’t It Happening?
Source: ETS / PR Newswire
New research from ETS highlights an interesting contradiction in the workforce.
85% of U.S. workers say upskilling or reskilling is now a necessity, and 78% believe job security no longer exists without continuous adaptation.
Yet only 71% report proactively developing new skills.
The reasons matter.
68% say the cost of upskilling is difficult to cover, 63% struggle to find time alongside their workload, and 57% have difficulty getting support from employers.
My takeaway:
We talk a lot about employees taking ownership of their development.
And they should.
But organizations also need to ask whether they’re actually creating the conditions that make development possible.
If someone has a full workload, limited access to learning, and no protected time to develop, telling them to “upskill” isn’t much of a strategy.
Adaptability may be an individual responsibility, but building an adaptable workforce is an organizational one.
2. Organizations Want Agentic AI. Their Processes Aren’t Ready.
Source: Deloitte
There’s plenty of excitement about the move from generative AI toward AI agents that can perform increasingly complex work.
But Deloitte’s research suggests organizations aren’t nearly as ready as the technology conversation might imply.
Only 16% of leaders surveyed said their business processes were prepared for agentic adoption, and just one in five said their organizations were prepared to redesign processes to operate autonomously with AI agents.
My takeaway:
This is a good reminder that transformation isn’t the same as implementation.
Adding AI to an existing process may create efficiencies.
But eventually, organizations will need to ask a bigger question:
If we designed this work today with AI available to us, would we design it the same way?
Technology changes quickly.
Processes, structures, skills, and ways of working usually don’t.
Closing that gap is where the real transformation work begins.
3. Women Are Being Left Behind in the AI Workforce
Source: HR Dive
AI is creating some of the fastest-growing and highest-paying opportunities in the labour market.
But those opportunities aren’t being distributed evenly.
LinkedIn research highlighted by HR Dive found that women accounted for just 26% of AI hires in 2025, despite making up about half of hires in non-AI roles.
The disparity becomes even larger at senior levels: women hold only 13% of C-suite AI leadership roles at AI companies across the 27 countries studied.
My takeaway:
We’re still early enough in the AI transformation to influence who gets to participate in it.
Organizations shouldn’t wait until the AI talent pipeline is established and then wonder why representation is lacking.
Who gets access to development?
Who gets assigned AI-enabled work?
Who gets opportunities to experiment with the technology?
Who gets promoted into emerging leadership roles?
The talent pipelines organizations build today will shape who benefits from AI tomorrow.
4. AI Isn’t Improving or Hurting Culture. How We Lead It Might Be.
Source: Gallup
Gallup’s latest research offers some useful nuance to the conversation about AI and workplace culture.
Among employees in organizations implementing AI, 24% say their culture has improved over the past year, while 25% say it has worsened.
One factor appears to make a meaningful difference: managers.
Employees who strongly agree that their manager supports their team’s use of AI are more likely to report that workplace culture has improved. Yet 50% of CHROs surveyed aren’t confident in managers’ ability to guide employees on AI use.
My takeaway:
Technology doesn’t arrive in an organizational vacuum.
People experience change through their leaders, their teams, and the way new expectations are introduced.
That’s why AI transformation can’t only be a technology initiative.
Managers need the capability, clarity, and capacity to help people navigate it.
The employee experience of AI may ultimately depend as much on leadership as it does on the technology itself.
5. The Business Case for DEI Is Facing a Different Kind of Scrutiny
Source: HR Dive
A U.S. congressional investigation is seeking information related to McKinsey’s widely cited research connecting workforce diversity with stronger financial performance.
Rep. Brandon Gill has questioned the methodology behind the research and its influence on corporate DEI practices. McKinsey says it stands behind its findings and recommendations.
McKinsey is standing strong behind their research and has pointed to the lack of results among businesses that have chosen to roll back their DEI programs.
My takeaway:
The value of diversity in organizations doesn’t rest on one study.
There are many sources of research and data reinforcing the benefits of building diverse organizations. But at its core, the argument is also fairly straightforward.
When people with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives look at the same problem or opportunity, they increase the range of ideas and solutions available to the organization.
That doesn’t mean diverse teams automatically perform better. Leaders still need to create an environment where different perspectives are heard, challenged, and used.
But organizations that pull back from building diverse teams risk narrowing the perspectives available when making decisions and solving problems.
Over the long term, I believe that’s more likely to limit an organization’s opportunities than strengthen them.
This Week’s Article
Before You Add Something New, Ask What You Can Stop Doing
Organizations are very good at adding things.
New priorities.
New meetings.
New reports.
New processes.
New initiatives.
Individually, each addition usually makes sense.
The problem is that we rarely remove anything when we add something new.
Over time, organizations become heavier, and people are expected to absorb more.
So I suggest one simple question leaders can ask whenever something new is introduced:
What are we going to stop doing to make room for this?
It’s a question about trade-offs.
Because organizations don’t have unlimited capacity.
Neither do people.
Sometimes the best way to help an organization accomplish more isn’t to add something new.
It’s to create the space to focus on what already matters.
Final Thought
There’s an interesting tension running through this week’s articles.
We know a lot about what’s coming.
Workers know their skills need to evolve.
Leaders know AI will reshape work.
Organizations know their processes will have to change.
We know managers will play a critical role in helping employees navigate the transition.
And we can already see that access to the opportunities created by AI isn’t equal.
The challenge isn’t awareness.
It’s execution.
And perhaps that’s where leaders need to be careful.
When something changes, our instinct is often to add something.
Add training.
Add technology.
Add governance.
Add a new initiative.
Add another priority.
Some of those things will absolutely be necessary.
But organizations have finite capacity.
So transformation can’t only be about asking:
“What do we need to start doing?”
It also requires asking:
“What do we need to stop doing so we have the capacity to change?”
Knowing what the future requires is important.
Creating the space to actually build it is leadership.
Until next week,
Randall Sellar
Comments