The new reality for CPOs: Championing culture in the age of constant change
- Lise-Lotte Helms-Olesen
- 17. sep.
- 4 min læsning
Disruption is no longer episodic. It is systemic, and for Chief People and culture Officers, that changes everything.
A decade ago, transformation came in waves - responding to market shifts, launching a new initiative, or rolling out a reorg. Today, the tide never settles. CEOs are navigating constant recalibration - product pivots, workforce redesign, new value models. More than ever, they are looking to their People & Culture partners not just to facilitate but to lead.
If you are a CPO reading this, you already know that culture is not a soft topic. It is a strategic driver as it enables growth ambitions to feel rooted. It is the foundation that it all starts with.
Culture is the CEO’s competitive edge.
The CEO’s narrative, which stems from the company’s foundation, origin story, and milestones, should not be rewritten with every disruption. It is the springboard from which everything evolves.
Leveraging company history can increase confidence in the ability to navigate disruptions. The role of the CPO is to help the executive team clarify to the organization: What will stay the same? What mindset is no longer serving us?
This will clarify the necessary changes that are consequences of disruptions. The CPO, who has the people's back, must take the lead in providing cultural clarity, ensuring people know what they can hold on to and what they are expected to let go of.
It is not a soft topic only for the HR function. It is structural conversations involving all leaders.
People before projects: The shift from change management to change leadership.
When CEOs struggle with their transformation, it is rarely a failure of process. It is a failure of people and change leadership. According to the Center of Change Leadership (www.ccl.org), most unsuccessful change efforts lacked true stakeholder involvement and commitment to the change from the beginning to realizing ROI. Patience is key.
Yes, it takes time and effort to involve and listen to the organization, and it can take up to a decade to realize the real outcomes of your transformation.
That is where you come in. Insist on taking a seat at the table. You are not there to align with and echo the CEO. You are there to embed people-first thinking into every step of the transformation lifecycle. Not to take orders when the disruption has fully fletched out. Foresee not just the impact on people, but how culture needs to evolve. It is by constantly managing the culture that you help people to shift mindset and adapt to change.
Data-Driven, Yes. Human-Driven, Always.
CPOs today are expected to bring data to the table. Not just traditional HR metrics, but any signals that illuminate how people experience their work, and what they have contributed with. External and internal sentiment analysis, behavioral insights, and culture patterns are no longer fringe: they are your strategic assets, and it is the language you speak at the table.
You do not just bring insight, you demonstrate judgment, knowing what to do with the data.
Identify the potential conflicts in your data, fx engagement is high, but productivity is low. How do we know based on the data where to invest, and how will we measure the ROI?
Being data-fluent means speaking the language of business leaders without losing the language of emotional readiness that underlines your trust in the organization.
There should be no split between operational and strategic HR. HR just needs to be relevant. For initiatives to be funded and embraced, they must solve real business problems. To ensure they resonate with both the logic and the emotions of our colleagues across the organization, CPOs and CFOs should connect more often. The CFOs are no longer just stability architects - guardians of margin, risk, and return. They determine whether transformation is viable, fundable, and sustainable. A partnership between Finance and HR signals that no financial logic is complete without understanding the human engine that drives business performance.
From Support function to strategic catalyst
Being the conscience of culture does not mean being soft. It means being anchored in the company foundation. It means drawing a line between the organization's DNA and its mission - and helping everyone achieve their ambitions as we all navigate a world of landmines.
So, What Now?
If you are a Chief People & Culture Officer, your CEO does not just need a partner - they need you with a compass. Someone who can decode cultural signals, create clarity in chaos, and activate human potential at scale.
That means:
Own the organizational narrative. What is not changing? Start there.
Train executives in change leadership. What is changing? Do not forget the WHY.
Balance process with people. Use traditional and non-traditional data. That is insight.
Lead the organization, not just HR. Help the business experience culture. Live it.
Change is constant. Culture is what makes transformation real and experienced.
At Real-Ex we help People and Culture officers and their team align their narratives with company foundation and mission. We assess organizational maturity and emotional readiness, and we train leaders in skills that make them feel comfortable as change agents.
Strategic Alignment with CEO and CFO
By now we have built a trilogy of articles:
CEO → A guide in a time of disruption and continuous change.
CFO → A perspective on managing spreadsheets to lead transformations.
CPO → becomes the compass for cultural clarity and emotional readiness.
This triangulation’s goal is to show that transformation is no longer siloed, it is a shared leadership responsibility.
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