Shifting cultures with intention – what senior leaders and people teams need to know

Rapid growth, acquisitions, or intentionally tightening the business all surface different cultural risks and opportunities. Growth can be a rocket for capability and purpose — or a slow chipping away at what made you who you are.

Join You Collective for this insightful and interactive 45-minute conversation as we dig into what leaders and teams need to understand as their organisation moves through this significant change, including how to hold a humane, strategic approach to change in tougher economic times, including sensitive scenarios like intentional downsizing or business reshaping.

You should join us if you are a founder, HR and People lead, senior operator, integration manager, and anyone accountable for translating values into repeatable behaviours and processes.

If you can’t join live but would like to receive a recording, please still register your details.

In this session, you can expect to learn about:

• How culture shifts at three critical inflection points — start-up, scale-up, large corporate — and the operational levers that matter.
• Practical ways to protect core identity while building new capability.
• How to reframe “degrowth” or contraction sensitively so dignity, clarity and future resilience remain.
• Coaching patterns leaders need (and common blind spots).
• Quick tools to make culture measurable and actionable in day-to-day ops.

There will also be an opportunity for a live Q&A.

Helen Attia Tolken is the Future of Work Strategist for Kadence, a hybrid workplace management software. Having held senior leadership roles in Sales, CX, Brand and Partnerships in Europe, the US and APAC, she brings dual fluency in startup scrappiness and large-scale complexity, always with a focus on people, real conversations (and comms) and driving sustainable growth. Helen is a strategic operator and culture builder with 20 years helping start-ups scale and global organisations navigate post-acquisition intricacies.

Anthony Willson-Topham is the Director of Leadership and Culture at You Collective. A strategic advisor and creative futurist. Anthony helps organisations and leaders make sense of what’s next. With a career that’s spanned creative industries and global consulting, he blends strategic clarity with creative spark – helping teams turn purpose and values into real-world impact.

After two decades in media and entertainment, Anthony shifted focus to leadership and culture, designing and delivering programmes across continents with some of the world’s most recognised brands and most exciting start-ups. His work explores how leadership, systems and everyday behaviours shape culture and performance, creating change that lasts beyond the initiative.