Rider Levett Bucknall

Sarah Draper

Leadership Culture Advocate

You don’t need to work in HR or People & Culture to realise that workplace culture has undergone a seismic shift in recent years. From the pandemic normalising remote working to the growing acceptance of bringing our whole professional selves to work and the rising expectation that employees have a voice in shaping their working lives, change is all around us.

In my role as People & Culture Director at Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB UK), an independent management consultancy specialising in the built environment, this is a welcome and exciting evolution. The next generation of workers is seeking choice, autonomy and purpose in their careers, and to meet these expectations, leaders must evolve the DNA of their organisations.

At RLB, this evolution began with a deep and honest conversation with our people, asking them what makes RLB different, why they chose to be part of our journey and how they believe we can shape the future. The result was our recently launched Values—four simple but powerful words that encapsulate who we are and what will propel us to the future—Truth. Trust. Together. Tomorrow. RLB is a place where people make progress.

But articulating our values is only the beginning. To truly live them, our organisation must continuously adapt and grow. Our Executive Board recently set a bold ambition to become a learning organisation, one that actively cultivates a culture of continuous learning, adaptation and knowledge sharing among its members. One that not only learns from its experiences but also embeds that learning into its practices and structures, allowing it to thrive in a constantly changing environment.

“The built environment is no longer defined by transactional relationships, where architects design and contractors build. We’re moving towards collaborative, outcome-based partnerships.”

We started by asking ourselves the fundamental question of why. Why should our ambition be linked to learning, and why is it right for our people, our sector and our industry? The answer lies in the transformation of our industry. The built environment is no longer defined by transactional relationships, where architects design and contractors build. We’re moving towards collaborative, outcome-based partnerships.

Our clients are asking bigger questions: ‘How do we design and build a community where there are great schools, best-in-class hospitals, great roads and railways and mixed-use spaces with green infrastructure around them?’ As an industry, to answer those questions, we need to deeply understand our clients, their customers and the communities they serve. That requires broader, more holistic thinking and a commitment to continuous learning and actively cultivating knowledge sharing, and this all means that we need to listen and learn.

At RLB, we have several ways in which we do this. From mentoring and reverse mentoring, ensuring voices across all levels, roles and regions are heard. We created our internal Curious Minds programme, featuring podcasts and other platforms for shared learning and our Lunch and Learns, tapping into expertise within our wider networks. We also brought in outside help in working with the Multiverse Academy to run upskilling initiatives, which equip our teams with essential digital and data capabilities. And we listen and evolve our business from these initiatives. Examples of this include being asked for psychological safety, motivation, delegation and change management training from our teams, which have now been integrated into our development programme for our line managers, People Management 101.

We’ve also built vibrant internal communities, including Armed Forces, Menopause, REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) and RLB Able, which supports and embraces those with physical and hidden disabilities. These communities aren’t just safe spaces for like-minded people to be together, to chat and to share; they are learning spaces. They foster empathy, a wider perspective and challenge assumptions, enriching our culture from within.

This focus on learning isn’t about short-term HR goals. It’s a long-term investment in our people and our future. We’ve committed to increasing training days for all, and continuing our Global Employee Exchange Programme (GEEP) allows team members to work in other RLB offices worldwide, bringing back invaluable insights to share across the business.

By fostering a culture of learning and openness, we hope to attract and retain a more diverse workforce, people with different skills, different viewpoints and different ways of thinking. And in turn, we believe this diversity will help us deliver better outcomes for our clients.

The world of work is changing. Let’s not just keep pace with it; let’s learn from it, lead within it and create something better together.