Cultural change in organizations is as ambitious as it is frustrating.

Climate surveys, values workshops and corporate communications rarely manage to make cultural transformation truly take root in the day-to-day of teams.

The reason? Most cultural change efforts are designed top-down, relying on the formal org chart as the sole vehicle for diffusion. And the org chart, while useful, only tells a very small part of the story.

Culture doesn't spread through hierarchical lines — it propagates through real relationships between people. And that's where Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) comes in.

Why do so many cultural changes fail?

Rob Cross and his colleagues' research has been documenting a finding for over a decade: when organizations try to drive cultural change by relying only on the top two levels of leadership, they barely reach a third of the real cultural influence relationships within the company. That means two-thirds of the influence that truly shapes behaviors and beliefs remains completely off the radar.

Even more striking: some executives in formal positions of power have zero cultural influence over their teams, while people without apparent leadership roles turn out to be true sources of trust, advice and inspiration. If your cultural change plan doesn't include them, you're working blind.

What exactly is ONA and how does it apply to cultural change?

Organizational Network Analysis is a methodology that maps the real relationships between employees in an organization. Unlike a traditional climate survey, which tells you what people feel, ONA tells you how they connect, who influences whom, where information flows and where ideas stagnate.

At Beetrics, we analyze four network dimensions that are especially relevant for understanding and transforming organizational culture:

Leadership

Who do teams really follow, beyond their job title? Identifying these informal leaders is key for cultural change to gain traction from within.

Problem solving

Who do people turn to when they need judgment or technical help? These figures are the guardians of institutional knowledge and, many times, the ones who consolidate or hinder new ways of doing things.

Innovation

Who proposes new ideas and gets others to adopt them? If you want a more innovative culture, you need to know where the change catalysts are and how to amplify their reach.

Emotional support

Who are the trusted people, those who maintain team cohesion in difficult times? A healthy culture depends on these invisible networks of psychological safety.

What the data says

The evidence accumulated from ONA projects globally is compelling. Organizations that combine network analysis with cultural change strategies report significant increases in employee engagement, notable reductions in the duration of change management projects and measurable improvements in productivity and cross-departmental collaboration.