Grounded in 30+ years of culture research

Culture isn't a poster. It's the rules nobody wrote down.

A transformative 10-module programme giving leaders the language, frameworks, and tools to shape organisational culture with intention, drawn from insights across 250,000+ managers worldwide.

✓
Surface the unwritten rules
✓
Shift behaviour, not slogans
✓
Make change stick
Request a Conversation Explore the Programme
10 Modules
UGRs® Framework
3,500+ Engagements
50+ Countries
250,000+ Managers Trained 30+ Years of Research 50+ Countries 3,500+ Engagements 5 Continents UGRs® Framework McLaren · Gold Fields · Global Organisations 250,000+ Managers Trained 30+ Years of Research 50+ Countries 3,500+ Engagements 5 Continents UGRs® Framework McLaren · Gold Fields · Global Organisations
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Variance in engagementexplained by the line manager
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Managers Trainedacross the WCM platform
10
Breakthrough Modulesbuilt on UGRs®
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Global Engagementsacross 50+ countries
The Unwritten Ground Rules

Listen to the rules already running your culture.

Right now, in every team, people are repeating sentences that begin with two words: "Around here…". These are your UGRs. They are never written down. They were set almost entirely by what leaders did, or failed to do.

"Around here, mistakes are punished."
"Around here, it's safer to stay quiet."
"Around here, ideas die in the inbox."
"Around here, the boss only notices what's wrong."
"Around here, complaining never changes anything."
"Around here, every voice genuinely matters."
"Around here, mistakes are how we learn."
"Around here, leaders notice what's working."
"Around here, it's safe to challenge."

What are yours saying?

The first move in any culture programme is learning to listen, really listen, for the rules nobody wrote down.

From Invisible to Intentional

Two cultures. One choice.

Every team is operating one of these cultures right now. The question is whether it was chosen, or whether it was simply allowed to form.

Without UGR Awareness

The invisible rules quietly draining performance.

"Around here, it's not worth raising concerns. Nothing ever changes."
"Around here, the boss only talks to you when something's wrong."
"Around here, speaking up gets you noticed for the wrong reasons."
"Around here, new ideas go nowhere, so we stopped offering them."
"Around here, mistakes are punished, not learned from."
The Shift
With World Class Cultures

The norms that drive exceptional performance.

"Around here, your voice genuinely shapes how we work."
"Around here, leaders notice what's going well, and say so."
"Around here, it's safe to raise a concern, and expected."
"Around here, bold thinking gets a hearing and a real response."
"Around here, mistakes are how we get better, together."
The UGR Framework

A groundbreaking model
for culture change.

The most practical, evidence-based model for understanding and shifting organisational culture available today.

Developed by Steve Simpson and Stef du Plessis over three decades of work inside organisations across the globe, from Formula 1 manufacturers to global financial institutions, the Unwritten Ground Rules (UGRs®) framework is the most practical, evidence-based model for understanding and shifting organisational culture available today.

Unlike conventional culture programmes focused on aspirational values, the UGR approach starts with what is actually happening: the real, lived, behavioural reality of your workplace. It gives leaders the tools to shape it with precision and intention.

UGRs are not concepts. They are observations. And once you can see them, you can change them.

"Culture is simply how things really work around here. The unwritten rules that govern how people behave when no one senior is watching."

Steve Simpson, Co-Creator of UGRs®
UGRs in Action: Real Examples

"It isn't worth complaining. Nothing gets done."

Disengagement

"The boss only speaks to you when something's wrong."

Fear Culture

"Customer service matters in theory, but not really."

Misalignment

"Mistakes are how we learn, and we say so publicly."

Psychological Safety

"Every voice matters, especially the quiet ones."

High Performance
The insight: These rules are never written down. They form through repeated experience, and are set almost entirely by what managers do, or fail to do.
01

Culture Is Behaviour

What people actually do, day to day, interaction by interaction, is the culture. Not what anyone says it is.

02

Behaviour Drives Results

Every business outcome, quality, productivity, retention, is downstream of behaviour. Change one, change the other.

03

Managers Shape Culture

The most powerful cultural influence in any team is the direct line manager. Not the CEO. Not HR. You.

04

UGRs Run the Show

Unwritten Ground Rules are the shared assumptions your team holds about how things really work here. Invisible. Powerful. Changeable.

The Programme

Ten modules. Transformative insight.

Each module is built around seven practical, behaviour-based actions, designed to change what leaders do on Monday morning. Click any module to explore further.

01
Foundation
What Really Shapes Culture
An unmissable introduction to UGRs, including a real-world social experiment.
+
A definitive starting point for any leader serious about culture. Walk away with a permanent shift in how you see your team's behaviour, and your role in shaping it.
What you'll gain
✓A clear, working definition of culture rooted in behaviour, not aspiration
✓The single experiment that reframes how you see workplace norms
✓An honest first read of the UGRs already running your team
02
Insight
How Norms Take Hold
The mechanics of how culture takes root, and why intentions alone won't shift it.
+
Understand exactly how UGRs form, harden, and self-replicate. Without grasping the mechanism, even your best interventions will quietly fail.
What you'll gain
✓The five ways UGRs are formed and reinforced inside teams
✓Why "telling people the new values" almost never works
✓Spotting the moments where a UGR is being set, in real time
03
Practical Tool
Reading Your Culture
A simple, powerful method for surfacing the real UGRs in your team, direct from the people living them.
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No surveys, no consultants, no waiting for next year's engagement scores. A single, deceptively simple conversation that surfaces UGRs your team has never spoken aloud.
What you'll gain
✓The "Around Here" conversation script, ready to use this week
✓How to create the safety needed for honest answers
✓A practical map of your team's current UGRs, positive and negative
04
Self-Awareness
The Signals You Send
How your silences, habits, and reactions are shaping your team's culture, usually without your awareness.
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The hardest module, and often the most transformative. Most managers send signals they don't know they're sending, and those signals become the team's UGRs.
What you'll gain
✓The "shadow side" audit of your day-to-day leadership behaviour
✓Spotting the involuntary signals you send under pressure
✓How to recalibrate the signals that matter most
05
Action
Changing Patterns, Not People
How to shift damaging norms without becoming the culture police.
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Smart, subtle, sustainable strategies to dislodge unhelpful UGRs, without hectoring, blame, or top-down pronouncements.
What you'll gain
✓The "interrupt and redirect" pattern for shifting in-the-moment norms
✓How to use small, repeated actions instead of grand pronouncements
✓Why naming the UGR is half the work of changing it
06
Culture Design
Designing Better Norms
Building the kind of culture people want to be part of, through deliberate, visible leadership behaviours.
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Move from removing the bad to designing the new. A practical framework for choosing, modelling, and reinforcing the UGRs you actually want.
What you'll gain
✓A method for naming the UGRs you want to install
✓How to model the new norm visibly and repeatedly
✓Designing the rituals that make new UGRs stick
07
Trust
The Foundations of Safety
How UGRs either enable or destroy psychological safety, and what leaders can do about it.
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Specific, named actions leaders can take to make honesty, dissent, and truth-telling the everyday norm, not the brave exception.
What you'll gain
✓The behavioural anatomy of psychological safety
✓How to respond when someone risks raising the difficult thing
✓The single most damaging UGR in low-trust organisations, and how to dismantle it
08
Change Leadership
What Gets In The Way
Every culture journey hits this wall. How to engage those who resist, without burning bridges.
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Resistance is information. Learn how to read it, engage it, and convert it, instead of forcing it underground where it ferments and re-emerges.
What you'll gain
✓The four common resistance patterns, and how to engage each
✓Why the loudest sceptic is often your most useful ally
✓How to handle the silent saboteurs, the hardest of the lot
09
Sustainability
Making Change Stick
The moment most change efforts quietly unravel, and how to prevent it.
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A new UGR is fragile in its first 90 days. Master the rituals, reinforcement loops, and conversations that turn a temporary change into the permanent normal.
What you'll gain
✓The 90-day reinforcement model for any new norm
✓Why "we tried that" UGRs are so damaging, and how to avoid creating them
✓Building the team rituals that make change irreversible
10
Leadership Legacy
Leading That Lasts
A crystallisation of everything learned, and a personalised commitment framework for life beyond the programme.
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The closing module pulls every thread together into a single, named leadership commitment: the UGR you will personally model for the years ahead.
What you'll gain
✓Your personal cultural legacy statement
✓The named UGR you will lead by, every day
✓A 12-month cadence of self-review, peer-check, and team conversation
The Evidence Base

Culture is not a soft issue.
It's a performance issue.

Six findings from the world's leading research institutions that tell the same story: behaviour, not strategy, drives outcomes.

70%
Of variance in team engagement and performance is explained by the direct line manager, not senior leadership, not strategy.
Gallup, State of the Global Workplace
17%
Of employees say their organisation's meetings are productive, yet most culture is shaped in these moments, not in strategy documents.
Harvard Business Review
2×
Employees are twice as likely to be engaged when team rituals feel purposeful and consistent, a core principle of WCC.
Gallup Research
65%
Increase in follow-through when individuals make a public commitment to behavioural change, embedded in the WCC methodology.
American Society of Training & Development
4.6×
Employees who feel heard are 4.6× more likely to feel empowered to perform their best work. Psychological safety is foundational.
Salesforce Research
89%
Of employees in high-trust organisations report greater satisfaction, higher productivity, and significantly lower burnout.
Harvard Business Review
Culture Health Check

What are your UGRs telling you?

Every team has Unwritten Ground Rules operating right now. Most leaders have no idea what theirs actually are.

Answer five honest questions to get a sense of your current cultural health, and where the highest-impact opportunities for improvement might lie.

This is not a diagnostic tool. It is an invitation to start looking at your culture through a different lens, the lens of behaviour, not aspiration.

Culture Health Check
5 questions · 2 minutes · honest answers only
1. When someone raises a concern in your team, what typically happens?
Acknowledged but rarely followed up
Depends on who raises it
Taken seriously and acted upon
2. How would your team describe the feeling of your meetings?
One-way information download
Functional, gets through the agenda
Energising, we solve things together
3. When a mistake happens, what is the first response?
People cover it up or deflect blame
Addressed, but cautiously
Treated as a learning moment, openly
4. How consistent is your behaviour as a leader under pressure?
I know I change, and it affects the team
Mostly consistent, some slip
I consciously model what I want to see
5. If a new joiner watched your team for a week, what UGR would they form?
It is safer to stay quiet here
Things are okay, not great here
People genuinely care about each other here
Flexible Delivery

Shaped to your organisation's reality.

Three delivery models. One framework. The right approach for your scale, geography, and ambition.

Fully Online

Self-paced, on-demand access to all 10 modules with practical tools and workbooks embedded throughout. Ideal for geographically distributed organisations.

Blended Learning

Online modules combined with facilitated group sessions or live workshops. Maximises depth of learning and real-world application within the organisation.

Coach-Supported

The highest-impact model. Participants progress with an experienced World Class Manager coach providing accountability, challenge, and personalised application.

Who This Is For

For leaders who know culture matters
and are ready to act on it.

World Class Cultures is designed for leaders, people professionals, and organisational consultants who are serious about the relationship between culture and performance.

This is not a programme for those looking for another set of values to display on a wall. It's for those ready to look honestly at what is actually happening in their teams, and to be equipped with the tools to change it.

Whether shaping culture at team level or leading transformation across an entire enterprise, the UGRs® framework gives you a common language, a practical methodology, and a rigorous evidence base to make the work real.

  • Senior Leaders and C-Suite executives seeking a practical model for cultural transformation
  • HR Directors and People Leaders responsible for organisational effectiveness
  • L&D and OD professionals designing enterprise leadership programmes
  • Management consultants and culture practitioners working with client organisations
  • Change leaders navigating mergers, restructuring, or major cultural shifts
  • Managers ready to lead their team's culture with intention, not by accident
The Creators

Built by the world's leading UGR practitioners.

Co-created by two of the world's foremost authorities on workplace culture, combining decades of original research, global practice, and the most practical culture-change framework ever developed.

Steve Simpson

Steve Simpson

Co-Creator, UGRs® · Founder, World Class Manager
"There is nothing more powerful in a team or an organisation than its UGRs. And yet, remarkably, they are seldom, if ever, talked about openly. That is the gap we exist to close."

Steve Simpson has spent more than 30 years working inside organisations across the globe, studying what actually drives culture, not what leaders say drives it, but what genuinely shapes how people behave when no one senior is watching.

His UGR framework has been applied across dozens of industries and countries, from Formula 1 manufacturers like McLaren Automotive to global financial institutions. The World Class Manager platform, built on this research, has now reached over 250,000 managers worldwide.

30+Years Research
250k+Managers Trained
GlobalReach
Stef du Plessis

Stef du Plessis

Co-Creator, UGRs® · Culture Strategist
"I don't just talk culture. I get to understand your real, on-the-ground problems. I build methods to solve them, and entrench tools that enable action and measure progress."

Stef du Plessis is a globally recognised culture practitioner and co-creator of the UGRs® system. Holding a Masters Degree in Leadership and every available award and accreditation in professional speaking, he has delivered 3,500+ engagements on five continents over three decades, with clients in more than 50 countries.

His work has earned the highest-level endorsements: Former President of South Africa Thabo Mbeki has cited its "nation-building potential," while Ian Cockerell, former CEO of Gold Fields Limited, credits UGRs with "creating the foundation for our future sustainable success."

3,500+Engagements
50+Countries
5Continents
Wayne Clarke
Wayne Clarke
CEO, World Class Manager™
"

Having worked with more than 1,000 organisations across my career, I have seen first-hand what separates teams that truly perform from those that simply get by. The answer, almost without exception, comes down to culture, and more specifically, to the unwritten rules that govern how people behave every single day.

When I encountered the work of Steve and Stef, I was deeply impressed. Their UGRs® framework is unlike anything else I have seen: rigorous, practical, and grounded in the reality of how culture actually works. It does not deal in aspirations or slogans. It deals in behaviour. That is precisely why I wanted to bring this programme to the world, and to make it accessible to every leader and organisation serious about building something truly world class.

Ready to go further?

Three ways to take the next step.

Pick the one that fits where you are. We will take it from there.

01 · Register Interest

Find out more.

Leave your email. We will send you everything you need to know about World Class Cultures.

Thank you. One of the team will be in touch shortly.
02 · Book a Demo

See it in action.

Thirty minutes with a senior member of the team. See the full programme.

Book a Demo
03 · Trial a Module

Try before you commit.

Pick any module from World Class Cultures. Experience it yourself. Decide on the evidence.

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