Why People & Culture Are the Hardest Part of Business
In business, we still use a strange vocabulary. Strategy is “hard”. Numbers are “serious”.
People, culture and engagement? Those are often labelled “soft”. Please stop calling it soft.
It’s a misleading distinction, and a dangerous one. Because while getting numbers right is difficult, getting people right is harder.
Across organisations in the UAE, I hear similar statements:
“Our engagement score is high.” “We already run many initiatives.” “What’s the next big thing we should add?”
But the real question is rarely about adding more.
It’s about IMPACT:
Are these initiatives genuinely felt by employees?
Do customers experience the culture you describe in your values deck?
Would a random employee say the same thing in private as they do in a survey?
This is where most engagement efforts quietly fail. Not because leaders don’t care., but because too much attention goes to programmes and not enough to lived experience.
At Herculean Alliance, our work sits beyond slogans and one-off initiatives.
We look at:
- what people actually experience,
- how leadership behaviour shapes that experience,
- and where the gap sits between intention and reality.
Whether an organisation is struggling, transforming, or already performing well: culture is never “done”. It requires continuous shaping. Refining. Sculpting.
Sometimes, a short conversation is all it takes to see things differently. That conversation can lead to many forms: town halls, leadership sessions, keynotes, workshops, surveys or broader culture transformation journeys.
And for those who prefer to start by reading:
Employee Engagement, What Else? captures the essence of this thinking.
The hardest part of business deserves more than a soft label.