Your Institute's Culture is Smarter Than Your Strategy

It's 2022. The Francis Crick Institute, one of Britain's most prestigious research centres, is about to announce a radical change. They call it "discovery without boundaries" - a bold attempt to transform how their researchers work¹.

But their biggest challenge isn't the strategy. It's something far more sophisticated: an intelligent, self-protective organism that will determine whether their plan lives or dies.

That organism is their institute's culture.

Most institute leaders see culture as a set of behaviours to be modified. But decades of research into research translation tells us something different: institute culture functions more like an intelligent organism, constantly gathering and processing information about how to survive³. Stan Slap's research shows how this collective intelligence shapes organisational behaviour more powerfully than any formal strategy.

Watch what happens when an institute announces a new innovation initiative. In public meetings, researchers nod along. In private conversations, they assess the risk to their careers. Through informal networks, they share stories about what happened to colleagues who tried similar ventures. Within weeks, they've collectively built a sophisticated understanding of whether this new direction is truly safe.

This isn't just an interesting observation. It's a window into how your culture learns to survive. Your researchers don't resist innovation because they're stubborn. They resist because you haven't demonstrated that innovation is safe. And "safe" means more than just job security. It means understanding why changes matter, knowing what success looks like, and feeling valued in the process.

The Francis Crick Institute's transformation offers a masterclass in working with cultural intelligence. While other institutes pushed generic innovation programmes, Crick took a different approach. They started by making translation work feel as safe as traditional research².

For every potential commercial project, they protected the researcher's academic time. For each industry collaboration, they created clear guidelines about publication rights. When a researcher attempted translation - even if it failed - they celebrated the attempt as loudly as a Nature paper. They didn't just announce these policies; they turned successful examples into stories that spread through the institute, showing what was possible.

Within two years, the results were clear. Researcher engagement in translation increased fourfold. But something more surprising happened: their academic output improved too. Not because they'd forced change, but because their culture had gathered enough evidence that this new behaviour was safe and valuable.

Every institute has stories that carry hidden messages about survival. At one leading research institute, everyone knows about the professor who tried commercialisation and lost their lab space. At another, researchers whisper about the postdoc whose industry collaboration led to a breakthrough paper.

These aren't just anecdotes. They're what organisational psychologists call "cultural legends" - stories that carry vital information about what's truly safe and valued⁴. As Powell and Sandholtz's research on "amphibious scientists" shows, these stories shape how researchers navigate between academic and commercial worlds. Smart institute leaders don't just wait for these stories to emerge. They deliberately create them.

Consider how the Broad Institute handles translation attempts. When a researcher steps into commercial work, they don't just protect their academic time. They turn each attempt into a story - complete with challenges faced and lessons learned. Failed attempts become legends about learning. Successful ones become blueprints for others to follow. Each story carries the same message: it's safe to try.

Most institutes try to force innovation through isolated programmes without context, changes without predictability, metrics without meaning. They organise entrepreneurship workshops disconnected from research reality. They create innovation offices that sit apart from academic life.

They're not just sending the wrong signals. They're failing to provide what their culture desperately needs: clear evidence that innovation is as safe as traditional research.

Want different outcomes? Stop trying to change your culture. Start treating it like the sophisticated organism it is.

Your culture needs three things: context about why changes matter, predictability about what success looks like, and evidence that what matters most will be protected.

First, provide clear context. Don't just announce new innovation initiatives. Explain what isn't changing - your commitment to research excellence, your support for academic freedom, your respect for scientific rigour. Show how translation can strengthen research, not dilute it.

Second, make paths predictable. Map out exactly how decisions about time allocation will be made. Show how industry collaboration affects promotion reviews. Create clear guidelines about publication rights in commercial projects. Let your culture see the road ahead.

Finally, build emotional safety through stories. When a researcher attempts translation, turn their experience - success or failure - into a legend that carries vital survival information. Let your culture see not just what's possible, but what's safe.

Most institute leaders think they have a culture problem. They don't. They have an information problem.

Your culture isn't resistant. It's intelligent. It's not broken. It's doing exactly what any sophisticated survival-focused organism would do: gathering information, assessing safety, and making rational decisions.

The best part? You can start working with this intelligence today. Choose one story that could change how your culture sees survival. Tell it well. Tell it often. Let it spread.

Because your researchers aren't resisting innovation. They're waiting for evidence - carried in stories, proven through actions, reinforced through experience - that excellence in both research and impact is truly safe.

The future belongs to institutes that understand: Your culture isn't an obstacle to change. It's an intelligent partner in determining which changes will actually work.

Take 15 minutes with your leadership team:

Map Your Cultural Stories

What legends circulate in your institute about:

• Researchers who tried translation
• Successful industry collaborations
• Failed commercial attempts
• Career implications of innovation

Create One New Legend

Find one story waiting to be told:

• A researcher excelling at both worlds
• A failed attempt that led to learning
• An innovation that strengthened research
• A collaboration that led somewhere unexpected

Make Your Move

Choose one story and commit to sharing it:

• Write it down in detail
• Share it at your next three meetings
• Ask others what it means to them
• Watch how it spreads and evolves

Remember: Stories spread faster than strategies.

References:

¹ The Francis Crick Institute Strategy 2022-2026

² The Francis Crick Institute Annual Review 2022

³ Slap, S. "Under the Hood: Fire Up and Fine-Tune Your Employee Culture" (2015)

⁴ Powell, W. W., & Sandholtz, K. "Amphibious Scientists" (2022)