When values collide: navigating identities, belonging and organisational reality

Does this sound familiar?

Employees bring strong personal views into workplace discussions
Internal debates reflect wider societal tensions
Leaders are expected to take a stance—but want to stay neutral
Values like “respect” or “inclusion” are interpreted differently
Conversations become cautious, emotional—or avoided

Helping organisations integrate conflicting expectations while staying effective and credible:

More than ever before, workplaces reflect societal and political debates. In this dynamic, organisations are expected to live their values, relate to stakeholders and ensure belonging. This creates uncertainty, tension and even conflict.

Topics that were once external are now internal. Different values – and priorities – shape organisational reality and everyday collaboration. Yet, alignment is difficult when expectations diverge.

Typical responses (and mistakes or unwanted effects)

Organisations try to de-politicise conversations or apply broadly inclusive approaches. This can avoid tensions instead of addressing convictions and norms that govern behaviours. Policies or communication alone do not resolve conflicting perspectives.

Engineering Leadership & Culture Solutions

Organisations must be enabled to work constructively across different values. I create constructive spaces where personal priorities become visible and usable. My strategic dialogues integrate business reality with employee expectations and organisational needs. The goal is not to avoid difficult discussions – but to make them productive.

We typically start by

Strategic dialogues across teams or functions
Cultural diagnostics to surface hidden tensions
Meaningful conversations on ‘sensitive’ topics

References

Cross-functional strategic dialogues to improve understanding and identify improvements
Cultural development initiative based on discussion events to create future-readiness
From the shop-floor to the boardroom discussing how values show up in operational realities

Key questions addressed

How can organisations handle conflicting values in the workplace?
What can leaders do when employee expectations diverge?

Let’s talk about your values and realities!

RATIONAL | Verena Haertle, Head of People Development, 12/2023

[His work] is creating a new kind of awareness and pronounced openness across all levels to actively engage in further cultural change. Michael Stuber facilitates this process with his critical view, strategic vision and with a convenient style all of which helps us to progress significantly. It is also a real pleasure working with him.

Evonik Corporation | Bonnie Tully, President North America Region, 10/2022

We found the Team Leadership Journey a valuable experience (as) it made us recognize we all have biases, and allowed us to reflect on this truth. Then, the Leadership Journey process gave us a format to create an actionable plan (as) we accept there is no quick fix when it comes to organizational culture change. (We came) to consensus on a path forward to create a diverse, inclusive, and equitable workplace (and) an 'action journey' where real progress is being made.

TX Group | Pascal Krapf, Senior HR Consultant, 12/2020

Michael Stuber identified key business priorities in each of our operating companies and proposed relevant linkages with future D&I initiatives. He also showed the need to tie D&I more closely to our identity and embed it in our shared culture as well as HR processes and tools. Going further, Michael's expertise guides us to additional key considerations by uncovering and subsequently addressing hidden biases and dynamics through focus group interviews.

TX Markets | Jeremy Seitz, CTO, 11/2021

At TX Markets, we chose Michael Stuber to support us in management training with the technology leaders across our companies. Michael was awesome to work with, he created a structured approach that allowed us to have open and thoughtful conversations about many important and difficult topics. He led us to design our own approach in a collaborative way. With so much experience and knowledge in the topic, he was able to guide us on a journey that fostered open-mindedness, a feeling of psychological safety, and a business-focused approach that was not bound by politics or corporate-speak. This approach helped us tackle real issues: how we can build and retain a more diverse workforce and leadership to help accelerate our innovation and tech goals.

BayWa r.e. | Céline Tran, MD France & Global DEI Sponsor, 12/2021

Michael has been a key enabler to organise our DEI journey. His experience and expertise combined with a very clear way of expressing his thoughts and recommendations have been highly valuable to define our DEI strategy and action plans as well as to prepare for senior management meetings. His investment in getting to know our organization and our HR processes allowed him to leverage the existing processes as ground foundations for further actions and define additional tailormade DEI initiatives. His interactions with senior management, through interviews, individual coaching or management trainings, were very relevant and impactful. It has been a pleasure working alongside with Michael over several months on diversity, equity and inclusion topics.

Global HRD Congress | Nina Woodard, Conference Chair, 03/20217

I had the privilege of working with Michael as a part of the World HRD Congress 25th Anniversary Diversity and Inclusion program. Michael prepared a special kick off program for the event that was very inspirational and helped us start the day on the right note. His fact based insights are very impactful and an asset to any diversity and inclusion program by insuring that the bottom line impacts are visible and real. He is very dedicated to meeting the needs of the conference or program and to being able to customize and still beautifully maintain the integrity of his work.

Siemens Healthineers | Bernd Zimmermann, Global Head of OD, 09/2020

Michael Stuber is one of the few consultants who approaches D&I from a holistic organisational development perspective and can advise and accompany an international corporation. His broad experience and organisational diagnostic competence help us to identify what is really important or effective. His participative, strategic and future-focused style quickly creates constructive conversations in the organisation and nurtures fast and sustainable change. I have always greatly appreciated working with him as he brings smart thinking, profound experience and a soul to his projects.

Evonik | Dr. Katrin Schmallenbach, VP HR, 10/2019

European Diversity supported Evonik in three strategic projects. Michael Stuber's expertise, his experienced and critical perspective on the specifics of our company and his in-depth understanding of the relevant issues had a major impact on our work. This applied both to cultural, process and strategic analyses as well as the resulting approaches and recommendations. Our joint work is characterised by an equally forthright and trustful dialogue, which leads to constructive reflections and valuable progress.

Swisscom | Elena Folini, Head of HR P&M, 08/2019

After a few years of internal work and insight, Michael Stuber's external professional perspective, profound expertise and long-standing experience have significantly helped us to analyse our situation holistically and with all dependencies and to redesign our approach focused on vision, strategy, processes and culture in a change-oriented way. With targeted interventions at various levels, we achieved a new quality of positive reactions in just over six months. In addition, the partnership was a great enrichment for my development and always a real pleasure.

SBB | Judith Renevey, Head of D&I, 02/2019

In the summer of 2018, SBB successfully introduced 'D&I for management teams', a new format reflecting a holistic D&I approach. The co-conception with European Diversity has proven very successful. Using a train-the-trainer approach with detailed qualification of the facilitators, the offer consists of a learning process, tied to business priorities in each field and focusing on the specific D&I contribution to achieving their objectives.

Generali Schweiz | Jean-Pierre Schmid, CHRO, 11/2018

Michael Stuber very competently and professionally accompanied our Diversity & Inclusion strategy development. In the workshop with our executive team, he succeeded in showing us the added value of Diversity & Inclusion and how to embed it in our corporate strategy. The collaboration was very enriching, effective and constructive and we benefited enormously from his many years of experience and expertise.

Page Group | Goran Barić, Managing Director Germany, 12/2018

Michael Stuber's bias workshop for our Management Team provided a deepened understanding of the scope and relevance of D&I beyond personal perception. With impressive inspiration and an adequate piece of humour, he facilitated a constructive dialogue to shape our approach to further integrate and leverage D&I in our company so that it contributes to the business. Specific insights in Unconscious Biases and pragmatic mitigation enable us to continue to be a corporate role model for D&I.

E.ON | Sven Rudloff, Group HR Policy, 03/2007

e-Diversity is a unique and entertaining instrument which quickly trains numerous employees while dealing with issues of Diversity and Anti-Discrimination. Adaptations for specifics of our corporation were completed within a short amount of time.

UBS | Group Diversity, Director Research, 08/2007

The expertise of Michael Stuber led to the creation of valuable products, with which our employees can be informed about Diversity and learn of successful implementation examples.

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