When an institution says it's changing, how do you tell the difference between real reform and a vocabulary update?

Charlotte Duval-Lantoine has spent years studying organizations that adopt the language of culture change while leaving intact the structures that made change necessary in the first place.

The tells are subtler than most leaders want to believe, and they show up earlier than most are willing to look.

In this episode, Charlotte joins the show to talk about what organizational failure actually looks like from the inside, why decentralizing blame onto individual character is one of the most reliable signs an institution isn't serious about change, and why the absence of a feedback loop is the red flag most executives mistake for resistance.

The conversation moves from military culture into the executive boardroom quickly. We explore why the same pattern runs through both.

Mentioned:

• Operation Honour
• Female representation in Canadian Armed Forces
• Cyberstarts scandal
• Big Man in Melanesian cultures