‘Reset leadership and culture’

BARBADOS NEEDS a leadership and culture reset.

Kara Boyce, managing director of Insight Global Collaborative Group Inc. believes this is necessary because “over the past decade, leadership models have shifted but not fast enough”.

“Despite waves of disruption, many workplaces still cling to outdated systems, leaving both leaders and employees stuck in cycles of burnout, low engagement, and missed opportunities,” she says.

“Today, some organisations have yet to embrace digitalisation in a major way and we are beyond simple digitisation into a full fledge era of artificial intelligence (AI).”

Boyce added: “As I reflect on the potential blockers to change, having worked with organisations to support their transformation efforts, I have observed a simple but profound reality; some organisations do not drive change because they cannot envision it.

“Not because of a lack of vision or a lack of desire in some cases, but because of a lack of mental capacity to design it.

“This is not to create an excuse but to merely point out the reality that some business processes, structures and systems are actually perpetuating the problem by keeping leaders inundated with operational demands instead of strategic priorities. It’s time to move beyond.”

She was reflecting on the Moving Beyond Change Summit which her company hosted at Sandals Royal Barbados recently under the theme Moving Beyond: Empowering Leaders, Inspiring Change, Transforming Cultures.

The event brought together decision-makers, people leaders, and culture shapers from across the Caribbean and Canada to confront a critical truth, which is that “the status quo is no longer good enough and . . . the conversation around culture is becoming increasingly important”.

“What was once treated as a check-the-box initiative or a surface-level conversation is now being recognised as a critical driver of business success: culture,” Boyce said.

“No longer relegated to the realm of HR alone, organisational culture has become a strategic lever that directly impacts performance, engagement, and retention.”

She shared that during the summit, 19 speakers, in-person and virtually, challenged the leaders in attendance to examine not just where they were going, but what was holding them back.

“The cost of comfort, misaligned leadership, and disconnected workplace cultures is no longer just an HR issue, it’s a business risk. Quite frankly, it never was just an HR issue,” Boyce argued.

“Culture is not what’s written in a company handbook; it’s what is allowed, encouraged, and repeated by leadership every day”.

The Moving Beyond Change Summit featured a panel including Professor Dwayne Devonish, Professor of Management and Organisational Behaviour, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Trisha Tannis, chairman of the Barbados Private Sector Association and Wayne Sobers, acting Chief Labour Officer.

Other presenters who joined in-person included TikTok’s global director of brand communications and campaigns, Belle Baldoza and founder of Kudos, Tom Short, both based in Canada, local presenters including Davina Layne, Julie Turney and Dr Janelle Chase-Mayers.

Boyce called the summit “a clear invitation for leaders to move beyond performative practices and into transformational leadership”. (SC)