SEED
Culture change that makes an impact
SEED is a structured and iterative culture development process that helps organizations consciously and sustainably shape their own culture. SEED is not a theoretical guideline, but a methodological framework that enables teams to recognize cultural patterns, transform them, and bring new forms of collaboration to life.
The focus is on working with behavior, workflows, and structural conditions—those elements that can be changed directly in order to actively shape culture.
About SEED
What is SEED?
SEED brings together the power of self-organization with the clarity of systemic process architecture.
The approach unfolds in two consecutive phases:
-Preparation: A team develops a shared understanding of its lived culture, identifies areas for change, and defines concrete transformation initiatives (“Seeds”).
-Agile Cultivation: Through iterative culture sprints, these Seeds are tested in day-to-day work, reflected on, and further developed—until the evolved culture is sustainably embedded within the team.
SEED is suited both for pilot teams and for scaling across entire organizations. At its core are well-designed formats, hands-on tools, and a clear stance: cultural change starts with dialogue. It requires space, ownership, and resonance.
What does this look like in practice?
SEED works closely with operational teams—right where culture is actually lived and experienced. The process starts with a preparation phase, in which the team builds clarity: What defines our culture today? Where does it hurt? Where is change most meaningful? Which areas of cultural development do we want to focus on? This leads to the creation of concrete cultural prototypes (“Seeds”).
In the second phase, Agile Cultivation, these Seeds are brought into everyday practice through an agile cycle of culture sprints. The team experiments, learns, reflects, and iteratively improves—until the desired cultural patterns are firmly established in daily work.
The SEED phases in Detail
- Preparation: The planning phase consists of four steps:
- Awareness: Building a shared understanding of culture
- Exploring: Analyzing existing patterns and identifying pain points
- Focusing: Articulating the target culture and developing Seeds
- SETTing: Clarifying the framework, assigning roles, checking motivation — always guided by the principle of “safe enough to try” (SETT)
- Agile Cultivation: Implementation happens in an iterative sprint cycle:
- Culture Sprint Planning: Prioritizing and planning the Seeds
- Culture Sprint: Bringing them into daily practice as lived cultural prototypes
- Culture Sprint Review: Reflecting on impact and progress
For SEED, we’ve designed a set of canvases and smart tools that have proven themselves in prototypical team use. The tools provide a reliable structure while still allowing team-specific flexibility in content—supporting each team’s unique culture transformation.
Want to know whether SEED is the right fit for your organization? In a free introductory call, we’ll clarify goals, potential, and next steps.
In this audiobook, you’ll hear a condensed version of how organizational development expert Frederic Laloux describes a new generation of companies.
New things are constantly emerging at TheDive.
With our newsletter, you’ll stay up to date.
New things are constantly emerging at TheDive.
With our newsletter, you’ll stay up to date.