Cultivating Culture: A Gamified Approach to Aligning New Employees with Organizational Values

A life sciences company partnered with FocusU to align its rapidly growing, diverse workforce with its core cultural values. To achieve this, FocusU developed a gamified learning experience named “Culture Cascade,” integrating a story-based app and virtual instructor-led training (VILT). Participants engaged in “The Awards Night,” a scenario where they nominated team members demonstrating cultural behaviors, sparking group discussions around the organization’s values. This format allowed for immediate application of cultural insights.

The program involved over 2,000 employees globally, divided into smaller groups to maximize interaction. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with participants appreciating the engaging format, relevance to real-life scenarios, and the insight into using data for unbiased decisions. Average ratings included 4.4 for experience and 4.5 for gamification. The initiative fostered an appreciation for diverse perspectives and constructive feedback, promoting empathy and a balanced approach to team dynamics. Following the successful rollout, a Train-the-Trainer model was introduced to ensure sustainability, allowing internal teams to carry forward the cultural training independently.