Organisational culture in healthcare is highly complex. Hierarchical structures, interdependent teams and high-stakes decision-making make workplace behaviours and culture both critical and difficult to change. Traditional surveys often provide descriptive measures, like engagement scores or climate metrics, that report outcomes without explaining why culture behaves the way it does. Many tools also conflate culture with related constructs, fail to capture shared values, and rarely link findings to actionable levers, leaving organisations with data, but limited guidance on change. This contributes to a growing knowing-doing gap in this sector.

The Culture of Healthcare Assessment Tool (CHAT), developed through a project commissioned by A Better Culture with support from the Royal Australasian College of Medical Practitioners (RACMA) with Federal Government funding, builds on a comprehensive environmental scan, literature review and stakeholder engagement across the Australian Healthcare sector. Quantitative testing also supports the validity of the tool. The project confirmed patterns of negative behaviours experienced by many healthcare professionals, and identified gaps in existing measurement tools, including insufficient scope, lack of clarity around core culture dimensions, and limited guidance for action.

CHAT addresses these challenges by identifying the underlying drivers of culture and key leverage points that will support leaders and change agents to translate insights into practical interventions.

This presentation explores how CHAT can support healthcare organisations navigate cultural complexity by bridging the gap between measurement and action. It outlines how CHAT outputs can be used to identify the most influential leverage points, inform intervention design and guide change efforts in complex environments, addressing the underlying values and practices rather than surface outcomes.