When Tanya Evans took to the Organisational Culture Stage at the Employee Engagement Summit, the room instantly shifted. It wasn’t just her calm, confident presence, it was the sense that something refreshingly human was about to unfold. Tanya, Managing Director for Culture and Transformation at Lloyds Banking Group, didn’t open with a corporate slide deck or a list of KPIs. Instead, she invited the audience to close their eyes and imagine a fulfilling day. It was an unexpected start for a session about banking but entirely fitting for a talk about transforming culture from the inside out.
Tanya described herself as both an organisational inventor and a business humanist, roles that bridge the science of design thinking and the art of psychology. She spoke openly about how her upbringing, with parents who were both educators, shaped her beliefs in equality, forgiveness, and the importance of joy at work. These deeply personal values have become the foundation of her mission to bring more humanity into one of the UK’s most established institutions.
At the heart of Lloyds Banking Group’s transformation lies scale unlike anything the organisation has seen in its 300-year history. With 65,000 colleagues and 27 million customers, Lloyds is not merely rolling out a digital upgrade, it is reimagining its entire purpose. Under CEO Charlie Nunn, the bank’s defensive, post-crisis mindset has evolved into one of growth and purpose, guided by a simple, unifying idea: to help Britain prosper.
What’s striking about Tanya’s approach is her view that culture must be engineered as thoughtfully as products or services. Drawing inspiration from Microsoft’s four-lever framework, systems, symbols, storytelling, and behaviours, she explained how Lloyds is rebalancing the equation. The organisation had once focused heavily on behavioural change initiatives but paid too little attention to the systems and processes that reinforce culture. Now, her team is redesigning core frameworks such as risk management and performance metrics to ensure they genuinely support desired behaviours.
Tanya also explored the concept of culture shifts, those profound yet practical pivots that change how people think and work. For Lloyds, this means moving from process-driven to customer-centred thinking, and from a fixed mindset to one of growth. But Tanya was refreshingly honest that not every shift has taken root evenly across the business. Embedding change beyond leadership remains an ongoing journey, one that can only succeed through shared ownership and genuine engagement at every level.
As she wrapped up her session, Tanya reminded us that transformation isn’t about discarding what came before. It’s about evolving, honouring the past while making space for the future. Change, she said, should never feel like criticism, it should feel like collective progress.
It’s this blend of realism and optimism that made Tanya’s story resonate so strongly. She has shown that when leaders bring authenticity and purpose to the table, even the most established organisations can move faster forward, not by abandoning their heritage, but by reimagining it.
To experience Tanya’s full insight and energy, listen to the podcast recording of her talk from the summit. It’s a masterclass in how to humanise transformation and build cultures that truly connect.
To register your interest for the 2026 Engage Employee Summit click here: https://www.engageemployee.com/engage-employee-summit-registration