Tina Forbes is Senior Manager, Staffing & Operations at Kearney. In her 16 years with the business, Forbes has become one of its most trusted people leaders. Her role sits deliberately outside the project work, giving her a unique vantage point on the health of the culture from the inside.

Stephen Hosie is Managing Director and Partner, Melbourne Office Leader and Health Care Practice Leader at Boston Consulting Group. As the leader of BCG’s Melbourne office, Hosie has made a deliberate, visible commitment to culture, driven by the belief that when people feel included, everything else follows.

How has the conversation around workplace culture shifted over the course of your career?

Tina: I joined Kearney almost 16 years ago, and even then there was a real culture built around bringing people together – all-hands meetings, quarterly events, a company off-site every couple of years.

What’s changed is that it’s become more prominent and more consultant-led, rather than something the admin team ran in the background. There’s a much bigger focus on work-life balance and we run anonymous ‘ways of working’ surveys so people can be honest about how they’re really doing.

Stephen: I’d say that workplace culture is having a moment of renewed focus across many organisations, and I think the opportunity lies in closing the gap between ambition and delivery. When organisations set out a genuine vision for culture and deliver it, the results speak for themselves. When the execution feels insincere, that’s where skepticism creeps in. At its core, people want to be intellectually stimulated, feel psychologically safe to be themselves, and have fun with their colleagues along the way. Authenticity is at the heart of a good workplace culture, and it’s built through sustained, genuine effort.

What does joy look like on a practical, day-to-day basis in a high-pressure environment?

Tina: For me, joy is working somewhere I feel safe, where I can speak up and know I’m looked after. It’s about community and sharing in each other’s cultures and celebrations. About the flexibility of being able to take part in a sound bath session at RISE on a Friday lunchtime to decompress from the week. It’s about earning the respect and credibility with leadership and colleagues and knowing that whatever I’m doing, I’m supported.

Stephen: As leaders, we need to role-model taking the work seriously without taking ourselves too seriously. When I became office lead, I bought a five-metre Christmas tree and the whole office decorated it together. The next Friday, we gathered around and did a proper countdown before switching the lights on. It might sound silly, but people loved it. We also decorate the office and put on lunches for Diwali and for Lunar New Year – this year, the lion dancers even chased me around the office to catch the lucky cabbage!

Culture is easy to talk about and notoriously hard to build. What does that work actually look like from the inside?

Tina: It comes down to feeling safe and feeling like you belong, but also having boundaries. Wellbeing and culture can be misconstrued as “give me more”, and I don’t think that builds the right kind of culture. In my mind, culture is built on mutual respect and that disappears the moment it becomes pure expectation. Consulting is highly demanding work and you need to have high resilience, but the way we manage it is by acknowledging hard work. We offer our people experiences through awards for embodying Kearney’s own culture values (Curiosity, Generosity, Boldness, Solidarity & Passion) and encourage weekly kudos to recognise team efforts and individuals. We offer an extra week of leave that accrues year after year, as well as days in lieu for extra hours worked. Consulting is all about team effort, otherwise you all fail.

Stephen: We’ve been intentional about setting out a vision for our office based on the idea that everyone in the business plays a role in our commercial success. Having a greater impact on the broader Melbourne community is important for us too, with pro bono work and partnerships, and social impact office pillars. We create opportunities for people to bring their families and friends to workplace events, which is another way for people to be themselves. I don’t think we use the word “culture” for it. Instead it’s show, don’t tell by delivering culture, one thing at a time, in a way that changes the day-to-day context for people.

Can you share a specific ritual or human moment that captures this?

Tina: I have weekly one-on-one catch-ups with all our consultants across both offices. My door is always open and people know they can talk to me honestly and confidentially. I sit outside the projects, so I’m not another consultant, I’m an outsider of sorts. I’ve had people come to me and break down with overwhelm and I’ve been able to create a safe space for that. I’m constantly told the level of care I have for our consultants is bar none. That’s not to toot my own horn, but I get so much joy from being able to help people.

Stephen: We run coffee roulette, which pairs up people across our consulting and business services teams with a voucher to go for a coffee and chat about anything and everything. We’ve also got a Friday run club (fast and slow pace!) that brings a good mix of people together. This year I also re-introduced an old favourite – our annual

Melbourne office garden party, where we log off early one Friday in March and re-group in someone’s garden, with families and friends and kids running around. It breaks down any barriers completely, and the feedback afterwards was that it was such a great event.

Younger generations coming into the workforce often arrive with very different expectations of culture. How is that reshaping the way you work?

Tina: It’s definitely changing the way we lead. This generation arrives with clear expectations about recognition and work-life balance. It’s pushed us to be more intentional about culture rather than assuming it looks after itself. It means taking a more considered, personal approach than we’ve needed in the past, but I think that’s just culture evolving, not something to resist.

Stephen: I think we’re the same as we’ve always been and we continue to look for authentic connections and experiences. For example, if I’m

speaking to everyone in the office, whether it’s at our monthly breakfast meetings or our end-of-year celebration, it lands much better if I don’t prepare too many notes. Speaking naturally instead of using too much corporate messaging connects with people, and that’s what makes the difference.

Does a joyful culture lead to better performance, or is that just a nicer way of describing performance management?

Tina: It absolutely leads to better outcomes. We have trained mental health ambassadors and access to counselling outside our health insurance. It’s important to recognise when someone’s struggling before it becomes a bigger problem, especially now that people can be accessible 24/7 and never quite switch off.

Stephen: Everything we see tells us that people who feel more included perform better. If people enjoy their work and feel valued it leads to higher performance, which is a win for everyone. 

What brings you joy at work right now?

Tina: I love my job. It can be stressful and frustrating sometimes, but I can’t imagine not doing this role. I love the responsibility, the trust between the consultants and leadership, and the autonomy I

have to make decisions. Every day is a challenge and that’s what I love about it.

Stephen: Connecting with people. I love walking the floor, catching up, the informal corridor conversations about work, life, or anything really. That’s the best part of the job.

Kearney, Level 18, 101 Collins kearney.com

BCG, Level 51, 101 Collins bcg.com