What happens when a workplace culture that once brought out your best no longer feels like the same place?
In this episode of Connecting Culture, Nathan sits down with Ron Monteiro to talk about the workplace culture that shaped his career — from arriving in Canada as a shy teenager to spending 15 years at Kraft in an environment that invested heavily in development, community and possibility. When an acquisition changed the management philosophy, Ron had to decide whether the new rhythm still fit. Together, they explore culture fit, belonging, leadership, agency, purpose and how we know when it is time to stay, adapt or move.
At the centre of the conversation is a simple idea: culture shapes us, but culture also changes. Our responsibility is to understand what helps us thrive, notice when the environment shifts, and make an intentional choice about how we respond.
A great culture can help people become more than they imagined. But when its rhythm changes, we have to know ourselves well enough to recognize whether we still belong — and what we want to do next.
Six things Ron said.
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01
They believed in me before I did
“The leaders at the time, my manager, my director, almost believed in me more than I believed in myself.”
This is what a strong culture looked like in Ron’s story: leaders who invested in his development, exposure beyond his job description, clear pathways to grow and a sense that people were expected to become more than the role they started in.
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02
Culture matters. So does choice.
“Yes, the culture is very important, but my decision’s also important.”
Ron does not reduce everything to the organization. A strong culture can create the conditions for growth, but individuals still decide how they participate. That makes culture a relationship rather than something leaders simply impose on employees.
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03
When a great culture loses its rhythm
“Towards the end of my tenure at Kraft, Kraft was bought out and it was a very different management philosophy than what I was used to.”
The episode’s central shift happens here. The organization that had kept Ron engaged for 15 years did not stay static. The new management philosophy emphasized different things, and Ron recognized that the environment he valued was disappearing.
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04
Know yourself before you judge the culture
“What meeting did I have tremendous energy? What did I not have energy? And I start saying, okay, I’m gonna start pushing more towards the high-energy people and process.”
Ron is careful not to frame the new culture as universally wrong. It worked for other people. What mattered was that he knew what had kept him engaged — development, investment, belonging and breadth — and could tell when the new environment no longer matched those values.
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05
You never really understand a culture until you’re in it
“You never really understand a culture until you walk into it.”
“You can talk to every single person you want, but until you’re actually in there and experienced a few weeks, a few months, you don’t really understand it.”
After leaving Kraft, Ron entered another company and quickly discovered that the culture was a poor fit. That experience sharpens one of the episode’s most practical ideas: interviews can give you clues, but culture is something you eventually have to experience in behaviour, relationships and everyday norms.
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06
What kind of culture serves you?
“I think it starts with knowing yourself.”
For Ron, evaluating culture starts with self-knowledge. What do you value? What kind of development matters to you? Do you want community, mobility, purpose, stability, compensation, autonomy? The clearer you are about your own priorities, the better questions you can ask of an organization.
Culture fit is not permanent. A workplace can challenge you, grow you, and feel right for years. Then the way people move changes. The question is not whether the culture is good or bad. It’s whether you can still find a rhythm you can move to together.