Ocean Energy Pathway
Defining a Culture to Drive and Support Growth
The Challenge
Ocean Energy Pathway (OEP) is a global non-profit organisation formed in 2023. With a secretariat office in London, it operates worldwide and aims to unlock offshore wind opportunities in response to the climate emergency.
At the time of partnering with Dragonfish, OEP had a team of 14 and a bold ambition to grow rapidly on a global scale. With the immense potential of offshore wind and its pivotal role in helping to shape the future of ocean-climate solutions and energy, the team positioned themselves to help governments worldwide unlock the sector’s full potential.
The organisation aimed to establish a clear culture foundation and blueprint to ensure consistency and to drive performance across the current team, while also inspiring and enabling future members of the team. Additionally, OEP aimed to identify the plans and actions needed to activate and fully embed this target culture.
The Intervention and Solution
What we did: Overview
OEP partnered with the culture and performance consultancy Dragonfish to guide them through a rapid 7–8-week process, resulting in a Culture Blueprint. This blueprint included their vision (where), purpose (why), mission (what) and values and behaviours (how), all designed to support their strategy (what).
Key to maintaining the pace of this process was a deep dive into OEP’s existing and emerging culture, combined with a clear understanding of its current context. We achieved this by engaging with every team member, as well as some partners and trustees. To ensure confidentiality and encourage honest feedback, we offered one-on-one conversations and an online survey. The survey also began to capture metrics that OEP can use in the future to track their culture. This, along with a thorough review of strategies and existing documentation, provided a clear understanding of the organisation’s current culture and aspirations for its future.
What we did: Phase One
The next step was the first of three Labs, starting with the leadership team. This session focused on defining the Vision, Purpose, and supporting Mission, which are critical to providing clear direction for any organisation—especially a new one like OEP. Our own independent research outlines the importance of a well-defined direction, both internally and externally. During this session, the leadership team aligned on a clear articulation of these elements and explored the importance of creating a customer definition, given the complexity of OEP’s customer and partner landscape.
What we did: Phase Two
The second Lab built on this foundation, engaging the entire team to explore their culture through current strengths and the aspirational behaviours needed to achieve their vision and purpose. This dynamic and collaborative session surfaced a range of perspectives and opened up dialogue, something team members noted had not happened in this way before. After the session, we connected with team members who volunteered to play an active role in shaping the culture. Together we shared the first draft of values and behaviours, refining them and creating space for collaboration and ownership, while ensuring alignment with the leadership team.
What we did: Phase Three
The final Lab focused on creating an activation and embedding roadmap for the Culture Blueprint, making the activities meaningful, tangible, and practical. We brainstormed activities and actions suited to OEP’s size and stage, providing an opportunity to intentionally shape their desired culture in an inclusive manner. We also explored ways to measure progress and success. Following this session, we developed a comprehensive guide that included the Culture Blueprint, a detailed roadmap with specific activities and actions, and measurement scorecard recommendations. This ensured the handover was thorough and allowed the team to take action and full ownership of their culture.
Throughout the process, our aim was not only to deliver a Culture Blueprint but also to upskill the team and create shared ownership. This approach helps ensure the culture change is sustainable and can be driven internally over the long term.
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The Impact
Measuring Success
While we are in the early stages of the project and OEP is a young organisation, there are no metrics changes to report yet. However, during the project, we captured the first results from their people around Customer Advocacy, Brand Commitment, Customer-centricity, and people-related metrics around Trust, Growth and feeling Valued. which will serve as a baseline for OEP to track and measure progress and success in the future.
Co-Creation is Key
Throughout the project, we provided every team member with a space to share their thoughts and, in some cases, their concerns. This approach brought important issues to light, allowing them to be addressed not only by dragonfish but also by the wider OEP team and leaders.
A particularly important impact of the process has been the strong sense of shared ownership it created. We firmly believe culture should be ‘created with, not done to’ a principle often overlooked when it comes to leadership teams. This methodology creates more openness and transparency and builds trust. It also ensures a sense of ownership, where people can see the impact of their contributions. Most importantly, this significantly increases the success of activation and embedding, as individuals are more likely to invest effort into bringing the culture to life.
Inclusive & Collaborative
Another key positive impact was bringing the team together for the first of many opportunities to discuss the emerging culture and envision what they would like to see moving forward, a significant milestone in itself. The gathering also created more opportunities for connection, relationship-building, and openness among team members. This intentionally collaborative approach also generated tangible actions for the team to carry forward into 2025, particularly as it embarked on a second wave of recruitment.
OEP’s journey toward a clear, inspiring, and unified Culture Blueprint highlighted the value of collaborative efforts in defining a framework of values and behaviours. This inclusive approach, paired with impactful communication and leadership engagement, will help ensure adoption and resonance across the organisation. By aligning with strategic goals and fostering a shared understanding of values, Ocean Energy Pathway is laying the foundation for a high-performing team committed which is critical to its strategy and aims, in order to deliver their important work in the world.
“Throughout the project, the team supported us with flexibility and understanding, adapting to our needs and the pressing demands of this time of year. Strengthening our cultural blueprint during Phase 1 was a great foundation, but the real value came in Phases 2 and 3. That’s where we focused on defining the key behaviors and embedding them into our ways of working. This not only brought our team closer together but also helped us create new, more effective ways of working.”
Vivienne Evans, Chief of Staff
"Defining a scalable culture is absolutely critical to the growth and development of our organisation. The wider OEP team's support has been invaluable in helping us build a culture that will enable our success on a global scale."
Charles Ogilvie, Executive Director