Culture in Practice

A Delight@Work Case Study with AIGS In June, we explored the relationship between culture and values. While these two concepts can exist separately, real change happens when they work together intentionally and consistently. Values are the starting point, but they only become meaningful when they are understood, practised, and lived every day. That is when they move from being words on a poster to becoming a lived culture.

Of course, that is often easier said than done. Many organisations can describe the culture they want, but the real question is: how do you make culture stick? This case study shares the AIGS journey and how a simple idea, “Creating Delight at Work”, helped shape a culture that is practical, human, and deeply felt inside the business.

Case Study: The AIGS Delight@Work Journey

AIGS was founded in 2010 and is the appointed distributor of Progress software in Sub-Saharan Africa. The business has always placed a strong emphasis on personalised service, partnership, and keeping customers at the heart of what they do.

The Challenge: Turning Values into Everyday Behaviour

When I had been consulting for about a year, CEO Rick Parry approached me about a programme he believed could add real value to one of my clients. The programme was called Delight@Work. It offered an online, easy-to-use, cloud-based solution where employees worked through a series of conversational coaching guides designed to support sustainable behaviour change.

The purpose was simple, but powerful: to help create a work environment that felt delightful for employees and, from there, build a customer-centered culture from the inside out. I carefully worked through the programme and began to see the value, but we needed to test it in practice. Rick decided to use AIGS as the case study, and that is where my journey with Rick and the team began.

The Approach: Online Learning, Real Conversations

The Delight@Work journey covered 18 values, or “Cogs”, which employees worked through on the system. Each Cog guided the individual through a coaching process, with questions and reading material designed to encourage reflection, learning, and practical application.

We paired the online journey with monthly team workshops. Each month, we focused on two Cogs and unpacked the values, actions, behaviours, team experiences, and learnings connected to them. Every workshop ended with practical takeaways for the month ahead. The most important part of these sessions was creating a safe space where the team could speak openly, honestly, and without judgement.

At first, some team members admitted that the process felt uncomfortable and even a little scary. Over time, however, the workshops opened lines of communication that were more honest, more human, and sometimes filled with laughter at each other and themselves. The laughter mattered too, because it was not about judgement; it was about learning together.

The Shift: Culture that Became Visible

As I connected with current and past employees for this article, the feedback was remarkably consistent: Delight@Work did not only influence their working lives; it filtered into their personal lives too. The comments that were shared during the interviews were “The positive energy internally carries through externally”; “Leaders must drive culture and values; they need to be the example”; “We are all people, and we all have similar experiences and challenges”; and “We all have different cultures and upbringings, but the Cogs put it all together for everyone to understand and live.”

One member of the management team noted the particular impact the culture and Delight@Work programme had on younger employees and those entering the workplace. At AIGS, culture is not treated as a big, abstract idea. It goes right down to the small, practical behaviours that shape professionalism, such as how to conduct yourself in a meeting or the importance of being present on a video call. It may sound simple, but strong cultures are often built in the small moments.

The AIGS team has created an environment where people are encouraged to be themselves, to be authentic, and to contribute in their own way. They strive to make sure clients feel seen and heard, and they consistently go the extra mile. The company also places attitude before aptitude, believing that technical skills can be taught, but a healthy culture fit matters deeply. In practice, that means people step up to teach, support, and learn from one another.

The Impact: From Programme to Practice

One of the most significant learnings I took from my journey with AIGS is that Delight@Work and the AIGS culture were never “skin deep”. The learnings became behaviours, and the behaviours began to define habits. Many employees acknowledged the personal changes they experienced over time, and those changes were noticed by their families, friends, and communities.

One of my favourite examples came from Gertrude, the AIGS tea lady, who asked whether we could teach Delight@Work to her community because they had seen how she behaved and wanted to be more like her. That moment stayed with me. It showed that when culture is lived authentically, its impact can travel far beyond the walls of the workplace.

I saw the AIGS culture at its best again at the end of 2025, when I had the privilege of attending their year-end function. After a fun team-building activity, we ended the day with a picnic. As everyone gathered under a huge tree for lunch, I watched as the team naturally moved their blankets and chairs into a circle. Nobody was left out. Conversations flowed around the circle, and everyone was included. It was such a simple moment, but it said a great deal about the culture.

Key Lessons from the AIGS Case Study

What I have learnt from working with AIGS is that culture starts with leaders who are willing to drive it intentionally and consistently. It also needs open and sometimes candid conversations within the team. Over the past 10 years, I have seen that when you get culture right internally, it is seen, felt, and rewarded through the working relationships it creates and through the way customers experience the business.

• Values only become meaningful when they are practised consistently.

• Leadership must model the culture, not simply talk about it.

• Safe spaces for honest conversation help teams build trust.

• Small behaviours matter because they shape the everyday employee and customer experience.

• When culture is authentic, it can influence life beyond work.

  
  

Closing Reflection

A huge word of thanks to Rick and the team at AIGS for allowing me to share their story as the final case study in our culture and values series. AIGS has shown me that building a business with a strong, open, inclusive, and truly delightful culture makes all the difference. It is not only good for people; it is good for business.

Congratulations to the AIGS team for standing out from the crowd and living by “The Golden Rule”. Should you be interested in seeing Delight@Work in action, please reach out to me by email or WhatsApp.