
Katie O'Brien
General Manager of Human Resources at Komatsu UK Ltd, manufacturing HR leader and workplace culture expert
2
APPEARANCES
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Jul 23, 2026
Changing Culture in a 100-Year-Old Manufacturing Business
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Mark BracknallHOST
They've got a lot of people who've worked in that organization a long time, and that is, and unfortunately, a lot of those skills are going to walk out the door, and there's that other argument about succession planning, but How do you start to change a culture or tweak a culture because it's not something you can necessarily change overnight?

Katie O'BrienGUEST
Yeah, the way that we've been, that we approached it was, so when I started, we did a, we started leadership development training for a number of reasons, but we did.

Katie O'BrienGUEST
And then sort of as we started through that for the first – after the first few modules, we kind of had a pause and said, okay, what do we think our culture is? We did the insights survey.

Katie O'BrienGUEST
So we all did our surveys, and we found that a lot of the management team were very blue and red.

Katie O'BrienGUEST
So we kind of stopped and thought, okay, well, what impact does that have on the organization? If we're very task-focused, there's not that many people who are people-focused – what's the impact it's like well maybe people don't feel like they're particularly like they're focused upon um and so we as a leadership team then recognized that we needed to change the culture so that was the first thing kind of getting everybody bought in but i i believe that the biggest change in a culture is how you are led day to day i think that's going to have the biggest um and the biggest impact on engagement and commitment um Because if you're led well and you're treated well, that's more likely to be the reason that you stay than anything else.

Katie O'BrienGUEST
But also then becoming more and more conscious about those decisions that we're making.

Mark BracknallHOST
Which way have you done? Have you almost created your own leadership school or have you gone through official qualifications so they have X, Y, and Z?
The Mandalorian's Katy O'Brian Reveals Gross Secret About Star Wars | Grave Conversations
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11:16
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Katie O'BrienGUEST
I think a great wardrobe informs the character in a way that maybe you didn't.

Katie O'BrienGUEST
One of the things about Jackie in Love, Lies, Bleeding was I was so much more exposed than I've ever been in public and around a whole film crew.

Katie O'BrienGUEST
It was interesting because it was a measure of extreme confidence because I had to display that.
10 MINS LATER
21:12
Make them cry and laugh, or none of those things, up to you, and absolutely, it's really none of my business, okay? Are you ready? Deep breaths, and three, two, and a one, and a die.