Sculptures as systems: The Wharton BC leadership walk that rewired how leaders saw culture
Wharton’s Sculpture Walk was less of an art installation and more like a boardroom stripped of walls. Conceived as an exercise in applied cultural systems thinking, it translated governance theory into something leaders could pace through, rather than page through.
Sculptures, arranged in deliberate sequence, formed a cultural circuit. Each was a standalone metaphor, but also a functioning node in an interlinked system. Together, they surfaced blind spots, stress-tested governance, and mapped directly to board-level decision levers.
The format resisted the easy consumption of a slide deck. Leaders had to move, shifting vantage points and by extension mental frames. Reflection became unavoidable, cultural intelligence, tangible. Every step between the works was a synapse in a live network, connecting ideas into an adaptive organisational model.
The sculptures themselves were chosen for their ability to expose the unspoken: power asymmetries, tacit norms, the politics of decision-making. This was organisational life, made visible in steel, stone and space an architecture of culture you could walk through, but not walk past.
Across the walk, works ranged from Sean Henry’s Homer, a lifelike yet fictional figure that challenges how we perceive leadership reality, to Damien Hirst’s Trust, an unflinching exploration of the fragility beneath espoused values. Tarik Currimbhoy’s Phoenix demanded new vantage points, while Laura Ellen Bacon’s Awake wove tension and connection into a single form. Historical artefacts like the 19th-century clock and plate warmer spoke to the invisible systems that sustain culture; David Williams-Ellis’s Ram invited scrutiny of the forces behind visible strength;
Each sculpture operated as both metaphor and mirror – a way for leaders to see their own organisations differently.
The result was a shared journey that turned abstract cultural theory into something tactile, visible, and fodder for useful discussion. The walk itself became an act of integration: linking insight to action, and individual reflection to organisational change.
Essentially what we wanted to encourage was leadership pattern recognition in physical form; to think of each sculpture as a neuron – a compressed symbol carrying data about trust, legacy, voice, or perspective. The walk between them was synaptic firing – linking ideas in real time. And the role of the participants was to map the neural network by connecting these metaphors to the lived reality of their organisation.
The sculptures as live metaphors for transformation
Sean Henry ‘Homer’
Do we really see the people in front of us for who they are?
Henry’s Homer appears familiar from a distance and at first glance recognisably human, lifelike in scale and stance, yet as you come closer you notice he is taller than expected, cast in bronze, and deliberately fictional – not a portrait of a real individual. Henry constructed his figures as composites – ‘invented’ people, assembled from fragments of many. This creates a subtle yet critical tension for leaders: the figure feels “real” enough to trigger our assumptions, yet it was entirely constructed.
We often operate from an idea of people – shaped by job titles, reputations, behaviours, words and our biases – rather than engaging with reality and staying curious about who they really are. When you strip away projection, you unlock more accurate assessments, better succession decisions, and richer cross-functional integration.
Disruption, in this context, was the moment of realising that our perceptions were constructs. Connection was the act of setting those constructs aside to meet the reality underneath.
In cultural integration work – whether post-merger, cross-functional, or global/local – Homer is a reminder that role labels and organisational diagrams are not the people themselves. Effective integration demands engagement with lived reality: How will people be impacted by the change? What pressures shape decisions? What form is needed to be successful?
Homer appears still, perhaps even reflective or watchful. In culture work, especially at senior leadership level, stillness and presence are often underrated capacities—essential for sensing what lies beneath the surface but also time for space to think, reflect and action.
Damien Hirst ‘Trust’
Do we maintain trust, even when under pressure?
Hirst exposes fragility beneath the surface – a reminder that declared trust is not the same as demonstrated trust. Trust is the architecture of culture – it is not just a value, it’s the invisible structure that holds everything up. Psychological safety, transparency, and integrity are all invisible until tested.
Under pressure, espoused trust often collapses if it hasn’t been deliberately built and maintained. In the system, trust is the stress-test node.
Disruption is making the gap between stated values and lived behaviour visible. Connection is rebuilding trust on a foundation of honesty and consistency.
In regulatory environments or during organisational change, untested trust creates conduct risk. Leaders who over-rely on declared trust signals – rather than verifying it with evidence of behaviour – risk masking cultural decay.
Trust is a governance issue, not just a cultural one. Leaders must operationalise it through explicit checkpoints in governance, risk and compliance to protect both reputation and performance and avoid conduct risk.
Let’s not forget that Hirst is known for confronting us with what lies beneath: anatomy, vulnerability, risk. In culture work, this mirrors the tension between surface behaviour and underlying dynamics. What truths are unspoken at the executive table? Trust allows for truth-telling and constructive challenge.
Psychological safety depends on trust — yet many leadership teams operate in environments where candour is costly. Boards must ask: how safe is it here to challenge, to admit error, or to bring discomfort to the table?
Laura Ellen Bacon ‘Awake’
Are we evolving and repurposing our culture to keep pace?
Laura’s woven willow holds through the tension and interconnection of the weave – representing the importance of connection in culture and inter-relationships.
This woven form feels alive — like something coming into being. Culture, too, is dynamic and evolving. leaders must stay attuned to what is growing at the edges, not just what is already codified.
Once the sculpture has served its purpose as a piece of art, Laura dismantles the willow structure to be repurposed as wildlife habitat – symbolising that culture and purpose evolve with its environment and market needs – how do we evolve without erasing our roots? Strong cultures adapt by transforming legacy into foundation. What was once core to an organisation’s identity can nourish the next stage if dismantled with intent. Disruption is the willingness to unweave what no longer fits. Connection is ensuring that legacy continues to serve, even in a new form.
In many culture change projects, we are asked to keep ‘the secret sauce’ of the company, ‘the magic that has made us who we are’. We help organisations navigate towards what they need without losing the essence of who they are.
In post-merger cultures, elements of both legacies can be repurposed to serve the combined entity. Wholesale rejection wastes resilience embedded in the old structure. Transformation without respect for legacy breeds resistance; reverence without adaptation breeds stagnation. Legacy elements should be deliberately repurposed during integration, so resilience is retained while outdated structures are dismantled.
Tarik Currimbhoy ‘Phoenix’
Are we laser-focused or seeing the wider context?
Currimbhoy’s sculpture includes an intentional aperture that invites new vantage points – a portal through which to view the world. For leaders, this becomes a metaphor for external awareness. Are we keeping sight of what’s changing around us, those external factors influencing culture — or are we just reinforcing what we already know?
The precision of the structure and the layers of form illustrate how we measure culture – blending art and science (psychology, sociology, neuroscience, and human insight) to create meaning from data.
As the name suggests, ‘Phoenix’ evokes renewal. Renewal here is structural, not cosmetic. Leaders often rebuild within the same mental frame, producing change that is aesthetic, not substantive. In organisations, cultural transformation requires more than surface shifts; it demands deep structural and behavioural change. What are we willing to let go of to truly rise?
A vibrant culture listens, learns, and adapts — continually informed by the world beyond its walls
Disruption is burning away the frame that no longer fits. Connection is reconstructing with an outward-looking lens aligned to current realities.
In AI adoption or digital transformation, narrow framing risks optimising for outdated priorities. ‘Phoenix’ challenges leaders to recalibrate the frame itself.
Strategic renewal demands a shift in perspective before a shift in structure. Transformation initiatives should be tested for framing bias before structural changes are implemented, to avoid re-engineering outdated priorities.
Sophie Ryder ‘Girl with Knees Up’
How are we telling stories to bring our culture to life?
When you look closely at Ryder’s masked sculpture, you see pieces of the sculptor’s life literally cast into the bronze – each embedded fragment carrying a story. Storytelling is a vital part of communicating and reinforcing the culture you are shaping or the behaviours you are intentionally stepping away from. For leaders, the discipline is to curate and test these stories against behaviour—inviting frontline accounts and checking the “story–do” gap—so narrative functions as a governance control rather than a veneer.
Ryder’s sculpture merges realism and abstraction, creating a figure that is both individual and symbolic. Leaders must consider the individual within the system: how do we hold space for complexity, contradiction, and emotional truth?
The posture — self-contained, resting, perhaps reflective — invites a reconsideration of what strength looks like. Stillness here is structural, not ornamental. Whereas Phoenix breaks frames through fire, Girl with Knees Up restores them through composure. In cultures that equate productivity with constant motion, the capacity to pause is a frame-breaker of its own—safeguarding endurance instead of eroding it.
Disruption is redefining resilience to include recovery. Connection is embedding restoration into the frame of work itself, not treating it as an afterthought.
In high-growth or crisis contexts, structured stillness creates vantage points leaders often miss in perpetual motion. Just as the Phoenix teaches recalibration of perspective, Girl with Knees Up insists that endurance is inseparable from recovery. Both remind us that structural renewal requires not just fire but also pause.
David Williams-Ellis, ‘Ram’
Do we understand what is going on behind the scenes?
The Ram projects power, presence, and determination. These are qualities often admired in leadership. But without reflection, such strength can override collaboration or nuance. What happens when assertiveness becomes dominance? What invisible forces drive visible strength?
The artist is obsessed with beauty ‘round the back’, yet the sculpture was positioned to overlook the event from behind the boundary lines – only accessible to those with private access. Front-stage performance relies on backstage systems, processes, and unspoken norms. Critical to understanding your culture – and to driving change – is noticing what is going on behind the scenes, ‘when no one is watching’. Culture isn’t a beautifully presented set of values; it is the reality of what is happening on the ground, what drives decisions, behaviour, and conduct, and which assumptions and beliefs hold true.
The ram is also a symbol of instinctive drive, but organisations must ask: are we charging ahead because of momentum, tradition, or true strategic purpose?
Disruption is naming those hidden drivers. Connection is aligning them with the outward narrative.
Translating metaphor into leadership action
We were keen not to use art as an icebreaker, deliberately choosing works that could create cognitive dissonance, not small talk.
These weren’t static lessons either – the same piece provoked entirely different, equally valid insights depending on the lens applied by the artist, curator or attendee. They were not purely metaphorical either: each reflection was tied to cultural levers, leadership frameworks, and measurable shifts in behaviour. For leaders, this isn’t academic; it’s a reminder that culture work benefits from multiple, disciplined vantage points.
One of Wharton Business Consulting’s core beliefs is that culture work is a multi-lens discipline. You can’t diagnose, integrate, or shift culture effectively through a single vantage point. The Sculpture Walk made this tangible: each piece became a live prompt to apply the same analytical breadth we bring to boardroom and transformation work.
The systems theorist’s view
Systems thinking focuses on patterns, flows, and interdependencies. In Bacon’s Awake, the woven willow is more than material, it’s a physical model of how cultures hold together through tension and mutual support. In Hirst’s Trust, a systems theorist would look for points of fragility – weak links that could collapse the whole structure under strain. Systems thinking enables leaders to diagnose where cultural pressure will build or release, and design interventions that change the system, not just the symptom. In WhartonBC terms, this is cultural architecture. Bacon’s Awake physically model interdependencies and balanced tension that, if managed well, create adaptive strength.
Hirst’s Trust exposes points of fragility in those systems. For WhartonBC, this is a case study in mapping the flows, bottlenecks, and pressure points that integration strategies must account for.
The behavioural scientist’s view
From a behavioural science lens, the sculptures are projective tools. Leaders’ instant interpretations reveal their own implicit biases, assumptions, and priorities. This makes the walk a real-time bias audit. The insight is that leaders can only manage culture if they are aware of the cognitive filters through which they view it and how those filters differ across the leadership team. We know from our leadership diagnostics that unconscious bias shapes more decisions than most leaders realise. Here, the sculptures became projective tools: leaders’ instant interpretations surfaced their filters in real time. This aligns with WhartonBC’s practice of using experiential exercises to bring implicit assumptions into conscious view so they can be challenged and recalibrated before they shape integration or change outcomes.
The historian’s view
For a historian, the walk charts the tension between tradition and transformation. Classical works like Henry’s Homer speak to inherited forms of leadership, while modern disruptions like Currimbhoy’s Phoenix and Bacon’s Awake embody the forces challenging those forms. This lens reminds leaders that culture change is rarely about erasing the past; it’s about reframing it for a new era. Institutional evolution depends on understanding which elements of heritage anchor resilience and which have become anchors holding the organisation back. WhartonBC’s integration playbooks treat legacy as both an asset and a constraint. The juxtaposition of classical works like Henry’s Homer with disruptive forms like Currimbhoy’s Phoenix mirrored the institutional tension between tradition and transformation. The lesson for clients is that effective culture change respects heritage without letting it harden into inertia a principle we see as critical in post-merger identity work.
The risk manager’s view
From a governance and risk perspective, the sculptures are stress tests in physical form. Ram becomes an operational due diligence exercise: what invisible forces drive our apparent strength, and are they aligned with our declared strategy? Hirst’s Trust is a conduct risk case study, does the architecture of trust hold when tested? This lens translates cultural observations into board-level risk controls and governance levers. At WhartonBC, we link culture directly to governance and risk. Ram is operational due diligence in sculptural form: what unseen drivers underpin apparent performance, and do they align with strategic intent? Hirst’s Trust poses the conduct risk question: will the trust architecture hold when tested? WhartonBC frames culture as a living system of meaning. Disruption cuts the connective threads; integration reweaves them. The Sculpture Walk’s sequence from legacy artefacts to disrupted classical forms to stripped-back essentials mirrored the cultural rewiring we guide in transformation and integration contexts. The anthropological lens reinforces our belief that integration isn’t just process alignment; it’s narrative reconstruction, ensuring people recognise themselves in the future state.
The anthropologist’s view
Anthropology treats culture as a web of shared meaning, rituals, and symbols. Disruption is what cuts those threads; connection is how new ones are woven. The walk’s progression from legacy artefacts to disrupted classical forms to stripped-back essentials mirrors how cultural narratives are deconstructed and rebuilt. For integration work, this lens is vital: you’re not just aligning processes, you’re reweaving the story people tell about who they are and why they belong.
The walk was more than a curated experience; it was a diagnostic tool for integration, culture change, and leadership alignment. Whether you’re navigating a merger, embedding AI, shifting board dynamics, or tackling conduct risk, the sculptures provide a shared vocabulary for complex realities. They translate intangible cultural forces into visible, discussable form.
Culture is notoriously hard to measure, harder still to change. But leaders shape it every time they choose where to look, what to question, and what to preserve. Wharton’s Sculpture Walk collapses the distance between theory and practice. It invites you to see your organisation’s culture as a living system, interconnected, adaptive, and shaped as much by what you choose to notice as by what you do.
For Wharton Business Consulting, the power of the Sculpture Walk was that it modelled our multi-lens approach to culture: analytical breadth, pragmatic linkage to governance and performance, and an insistence that insight must translate into behaviour and integration outcomes.
Photo Credit: Harvey Horswell Ltd
