Liselotte, you have had the opportunity to work with HR in many different organizations; what drives and motivates you in your career choices?
My biggest driving force is to be in a company where I have a mandate and the opportunity to drive my function. The culture needs to be characterized by curiosity and humility, that is the most important thing! I choose leadership that harmonizes with me. DENSIQ and our owner Latour AB offer this to the highest degree.
Customer focus, sustainability and forward thinking permeate our culture at DENSIQ. Decisions must be made where the business is. At the same time, we want to create efficiency and competence transfer between all parts of the company, so it's a fine balancing act in our strategy.
You and your colleagues at DENSIQ are working to build and shape a group of companies with operations in many countries. An important part of this is shaping a common corporate culture; how do you think and act in this work?
We have an aggressive growth agenda; through acquisitions, we can offer a totality in our industry and we have a good position in the market. Our company culture is crucial to our success.
The level of maturity, the size of the countries and business, and cultural aspects determine the structure we choose to manage the company. How we are perceived internally and externally is also an important tool. We have developed key words with concrete behaviors linked to them, for example that we challenge ourselves by admitting mistakes and that we do what we said we would do. Driving culture work also requires unified and strong leadership. Specifically, we work with:

Apply structured communication and do it over time. We have spent time within the company defining how, when, in what forum and why we should communicate. Drum on.
Don't assume - Dare to ask! Everyone has a responsibility to find out what is going on.
Time, patience and perseverance - running a culture project takes time! What we are working on now will probably only fully permeate the organization in three years.
Manage by objectives, processes and performance, not results. Results and performance are often interlinked (but sometimes you can perform "at your best" in the specific situation you find yourself in, but the result may still not materialize).

You have worked in several "traditionally male industries"; what advice and tips can you share from working on developing corporate cultures in homogeneous structures?
I personally believe that heterogeneous groups that find their common denominator will always be most successful. That is not to say that it is easy! I both belong to a homogeneous professional group (HR) and have worked in homogeneous structures in the workplace, which has provided many interesting reflections on my own prejudices and biases. However, I really want to emphasize that the right skills always come first.

Create an awareness in the organization you work in and start by reflecting on the language. It is common to refer to a manager or salesperson as he and to a payroll administrator as she.
"Don't judge!", but talk openly about structures in the workplace, it will start a change. The history and tradition a company carries is beautiful and is there for a reason. But is it still so and what do we need to do to keep evolving?
Dare to be the one who "puts a damper" on the atmosphere by being the "party killer", so to speak. The reward will be respect, trust and grounded, good conversations. You may say what no one else dares.
Think about the jargon. Joy is important but sometimes feel it; does everyone think it's fun, are some perhaps more "on the joke table" than others, etc. Do a social review. Joke at your own expense, it's always the funniest.