The Culture Investment Program (CIP) is King Saud University’s structured, long-term initiative to intentionally shape and embed a shared institutional culture that supports its vision and ambitions. CIP focuses on strengthening KSU’s identity by co-defining a clear purpose, culture pillars, and behaviors that are not only articulated, but lived and experienced across the University. As KSU evolves, CIP ensures that KSU’s transformation is human-centered, reflecting how students, faculty and business support staff experience daily life at the University. The program is grounded in deep engagement with the KSU community, capturing authentic perspectives to understand today’s culture and define the culture KSU aspires to build for the future.
Objectives
Establish a shared and authentic cultural identity across students, faculty, and business support staff.
Co-define and embed clear purpose, culture pillars, and behaviors that guide everyday decisions and actions.
Strengthen beneficiary-focused service, passion, innovation, respect, integrity and transparency across the University.
Translate cultural aspirations into tangible experiences, practices, and ways of working.
Sustain cultural change by enabling continuous engagement, measurement, and evolution.
Phases of CIP :
Imagine:Program launch and community listening
✓ Program launch across KSU.
✓Listening sessions with students, faculty, and business support staff.
✓ Engagement of leadership and frontline representatives.
✓ Open discussions on KSU’s current and future culture.
Evaluate:Understanding today’s culture
✓ Surveys and interviews across key stakeholder groups.
✓ Assessment of current culture and lived experiences.
✓ Identification of strengths, gaps, and priority areas for change.
Inspire:Defining the future culture
✓ Co-definition of KSU’s purpose, culture pillars, and desired behaviors.
✓ Identification and engagement of Culture Shapers.
✓ Workshops to translate culture pillars into observable behaviors.
✓ Definition of culture priorities and success indicators.
Mobilize:Putting culture into action
✓ Launch of pilot cultural initiatives and quick wins.
✓ Activation of leaders and Culture Shapers as role models.
✓ Embedding behaviors into formal and informal practices.
✓ Tracking progress and collecting continuous feedback.
Empower:Sustaining and evolving the culture
✓ Integration of culture into everyday ways of working.
✓ Ongoing pulse checks and behavior measurement.
✓ Sharing success stories and reinforcing positive change.
✓ Continuous refinement as KSU’s transformation progresses.
Institutional culture refers to the shared purpose, values, behaviors, and ways of working that shape how people across KSU interact, collaborate, and make decisions. It is important because a strong, unified culture enhances belonging, improves communication, and supports the University’s transformation by aligning everyone towards a common purpose and identity that enables the University to reach its vision and ambitions.
CIP serves as the cultural enabler of the University’s transformation. It focuses on embedding positive behaviors, strengthening engagement, and building a sense of community.
CIP aims to improve the daily experience through service, passion, innovation, respect, integrity and transparency, and encouraging behaviors that create a supportive and engaging environment. It also increases opportunities for involvement through its Culture Shapers program, allowing individuals to contribute to shaping KSU’s culture.
The KSU Strategy defines how the University will reach its vision, achieve its priorities and performance goals. The “Our KSU” Transformation Program is the umbrella ecosystem that brings together major initiatives such as strategy, corporatization, and the CIP. CIP is a focused component within this ecosystem dedicated to strengthening behaviors through the culture pillars and associated initiatives to ensure transformation is embraced and sustained across KSU.
Empowering the KSU community to shape culture from within. The Culture Shapers Program is a key pillar of the Culture Investment Program, designed to activate a diverse network of students, faculty, and business support staff across King Saud University who shape, champion, model and help embed the desired culture. Culture Shapers play a vital role in translating KSU’s purpose, culture pillars, and behaviors into everyday actions across the University in a practical and people-centered way.
Spotlight : KSU Culture Ignite Week
What was Culture Ignite Week?
The Culture Ignite Week was a three-day event with four interactive workshop corners, UNITE, CREATE, INSPIRE, and UNCOVER, designed to bring stakeholders from the KSU community across all colleges, departments, and seniority levels. The purpose of Culture Ignite Week was to co-create KSU’s culture by uncovering the shared purpose, values, and behaviors that unite us, and envisioning how they come to life through everyday actions, rituals, and moments inspired by the culture we aspire to build.
Culture Ignite Week in numbers: 2,000+ data points collected.
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participants
workshops
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