Chartering Culture Clash

What one word would you use to describe your business culture?

Is your culture deliberately curated or did it just ‘kind-of’ happen?

Do you have a unified culture or pods of culture through your business?

Culture is all around us. It is easy to not even see it for the most part. The movie “Soul” captures this beautifully with an anecdote: “I heard this story about a fish, he swims up to an older fish and says: ‘I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean.’ ‘The ocean?’ the older fish says, ‘that’s what you’re in right now.’ ‘This’, says the young fish, ‘this is water. What I want is the ocean!’” 

Every family, group, team, business, country has a culture. For most these morph into a known and accepted ‘way we do things around here’ without any question as to why. When one challenges the “why” or tries to replace it or alter ‘the way we do things’ it creates tension. One only needs to look to previous generations of children to see how each generation questions the current culture and forms its own.

Do any of your team members clash?

Do any of your departments not get along with another department?

Does it sometimes feel like a “them and us” scenario?

Culture can be impacted by many things. New people coming into a team; new systems, new leadership styles and direction. Any change to “the way things are done” creates unsettledness and uncertainty. I experienced ‘culture’ shock when emigrating from Zimbabwe to New Zealand. It was easy to assume that as both countries were previous British colonies and spoke English, everything would be the same. It wasn't. From the way ‘hot dogs’ were eaten, to the etiquette of not sitting on tables through to how the language was structured and delivered, everything felt different.

A short time ago we were privileged to visit Waitangi. The presentations of the different cultures is done so well that it is easy to see why there were (and are) clashes and misunderstandings. From basic belief structures - ‘The people belong to the land’ vs ‘The land can belong to an individual’ - through to varied nuances respect, rights and norms, it is easy to see how conflict occurred.

Cohesive cultures afford people the luxury of feeling secure. Safety, security and clarity in a positive environment encourages people to be the best they can be. When people know what is expected and know that everyone around them is operating by the same standards, it releases courage, creativity and confidence that can exponentially grow an organisation.

This is why people look for the ideal culture. But rather than something that is found, culture needs to be made, curated, moulded. Like the fish looking for the ocean, when we see the water that is there, we can then work on ensuring that the space we live in is clean, healthy and good for us and others. You can create your ideal culture - it starts by accepting the challenge, taking an honest look at what you have and deciding on what you actually want!

Here’s to your success!