Culture round up : Our learnings from 2023
Last year, I shared our learnings on culture from 2022. This year, we extended our work to a total 25 not-for-profits. Across causes, geographies and scale, we worked with them to resolve some of their most pressing people challenges.
Here are some of our key learnings, and real-life 'Case in Points' from those experiences.
If a challenge is persistent over a longer period, we are more and more sure that it has a cultural component. Cultural problems are notoriously sticky and shifting collective behaviours is hard work for everyone involved.
This year, we aligned our work to being more sticky-problem centric rather than doing culture in and of itself.
This made the value of culture more tangible. Solving problems that seemed to go on forever released new energy.
CIP : An organisation wanted to scale to a new location. It also wanted to build leadership to hold. It was repeatedly getting stuck in doing this. We resolved it by zoning into the founder’s mental models and how they were manifesting in a culture of centralisation at all levels.
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Culture is a psycho-technology i.e. technology in the realm of people. Cultural symbols, stories and rituals are to be designed and conducted by those who have authority from the collective. Typically, these are the oldest and most experienced members, who understand the value of tradition. When we come along and convert this into tools, we make this accessible to all.
How do we hold the sense of the sacred and reverence as we make culture design intentional?
CIP: We reclaimed an ancient cultural symbol and made it a learning framework for a collective. These type of actions were typically initiated by the leaders of the organisation. Now, they were starting to become open source. More members could also play with the power of symbolism.
In 2022, we spent time with NGOs designing intricate culture maps and wheels, doing audits and thinking through problems. This created a "professed" culture encoded in great language.
In 2023, we moved to designing through action. We did it with a participatory approach so that actions were owned and lived rather than imposed.
After all, it is not culture if someone from outside comes and ‘does’ it.?
CIP: We have several ideas that we can execute in organisations but we patiently nudge individuals out of their comfort zone to take them up. It is worth the wait.
If everyone’s not doing it, it isn’t culture yet.
We realised that what we were really saying was NOT that culture is the panacea to all problems. Rather, we were advocating a culture FIRST approach.
Culture FIRST because it starts with the deepest and subtlest layer of the collective.
All OD, L&D, talent, recognition, feedback and systems follow.
CIP: The range of work we are now doing has expanded to L&D, designing HR systems and strategic inputs. We stay grounded in culture and suggest from that understanding.
A lot of our work is about channeling organisational energy, What energizes an organisation involves sensemaking and taking small but powerful steps. Only those who are most embedded in organisations can create something that galvanizes the organisation and drives the energy.
Leaders need to stay tuned in to the energy and learn to keep playing with it.
CIP : At an NGO working with women survivors of domestic abuse, a weekly open space got initiated, which has now become a channel for feedback, sensing in and team bonding. The organisation is energized because of this new platform.
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In every system, there are forces that want the status quo. They resist culture work overtly as well as subtly.
When we enter these systems, we tip the balance in favour of forces that want change. There is a drag, a resistance that we have to overcome. At times, it is not articulated, explicit or even within the conscious process of the organisation. Without navigating these, change doesn’t really happen.
CIP: With every design workshop, we deal with cynics who have valuable points about what will really work. Only when we tap into their wisdom but also inspire them with home do our interventions truly succeed.
Very occasionally, we are prone to imposter syndrome, wondering whether what we are doing is even worthwhile. This is where measurements come in.
Rigorous measurements have helped us get a grip on what is going on in an organisation.
It is not always an improvement but it gives us a grip on reality and what seems to be going on as a result of our actions.
CIP : A recent measurement of culture showed us that some areas have actually gone down since we started working! Rather than seeing it as bad news, we were able to see what other factors were at play during the same time and came to some actionable conclusions.
Last year was about designing culture to meet strategic objectives and to operationalise it. This year, we realised that there is a dynamic interplay between these three and an ongoing rebalancing because each influences the other. The three need to have a creative tension as well as a congruence to be potent.
CIP : An NGO is innovating in its annual leader’s training keeping in line with developments in the sector. This in turn will impact its operations and strategy, both of which are also informing the programme’s design.
The 70-20-10 misses a very important source of learning: learning by taking actions within and on the organisation.
These actions help understand the politics of the organisation, tap into the organisational energy and understand what works in this system. No other form of training can impart these subtle learnings.
CIP : Individuals working in NGOs where we are intervening for the long run become more organisationally visible, astute and powerful just by the virtue of initiating new cultural actions.
Cultures rest on collective beliefs and no belief can stand the scrutiny of endless questioning.
Hence, culture has a component of faith.
It needs a little bit of a leap to say we believe this to be true (it may or may not really be). To that extent cultures become cults. If the questioning is disallowed then they become total cults. If they are allowed to keep evolving, they stay cultures. The line is thin.
CIP : An NGO which believes in putting India first, while the lived reality of the organisation is that there are several other considerations that keep coming ‘first’ from time-to-time. India first is a belief that sustains and holds them together.
Working with stories and archetypes seems to have an impact on how we approach our own lives too. And it is a mixed bag. We are able to spot stories and see how we are making meaning. We are able to frame ideas in ways that are compelling. Yet, we are also prone to the hubris of feeling powerful, when we are actually channels for goodness to manifest.
CIP : In my own relationships and decision-making, I can see that rather than rational analysis, I am picking out stories that I want to believe in!
In conclusion, this work is fun, sacred, valuable and potent all at the same time. It is creating opportunities for us to contribute in ways we would never have. We are looking forward to more of this in 2024.
Disclosure of interest:?
As a part of Wisdom Tree we do culture work, so there is a direct interest in and commitment to this work spreading :)?
Our dream is a thriving social sector and our hope is that these lessons, when applied will take us all towards it.