I want to discuss organizational culture.

I am currently at my 3rd job. I worked at a construction company and a property management company in Malaysia, and I am currently working at Stax Asia , a management consulting firm based in Sri Lanka.

Naturally, I've noticed that every business I've worked for has a unique culture. And I've always been curious about how to alter an organization's culture.

Recently, I had the privilege of listening to the Harvard Business Review podcast where Gregg Urban - anthropologist at the 美国宾夕法尼亚大学 - articulated how to create and change the culture of organizations. This podcast was an "aha" moment for me. It aided in my comprehension of the subtleties and complexity of organizational culture.

?Here are some key takeaways from the podcast:

?The culture of an organization is a complex, intangible thing. You can't put a finger on it.

?Culture comes from many people interacting over time.

?In order to change the culture of an organization, you need to have the following:

• You need to have a collective vision to move the organization in a better direction.
• You need to understand the habits that already exist when creating this vision.
• Culture moves through time and space.
• You need to tap into what motivates the workers.

Given the complexities involved, organizations can't use a boilerplate approach when building a culture.

?Local cultures form around teams, and there can be small groups within these teams with their own cultures. (This is what I call cliques)

?When re-inventing the culture the entire organization matters. All levels should be involved and the impact should be felt across all levels.

?At the end of the day, culture has to:

• Help achieve the organization's main objective.
• Help people to get along. (A culture should not break people into small tribes/cliques)
• Help people progress. (Everyone wants to get ahead, and organizational culture should empower this)

Source: https://hbr.org/podcast/2021/06/what-anthropologists-can-teach-us-about-work-culture