Localizing Organisational Change in Cultural Values

Keynote Session Description

What can we learn from indigenous culture about our perspectives on organisational change? How can we as organisational development practitioners apply these cultural values and knowledge in the work we do? In this interactive session, Native Hawaiian practitioner Ku’ulani Keohokalole will share insights and stories from effectively doing organisational change work in “non-traditional” ways, informed by cultural values. The talk will give specific examples from Hawai‘i, whilst extrapolating those values to ways that a global audience can do the OD work they do, no matter where they are located.

Speaker: Ku'ulani Keohokalole , Organisational Culture Expert & Small Business Entrepreneur

My Takeaways

One of the ideas proposed by Ku'ulani was that "place can inform" our organisational development practice. This idea made me think in three things in relation to our #Organisational #Development (#OD) work at Konsileo .

1. Consider the work culture of a country such as the UK. In my case I can compare this to my personal experience coming from Mexico, although I come more from the not-for-profit sector which takes me to my second point.
2. Consider the work culture of the financial, and specifically, the insurance industry in the UK. Although I have no experience in this work culture, I hear through all our new Client Directors during our induction and onboarding process about the (dys)functional practices in the industry.
3. It also made me think: "how can we ground our work in place when we are a remote-first company?" An interesting challenge nowadays in our hybrid working reality.

Another idea shared by Ku'ulani was the Hawaiian cultural metaphor of "way finding" (boat navigation) in relation to #OD. I personally have always used the metaphor of gardening with regards to #organisational #development, and I think it resonates with British culture; but we could also use walking, rowing or many other outdoors activities practiced in Great Britain. Other metaphors mentioned by participants in the conference were weaving (which reminded me of my home town in the state of Chiapas where indigenous textiles are so colourful), flow of water, and even composting (related to gardening).

Finally, and in relation to gardening and agriculture, Ku'ulani shared the image (see above) of a taro plant, as a cultural element indigenous to the Pacific islands, that could be used as an analogy to the health of an organisation with it different levels of artifacts, values and assumptions. In Mexico, the maize plant, or even better the milpa (which is biodiverse crop field that combines maize, chillis, squash, beans and many other possible edible plants) could be the equivalent. In the UK, an apple tree, or even better the village or town allotments can be a cultural equivalent to the taro and way of growing crops in Hawai'i.

So as we consolidate the culture of our company, how can we bring to it, or be inspired by, our daily cultural artifacts and traditions to build a even better way of working together.

Thank you Ku'ulani Keohokalole for sharing your life experience and local knowledge to everyone in the room.

#ODConference 2024 at Roffey Park Institute

This post in a very short summary and reflection of my main takeaways while attending the Annual OD Conference "Thinking Global, Acting Local" on the 24th and 25th of October 2024 at Roffey Park Institute as Head of Organisational Development at Konsileo. View more of my posts by visiting my profile: Allan Rhodes.