Time to ditch culture for community in change?

I still become surprised at how much airtime 'culture' gets as part of the change and transformation story. That we need to shift the culture, what the culture needs to be, how we must control and manipulate the culture into what works best for the transformation etc.

Frankly, this is unhelpful and at best confusing. Albeit quite a random reference point, I read a great article recently written by, none other than the Grand Theatre in Blackpoo l! It talks about how culture is a reflection of community and society.?It’s a great article because it doesn’t dilute the importance or value of culture – quite the opposite.

So, given this, should we be focussing on fostering and nurturing healthy communities that will evolve into a healthy culture?

Another thing that brings a smile to my face is when people try to manage and control culture in a way that seems to believe it is a single entity - a defined thing! The fact that there isn’t ever a single culture in existence seems to be completely overlooked!?When have you ever worked in an organisation that had a single defined culture – with no subcultures anywhere? No silo that seems to exist in a bubble. Seriously? That’s the thing, no matter how hard we might try to control, manage, develop, or manipulate a culture – there will always be spin offs, there will always be an underground to the overground

Back in May I published a newsletter talking about putting our efforts into fostering healthy communities, to have a better chance of healthy culture evolving as a result.

In that newsletter I talked about 4 principles to follow to help develop a sense of healthy community within a team, or entire system. ?

The last two principles were Feeling Good and Being Connected. These two factors are also the measures we use to assess the level of community within a human system at the start of a transformation journey. What we call a Community Index Assessment.

Just think about that for a moment. If you feel good, and you are connected, then things are probably going relatively OK for you. There is more to it than that – so let me expand:

Feeling good breaks down into three subcategories:

1. I can achieve success
2. My voice is both heard and listened to
3. I feel safe enough to fall and fly

They sound pretty basic, but believe me, getting the majority of people believing and evidencing these points can be an incredibly valuable exercise. Just for a moment consider these three points in terms of your own professional situation, right now…?

Next we break down connected into three subcategories too, thus:

1. I feel I belong here
2. I have access to who and what I need to thrive
3. I am supported and I can offer support

People score themselves against these 6 subcategories and then start to have conversations about the results.?The evidence of community within a team or a wider human system can make or break transformation. If people don’t feel safe, they won’t lean into difference, if people don’t have access to what they need, they won’t feel empowered to be the best they can be, and so on and so on.

Additionally, it can be valuable to assess the level of community within the change or project team too. Often, project and change teams are so driven by specified roles of expertise, it’s often forgotten how important the whole is to overall success. We are all paid to do the job we are experienced in, and we leave others alone to do the same. That doesn’t always breed a healthy sense of community.

So, next time you are part of a conversation that’s talking about culture,?stop and take a moment to consider what the level of community is first.

You can catch this week’s weekly leadership roundtable here too – where we talk about the value of community first to humanise transformation and accelerate success.

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