Go to work. Look around you at the cast of characters who make up your professional existence. Inevitably, it’s a rather random (perhaps even motley) crew. And let’s face it, for the most part you had little to do with choosing the overwhelming majority of these people. It’s almost as if a plane crashed on an island and whoever was on the plane now is your new culture, your new community.
So now you’ve got each other and little else for your daily survival. That’s just a fact. This begs some serious questions. But I have one large one that I’d like to proffer:
IF THE CREATION OF A CULTURE IS LEFT TO CHANCE AND ACCIDENT, IT WILL INEVITABLY SKEW TOWARDS THE NEGATIVE.
I’m obviously not the first person to make this suggestion. Remember Lord of the Flies anyone? But I want to think of this within an organizational context. For the most part, I think organizations do a shockingly haphazard job of intentionally creating culture. Think about it. In a school setting, by the end of the first week of school kindergartners know how to raise their hands, stand in line, and listen politely. They have a natural pattern and language to their day. We’ve even told them the rules for going to the bathroom. In other words, we assume that since they’re little kids, we need to teach them explicitly what we expect of them. If left to their own devices, it might not be a pretty picture.
But adults in an organization? That’s a different matter. We’re apt to throw a bunch of random adults into a workplace and ASSUME that they’re mature adults who will play nicely with one another and learn over time what the cultural mores are. Phooey! Hogwash!
That’s a horrible assumption! Adults aren’t always mature. And left to our own devices, I’m afraid that our cultural practices are as likely to lean negatively as they were for Piggy and Jack and anyone not holding the conch.
So question #1: Am I wrong to say that without being intentional and daily about developing positive cultures that adults will turn negative?
And #2: How intentional is your organization in purposefully connecting the adults who landed on your island?
Please note, I’d love to be told I was wrong.
