Week 4 - HOW Expectations Continued
Lesson 13 How We Do Things Around Here
You may hear people say, “we have a great culture” or “the culture is bad here.” Often when drilling down to ask what makes it a great culture, it can be difficult for people to explain.
The culture pyramid is a useful model to understand how a culture works. As mentioned in Lesson 6, culture can be simply defined as “how we do things around here.”
Working our way from the bottom of the pyramid
We experience something by observing what people say or do
This creates a set of beliefs, something that we hold to be true
This in turn influences our actions, what we say and what we do
Which finally leads to results
Beliefs and experiences are the head and the heart of a culture and things you don’t see. The actions and results are the hands and feet and what you do see. The experiences we make, create beliefs which lead to actions. These three factors are what make a culture.
A belief can start to change by either providing a different experience or through new information. An example of the latter is if someone starts to be late for work, we could think that they are lazy or disorganised. We then find out that they are caring for a very sick family member and having to juggle hospital visits. New information can completely change our perspective, which is why it is important to challenge assumptions by asking good questions of oneself and others.
Activity
On Page 22 of your Black Workbook
Write an experience you have had in the organisation where you work? e.g., attended a staff conference or offsite where everyone was invited no matter what role they held, and were encouraged to connect with everyone
Note a belief that you have had because of this experience? e.g., the company culture is inclusive
Which of your Top 5 Strength Themes do you think this Belief relates to? How? Refer to Page 7 of your White Workbook, the report My Signature Themes Motivations Report, and the rows I Love and I Hate e.g., CONNECTEDNESS as connections between people are important
What is the action that you could start, or repeat moving forward because of this belief and leveraging the Strengths Theme above? e.g., invite different functions to the meetings you are coordinate
What is the anticipated result of this action? e.g., knowledge at the table which makes for better informed decisions.
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