“The only thing worse than learning from experience is not learning from experience.” – Unknown
I’ve been in Waikiki for the last two weeks taking some time out for some rest and relaxation. Hawaii is our travel destination of choice for those times when we need to chill out and just enjoy lazy days of shopping, swimming, eating and drinking. It’s far enough away from Australia for us to enjoy and experience another culture but also close enough to home (only a 10 hour flight). However, many other Australians share the same idea judging by how many of them are here.
Last night, we went to Germaine’s Luau. Leaving aside all the kitschy, touristy elements of this event which showcases the tradition of the luau – a feast where people gather to enjoy a meal, the event was somewhat educational. Of course, at these events meant to show tourists some elements of the folklore, traditions and culture of the island together mingled with an ‘all you can eat’ buffet meal and ‘three free drinks’, you can see enough culture from the audience later on in the night after a few Mai Tais.
But all joking aside, there was one part of the show that made my ears prick up. The MC had invited an audience member to the stage to learn the hula dance by a buxom wahine (woman). Of course, to make it interesting for the audience, he threw in various innuendos much to the amusement of everyone there but at one stage he turned to the young man chosen and explained that he was going to learn how to dance a traditional dance from the Hawaiian culture.
He said, “After all, culture cannot be learned, it has to be experienced.”
He then went on to say, “Hawaiians did not have a written language and the way people learned was through observation and actually doing.”
“Just observing, doing, practice and through stories,” he added.
This has been an interesting observation of my time here learning how the Hawaiians passed on their traditions and folklore over generations despite the many different cultures living in Hawaii today. Story telling was an important way to ensure that the Hawaiian wisdom and knowledge of the land was continued through the generations so that they could continue to take care of the oceans and natural resources on the islands.
It got me thinking about organisational life today especially when many organisations implement cultural and change programs which invariably fail.
Is what he said correct? “Culture cannot be learned, it has to be experienced”.
The Business Dictionary defines Organisational Culture a the “values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organisation. It includes an organisation’s expectations, experiences, philosophy and values that hold it together and is expressed in its self-image, inner workings, interactions with the outside world and future expectations. It is based on shared attitudes, beliefs, customs and written and unwritten rules that have been developed over time and considered valid”.
When I think about the culture – I also think of my own heritage and values. I was born in Australia to parents who migrated from Greece. Despite attending Australian schools and having a relaxed lifestyle that blended both worlds, I grew up surrounded by Greek customs, traditions, religion, food and language. Now, I connect with others who have shared a similar experiences as I had.
At times when I had some difficulty in my life, such as being away from home for extended periods of time, it was meeting people who came from a similar background to me to ground and reconnect me. I felt I was ‘home’.
Similarly, a few days ago, we took the elevator down to the hotel lobby and the doors opened to many uniformed Naval officers, Lieutenants and Lieutenant Commanders sitting in the reception area waiting for check in. As I walked slowly through the lobby, I looked at their insignia and spotted Royal Navy, Brunei and United States Navy (I was searching for the Aussies). I was sure they were here for the upcoming major exercise RIMPAC which will commence later this month. I had a tinge of nostalgia maybe even jealousy – I could have been one of them sitting there.
Instantly, I felt the same connection to them because I had share in the past, I had the same experiences.
Once again, I felt I was ‘home’.
I wore the same uniform, I wore the same rank, I worked with the same Navies, I behaved in the way the organisation wanted me to behave, I understood innately what was happening. The unexpressed and unwritten connection once again that meant that we had shared a similar cultural experience.
Would you feel ‘at home’, an instant connection with the organisation you work for?
Why do senior leaders lament they can’t create an organisational culture? Is it the hierarchial structure at fault or is it something else?
I have been through many cultural change initiatives in organisations but frankly, I can’t remember them. They failed to make a memorable impact and connect me with the key messages. Many of them had fancy words, slogans and catch phrases (one I do remember was, “Change is Goodness“) that promised much but delivered little. More often than not, I saw our own organisational leaders not practice the behaviours they espoused (different rules for different people which eroded trust, loyalty and respect) and it left the message vacuous leaving me disengaged or apathetic towards any change initiative.
Also, all of the cultural change initiatives involved waves of mass registrations to presentations and workshops delivered by external vendors where we were trained on how to behave and how our performance was aligned to the behaviours expected.
So maybe this MC at Germaine’s luau was right? Culture can’t be learned – it has to be experienced.
Maybe it’s time to stop enforced cultural change programs and instead, get people to start talking and sharing.
Using social networks and tools that will allow them to share their knowledge and build upon their networks so that they can align their own passions to the organisational purpose; to narrate their work so that everyone can see how their small part of the organisational puzzle fits in with the broader strategy and shared purpose.
What do you think?
Stimulating post Helen. I work by a central tenet, which is ‘you are the culture’. If individually one adopts this approach, it gives a sense of control over shaping a culture. It is the driver of leadership behaviour. Narrating one’s work and working socially are examples of leadership behaviour in action.
The alternative is to be a passenger, a victim perhaps of other’s notions of culture. Not many people consciously want to work in a negative culture, but ownership of it takes self awareness, confidence and an action bias.
An organisational definition of desired culture (and rollouts, coaching, etc to support that) has a role to play to give the confidence. Perversely, social working and learning is increasingly providing the new aspirational culture definition anyway. It just hasn’t reached the people who feel they need a roll-out.
Thanks for the comment Paul. “You are the culture”. That’s an excellent point and one I can relate to. Only when I was exposed to these new ideas through various bloggers who write about future work and new social learning, did I realise that it was up to me to change my mindset, be more curious and not rely on my managers to have all the answers. I had to take charge of my own development and career. In the process, I have come across many people and had stimulating conversations where I’m learning all the time. It’s been a liberating experience to take action.
Hello Helen!
Lucky you, travelling abroad. Very envious!
I enjoyed reading this entry. I love the fact that people can understand, on an intuitive level, what we mean when we say ‘culture’, but fail to find a precise definition for it. It’s akin to the cloud analogy; you see the cloud has shape, yet you cannot grab hold of it. Ever elusive.
“So maybe this MC at Germaine’s luau was right? Culture can’t be learned – it has to be experienced.”
Well… because culture can be such an intravenous web of sociological, psychological, physiological, phenomenological, and ontological expressions of the human condition, there is opportunity to learn ‘culture’ in a variety of ways – experience being one of these. Contextually speaking, however, I can see MC’s point, and it follows somewhat similarly to a Chinese proverb I once read long ago (I’m sure you’ve heard of it):
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand”
Culture invariably involves actions, actions that are laden with meaning. Will learning the Hula teach you something about the culture it comes from? Perhaps, but it is a step towards gaining cultural capital. (Oh boy, I could get lost in this).
Returning to organisational culture, I can relate to your experiences, Helen. There’s no point bleating to employees what an organisation’s culture is and then expect them to adopt the ‘culture’. That’s an arguably crazy way to get employees to learn. In my mind, to be effective, organisational culture must be lived, not read about or watched in a video. Learn by doing so that they can understand why they do what they do. Then slowly, enacting habit after habit of desired behavioural expressions (small steps!), an organisational culture may be realised. Or maybe not.
It really depends.
I can see that organisational culture initiatives will have to compete with existing cultures and subcultures that individuals and groups bring to the workplace that may be embedded in gender, ethnicity, socio-economic status, etc. That can be tough!
And then to muddy the water some more; organisational cultures are only as successful as the packaging of the work experience allows. But I digress …
(Yes, I’ve encountered many a team leader that has failed to practice what they preach – which is a shame, because an organisational culture is supposed to be unified in its performance).
Where I work, intra-social networking has helped overcome barriers such as a lack of accessibility and visibility of other departments. We are able to talk, share stories and share information, as equals, which in turn facilitates some of our desired behaviours expected from the organisation. SN is a great aid for realising our organisational culture!
Thanks for the though-provoking post, Helen.
Wow, what a comment – have you considered blogging? You should as it was a thought provoking and meaningful comment about your observations and experiences of culture. Thank you for replying to the post and providing further analysis into culture having to be experienced and not learned. It’s an interesting observation that you make that “to be effective, organisational culture must be lived, not read or watched in a video” but too often change and culture programs involve just that – throw in a workshop and voila – job done! I believe we’re missing the mark here. In my experience, like yourself, I have experienced the culture of where we work more through the networks and collaborations with others across business unit that started from a mutual or shared interest that we connected through Yammer. It only sparked the conversations and the ideas and re-engaged me with the purpose of my work in the wider scheme of the organisational strategy. For once, I saw the part I played because I was allowed to find this out for myself and not through a program, an intranet message or a video podcast of a senior leader telling us what we should be doing or behaving.
Since the post, I have been invited to speak at a conference in Canberra in September around organisational culture and admittedly this post and the comments provided will make up the ideas that have been mulling around in my mind but link it to how Learning and Development (because that’s my skill) can support and role model the social learning behaviours to connect people within the organisation and get them thinking outside the box of just developing and mass rolling out another 2 day cultural change program or some such.
Hi Helen,
just discovered this post (was looking for the Third Place post on your site…). Great post and comments! I’m thinking of a post Simon Terry wrote about the same time where he says: “Networks don’t create a community. They only connect people. Conversations create communities.”
I’m wondering if that is the case, then – drawing from your post – stories create / build culture? Stories, folklore, narratives passed down through generations are hallmarks of most (all?) cultures; and organisational narratives often embed a lot of the tacit knowledge people have about how things are done, workarounds to processes that are never formally documented…though I see processes like working out loud, blogging and microblogging as potential means by which this type of tacit knowledge might be documented (perhaps informally, rather than ‘formally’?) in the future.
Thanks for as usual a stimulating and enjoyable post. I really do enjoy your stories and reflections!
Stories are a huge part of this Tanya. When I look back at my career, the only place that was rich in stories and where I truly enjoyed the interaction with others was in the military where it’s just part of how they connect as teams or units. My first reaction going into the corporate world is that I remember that people didn’t often share their stories – when they did though, the dynamic of the room changed – people opened up and it’s what I remember what they did simply through the stories they said.