Who is « We »? That is the question when addressing the company’s culture.
Company’s culture utility and benefit are a challenging question. Is company’s culture a good thing or a trap for creativity and evolution ? Both of them depending on the way you interpret the culture’s term.
From the « We are » culture…
On purpose, Geoff Marlow questionned in a post the nature of the « We » to which a culture is refering.
Indeed, any « Culture » is refering with a « We » and all is about the definition of this « We ». Insightfully Geoff Marlow stated that this « We » can lead to a great fragmentation inside the organization and result in a silo’s way to divide so called « cooperators » in silo’s defenders.
Far from this, a real culture is an openess not a retrenchment behind strong defensiv walls.. Otherwise this so called « culture » in not a culture but a Doxa. Real culture requieres openess to others points of views. That does not mean to accept them without any questionning. Culture requieres to be connected to ones environnement and to take care of it. It is in no sense a moral question but merely a pure logic matter of course.
… to the « We contribute » culture.
The only way to prevent a company’s culture from becoming a doxa is to extand the « we » of the compagny to its whole ecosystem. Ideally but unfortunately not naturally, the « we » is to be considered extanded to every counterparts of the compagny. And what is an ecosystem if not the system, which the company is the center and of which the company’live depends to survive and to foster. So culture (in its quiete agricultural meaning) is, and must be the way, a company take care of its (main) conterparts in an ecological effort to preserve and develop its own eco system.
Once considered like that, the « We » of your company’s culture is no longer an egotist, defensiv and depletiv concept but, far from that, a powerful and vital(ist) concept fostering your company’s constant evolution and development.
To deve into it, you can read one of my articles devoted to this theme: « The ecology of you company’s ecosystem »
