“A culture is a survival kit we inherit at birth.”
Culture
When I was young, I don't remember anyone talking about our culture, although I certainly knew what mattered and how I should behave, even when I didn't. We were an Irish Catholic family, not in a cliched way, yet it gave us structure. Church, Catholic schools when there were still nuns teaching, potatoes for dinner several nights a week and pride in our heritage. The neighbors were the Mooneys, the O'Keefes, and the McGees. The cultural rules were understood, if unspoken.
Moving to Southern California from Montana should have been a cultural shock. It was sunny and open, the population more diverse, however the priests at Our Lady of the Assumption were Irish and the rules among the families we knew were much the same as ours.
A junior year abroad in Bordeaux, France was a cultural wake-up call. How the French thought and acted about everything from the formalities of address to the centrality of well-prepared food, allowed me to consider my own culture background as I opened my self to France.
“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
Years later, working on marketing strategy with design firms, I came to understand the critical importance of firm culture. As Peter Drucker observed, "Culture eats strategy for breakfast."
My favorite question to ask firm leaders: "What matter most around here?" Followed by: "Give me an example." This is culture in action. Everybody knows what matters, because regardless of what senior management or the marketing materials say, what matters is what gets rewarded. The same is true outside of organizations. Across cultures what matters most is respected, encouraged and rewarded in dozens of different ways. A powerful culture creates an unfair advantage. That's why I come back to the questions again and again.
Dia de los Muertos
Entire families approach the graves, their arms overflowing with flowers: roses, chrysanthemums, cockscomb, marigolds, marigolds and more marigolds—cempasuchil, the flower of the dead.
Photo Credits: Times Square - Richard Edelman | Texas Cupcake - Matt Avignone