“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 and pride in our heritage. 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 as I opened myself 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 culture question: "What matter most around here?" Followed by: "Give me an example." This is culture in action. Everybody knows what matters, because regardless of people say, what matters is what gets rewarded. 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.
