Culture has two parts - the visible and the invisible . The visible has to do with the office plan , dress codes and the general day to day rituals of the team . While this is good , we must never forget that the visible is always driven by the invisible and the invisible is driven by a belief system . What we believe ultimately is what determines what we do .
The task of the culture change expert is therefore to work on belief systems . During a world cup match , fans from Japan cleaned up the stadium after their match . There was no reward for doing this and neither was there any consequence for not doing it . They did it because it was their way of thinking . It was driven by a belief system . It was cultural .
People walking along a corridor having loud conversations are most likely going to lower their voices once they see a sign indicating they are walking past a library because we have grown up with the belief system that a library and its environs must be quiet places . Someone who has no such notion concerning a library will not see it that way .
So , as a leader , what signs are you putting up for people to read ? Another word for this is CULTURE . What culture have you put in place ? Can your culture deliver your expectations for your organization ? Don ' t fight behavior . Fix Culture .
The US elections gave the world drama like nothing else before it . At a point it looked like the president was reading straight out of an African strongman ' s playbook . Never in recent history has there been an election in the United States where words like rigging and vote stealing , vote destruction and the threat of violence been an issue .
It was so bizarre seeing an American election where no one was sure of what will happen even when you have a clear winner according to the votes that had been counted . The call for recount after
To attempt to drive culture only from the visible and physical will not achieve desired results . It has to be driven from a mindset perspective . Actions have to be the expressions of belief systems and not just obeying instructions from above .
recount kept coming from those who felt that a disservice had been done to them .
This election was the first in so many respects and if the things that happened were happening in any other country , America would have shouted out their regular threats and they would have reminded such nations about choices having consequences and the need to preserve democracy and honor the will of the people . Now here it was , happening in an American election .
A strong man believed that everywhere he won , the elections were free and fair and everywhere he lost , the elections were rigged . It did not matter that in some places where he lost the presidential vote , his party still won the senate and house votes . He could not come to terms with a vote against him and so he was ready to derail the whole system just for that purpose .
Eventually , the system won . Cases were tossed out of court and even people who voted for him and who were members of his party had to act in favor of democracy even where it went against their candidate . The White house was eventually given the go ahead for the transition process to begin and so things gradually went back to what the world was used to which is an America with a seamless transition of power .
You will never know the strength of the system until a demand is made on it . For a system to stand up to powerful - very very powerful people is a testimony to the efficacy of the system and the power of the culture that is driving the system . The truth is that if what happened in the United States happened in some developing countries , the strong man would win . The systems in many nations do not have the muscle to stand up to power .
I think that the biggest lesson for us from the US drama is that without the establishment of strong institutions , the very foundations of a nation can be threatened . Strong institutions are the surest indicators of a working nation . It is very important to note that strong institutions are not built by issuing decrees or by wishful thinking or committees . Strong institutions are never built by partisanship and politics .
Strong national institutions are built with a bigger picture . The picture of nationalism over partisanship . The culture of patriotism and loyalty to the constitution must overwhelmingly supersede the culture of partisanship and loyalty to a political party , an individual or to self-interests . Strong institutions are the visible expressions of strong cultures .
As mentioned earlier , culture has two parts - the visible and the invisible . The visible has to do with the office plan , dress codes and the general day to day rituals . The invisible is a belief system that influences behavior . What played out in America is a culture so strong - a belief system so strong that a judge can say
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