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Corporate culture is hard to define, yet, talked about it all the time. You have the macro-culture attempted to be outlined by Values, Ethics Charter, Vision & Mission statement.
Then we have the micro-culture that dominates organisations and, most of the time, detached from the macro one. Micro-culture is what we experience daily, the one that governs our daily actions and determines our experiences. Our experiences on the team and with our managers.
It is like a continuously cooked mixed soup, never ready because new ingredients are constantly added but only sometimes taken out. Sometimes it tastes good, and sometimes it doesn't, depending on the combination of all the ingredients.
The same happens to any team. Things we do today are the result of all the people who worked there way before us. Your work today is likely to be governed by policies and procedures created by somebody else who is no longer near the company. The behaviour that is accepted and tolerated today is the result of what has been tolerated before, slightly shaped by the new people on the team.
But do we ever stop and ask when the soup doesn't taste good, "What ingredients or their combinations are ruining this soup?" No, we don't. We might point at a few people, but that's not that really. For people to misbehave, there must be people who allow that. So one of the bad ingredients is letting people to ruin the soup.
We don't stop and review what soup we are currently cooking and what ingredients we may need to remove. We just keep adding..... Once, I asked my night manager why he was struggling with the night audit. He referred to a tedious SOP that was written six years before by the previous night manager. I asked him why he was following it instead of changing it. He had no answer, just like the monkeys in this culture video.
Enjoy, and start asking the question, "Why the hell are we doing this?" If you can't find a good enough answer, maybe it is time to change. Don't let to be pressured by your peers who are no longer there.
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