Importance Of Culture
Why Is Culture Important?
Culture brings the past into the present and projects it into the future. Culture reinforces
precedents and carries forward tradition. Culture provides for stability and continuity, and in
that way can be a very good thing. Culture can also resist change and innovation, smothering
personal freedom, creativity, experimentation, and progress. In business, company culture can
cut both ways. If the external realities are fairly stable, and the company has a strong identity
and culture that is in alignment with those realities, then culture contributes to success. However,
when external circumstances change dramatically, requiring equally substantial change within
the company, a strong culture can often interfere with the company’s ability to adapt. Unless
the culture is one that values rapid response, creativity and innovation, and readily embraces
change, quite often culture gets in the way of a company’s ability to change
Prerequisites For Fast, Effective Change
Any time we set out to accomplish dramatic, rapid change we’ll be swimming upstream against
culture—history, habit, customs, values—and an unbelievable set of arrangements that were
designed for another time and another context. Many people in the company will have personal
stakes in keeping those arrangements just as they are, regardless of how badly they fi t present
realities. Virtually no one readily and willingly gives ground when personal stakes are involved,
and many will have a strong sense of entitlement to the benefi ts of “things as they are.”
In addition, while constancy and familiarity may be boring to some, to many others it’s reassuring
and comforting. Many employees resist the idea of disrupting the stability they’ve grown
used to; never mind that underlying that “stability” is a deep vulnerability created by changed
circumstances. Finally, some—perhaps many—by virtue of unwillingness or inability, will be
unable to meet the demands imposed on...
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