We don’t think of it often but, culture defines nations, neighborhoods, families …and corporate entities.
Starbucks and Dunkin’ have different cultures, for example.
Families differ culturally too…
And, every marriage merges two cultures.
When we spent Thanksgiving with one of my relatives, my dad would grumble all the way home.
“It makes no sense,” he would say with an eye-roll, “Why would anyone serve Jello at a holiday meal?”
Culture is a set of ideas that affect our behavior in certain ways.
It’s shared information and values….stored mostly in our brains.
(Yes, it’s also stored in libraries and museums.)
Some of these stored ideas are clear and explicit. Others, not so much.
They’re vague and few ideas last for long.
Most simply disappear.
But when an idea is exceptional (good or bad) it gets embedded and resistant to change.
Like long-lasting relationships, long-lived ideas start to shift too.
When the shift happens…and it always does…perhaps the most important question to ask is,
How do we make things better?
