Welcome,
Culture Shaper!
Wondering if you are a Culture shaper?
Odds are if you found your way to this page you are.
Just to confirm, how much of the following have you experienced?
You see very clearly what others can't ( or won't) see -- and this can be frustrating for all parties involved.
You feel as if your ideas, insights and perspective don't get acknowledged -- or even heard.
You feel like a fish trying to swim upstream only to feel battered by pushing against the cultural currents in your organization.
When you call BS or point out where projects seem pointless, urgency is questionable, and "inclusion" is just a buzz word used as window dressing for business as usual, you're labeled as not being a good team player or deemed "not supportive."
You have been working to change your internal Culture, the relationship you have with yourself.
In short, a Culture Shaper is anyone who sees change is needed in how interactions occur (including with themselves) and how things get done. Why this is more than behavioral change:
Culture is the shared set of customs, beliefs, attitudes and practices that shape the characteristics of a group of people. This includes shared values and goals.
So you see or sense change is needed, right? But just slapping new procedures or guidelines on top of an established set of practices or attitudes won’t work…at least not until you are able to shift the established attitudes, beliefs and values underlying the old ways of doing things.
In other words: Reshape the foundations on which Culture stands and persists.
However — knowing that something needs to change but lacking the understanding of how Culture works will set you up to feel as if you are continually throwing yourself against walls. This is exhausting and disheartening, and erodes your self confidence.
Let’s talk about
why this is.
Culture is like a river, picking up and carrying anything in its path. It has momentum and force, and will relentlessly push (and buffet) whatever stands against the river’s currents. Consider how smooth and polished river rocks are after they’ve been tumbled over time by the water. This is okay for rocks, but really hard on humans.
Being a Culture shaper means your life has called you to stand like a boulder in the river’s currents.
But notice:
The boulder does not fight the river. It does not make the river wrong or rage against the river.
The boulder does not try to stop the river or divert its flow.
But – in standing – something happens: The river, when unable to uproot the boulder and carry it downstream, must flow around the boulder.
Because the boulder stands…simply stands and is what it is…the river is changed.
The Boulder simply stands and the river is changed.
However - When the boulder stands in the face of the river's pushing, turbulence occurs. If you don't understand what is going on when you find yourself in this turbulence, it can be exhausting and confusing, causing you to doubt yourself and the path you are on.
So how can you be the Culture shaper you are called to be AND not get ground down in the process?
Reframe
See the turbulence through the lens of the river metaphor to help you reframe what you are experiencing. Turbulence may be required as a part of the transition from old culture to new, so don’t make yourself, the situation or others wrong..
Be the boulder
Learn how to stand firmly in the turbulence and cultivate your “boulder-ness” so you can stand without being damaged in the process.
Build capacity
Developing your ability to stand, and to be objective and discerning in the process, means being intentional about developing the capacities you’ll need as a Culture Shaper. Options for supporting yourself as you grow your Culture Shaper capacities include:
- Check out the Challenge Chronicles, a series of articles designed to offer perspective and tips for how to meet challenges from within new paradigms.
- Remember that culture shaping begins with your internal personal culture. Odds are, you’ve already been working on this. Add intentionality to this process. Identify the capacities you need to develop in order to be the boulder in the river.
- Explore and cultivate new kinds of conversations. Remember: We can’t build tomorrow’s culture with yesterday’s perspectives, so that means new language and new ways of interacting – with ourselves and each other.
If you are ready to enlist aid as you advance your awareness and expand capacity, find the support that will work best for you.
Let this be part of your exploration: Find a coach for individual or group coaching so you have a container, a safe container within which your journey can be supported, facilitated, recognized and celebrated.
Being a Culture Shaper can be exhilarating and incredibly fulfilling. It can also be scary and isolating when you’re the only kid on your block who sees things the way you do.
This is why support and community are essential. Trying to go it alone make an already challenging path even more so.
If what I’ve said here resonates for you, The Resilience Lab may be just what you need. This group coaching program is designed to help people like you:Build the capacities needed to walk the Culture Shaper’s path and thrive while you do it.
Be in a supportive community where your growth is championed and reflected by your co-journeyers in this adventure. It means a lot knowing you aren’t alone along the way.
Interested?