A famous quote, attributed to Peter Drucker, says: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
Culture is not limited to art.
Very often, when we talk about culture, we immediately think of music, dance, painting, traditions or artistic works.
But culture goes much further.
Culture is also a system of thought. It influences behaviors, decisions and even the way a people, a company, a community or a family interprets the world.
Culture shapes identity. It shapes beliefs. It even ends up defining what seems normal or abnormal.
In a culture where time is not very important, being late becomes a mere detail. It is not necessarily seen as disrespectful or an organizational problem.
In another culture, the same delay can be perceived as a serious fault.
This is where we understand that culture is not limited to what people sing, eat or wear. It is especially visible in what they tolerate, repeat and transmit.
A strategy can be good. A vision can be clear. A project can be well thought out. But if the culture of a people, a community, a family or a company does not support this vision, it will struggle to bear fruit.
One may want to build a just nation, but if the culture tolerates corruption, injustice will eventually become normal.
One may want a strong community, but if the culture encourages division, mistrust and conflict, unity will remain fragile.
One may want a clean city, but if the culture tolerates waste, the streets will remain dirty.
Strategy says: we want to change. But culture replies: we have always lived this way.
This is how culture can win. It often acts silently. It hides in habits, words, reactions, excuses and repeated behaviors.
A culture is therefore not only what a people celebrates. It is also what it tolerates. What we tolerate for a long time eventually becomes normal. What we repeat for a long time eventually becomes a tradition. What we transmit without questioning eventually becomes a mindset.
And a mindset can sometimes resist more strongly than a decree, a program or a speech.
How can we change a culture?
A culture is not built solely with speeches. It is built with what we teach, what we repeat, what we accept, what we refuse, what we reward and what we correct.
A culture is born when a way of thinking becomes a way of life.
Among the many ways to change culture, here are some leads:
- Define what must become normal
- Set the example
- Repeat until habits are formed
- Reward what must grow
- Correct, if necessary by sanction, what destroys
A culture does not change in a day.
It is built slowly, through repeated choices, consistent examples, assumed habits, clear rewards and just corrections.
A strategy can give a direction. But culture gives a way to walk.