We recently reviewed an article on Psychology Today, written by Carlin Flora in 2017. The article was titled, “Moderation Is the Key to Life”. Do you think it is? Flora writes a compelling article citing strong sources. The examples within discuss a balance demonstrated by an inverted “U” shape used by researchers. Each end of the inverted U shape is one spectrum of the extreme. The middle portion on the top is the “sweet spot”, or area of moderation. Carlin basically states that outcomes for a person are rarely as good when consistently on either one of the spectrums. In the middle, all is “juuuust right”. This goes for health, love, and career. Interestingly the article is summed up by saying, “be moderate in moderation”! So, can culture become too much? Yes, pushing the extremes could backfire!
Some people can take ideas and philosophies to a passionate extreme. There certainly is societal pressure and consistent messaging stating that more is better. For example, pushing for more “likes” on your profile picture on Facebook, or and Instagram post makes one’s life better. Running 20 miles per day is better than 3 for health benefits. Or watching the news multiple hours every day during the COVID19 pandemic for the latest updates makes you better informed and equipped. Again, there are pressures and influences in society that create the feeling that more is better.
It’s not! Pushing hard for “likes” on social media (especially in adolescents) could lead to a depressive effect if they aren’t attained. Running 20 miles per day can lead to injury as there is a diminishing return for health benefits. Watching the news during a period like the COVID19 could lead to intense anxiety and panic, yet not necessarily more informed. Culture is no different. In fact, when there are intense pressures about a particular culture, some devastating behavior can occur.
Let’s focus on one particular case for a minute where a culture ultimately led to massive corporate fraud. Do you remember the corporate cross-selling scandal with Wells-Fargo bank that likely over one million customers were defrauded? A Vanity Fair piece written by Bethany McLean brilliantly summed up this situation which dives into the particulars of how this scandal unfolded. McLean mentioned that she interviewed the former CEO, Dick Kovacevich, of Wells Fargo in 1998. Kovacevich is documented by McLean saying that the banking business is exactly like retail. For example, their lingo was, “bank branches were “stores,” and bankers were “salespeople” whose job was to “cross-sell,” which meant getting “customers”—not “clients,” but “customers”—to buy as many products as possible.”. According to one Norwest Executive (Norwest merged with Wells Fargo by which Kovacevich remined CEO), this approach was “…like a religion. It very much was the culture”. It is interesting that the term religion was used by the unknown former Norwest executive to describe that culture. Religion is a such strong belief system of ideas, philosophies, and ways of living. It is a belief so powerful, that people have died over it (over thousands of years to current!).
The concept of moderation as mentioned in the beginning of this article is totally dismissed in the Wells Fargo example. Wells Fargo carried a religious-type culture in their total sales division that it led to millions of people ultimately defrauded. McLean wrote in her article that Wells Fargo had certain mottos that were frequently communicated and delivered like, “Do what you need to do, but don’t get caught”, and “the incentive to cheat is based on the fear of losing jobs”. These are specific cases where extreme culture is preached too much. There is so much pressure on people, and the messaging is driven in so hard on such a frequent basis. Culture” turns into “cult-ish”. There is a difference, and this organization that pushed to the negative extreme found it backfired in a big way.
Let’s jump into another example. How about the 2019 college admissions scandal that rocked the media? It’s tough not to forget this one! The scandal was not surprising to many, and Creator Of Culture feels that this news worthy scandal was likely just a backfired symptom of an overall higher ed admissions culture. According to Scott Cohen, President Emeritus and University Chair at Tulane University, in his post on HigherEdToday, “Willingly or unwillingly, any institution that competes in higher education’s arms race is guilty of contributing to the current admissions culture. The tendency of many schools to boast about incoming classes, the number of applications they receive and students they reject, and their spots in highly questionable rankings, as well as pursuing the increasingly common practice of recruiting students from families with the right networks and deep pockets—have gotten us into this mess.” Cohen says that college admissions is liken to an arms race! An arms race? Wow, that is an extreme position of competing on the most critical of environments. He suggests that there is a more extreme-type culture that has permeated across higher ed in regard to admissions. Higher ed institutions are competing so hard against each other for students (revenue) and the culture has deviated towards acting in questionable ways to boast public perception. This self-defeating type culture became too much in this sense, it backfired, and probably will continue to backfire until a better version becomes embraced.
The previous two examples highlight cultures that probably began with positive thoughts in mind, leading to positive results, but somewhere along the journey became demented. Let’s end with a final example that started out positive, remained positive, have well intended method of operating, but are viewed as too extreme. Thus, leading to a negative backfire.
CrossFit® is an organization / program that allows for various “affiliates” nationwide to provide participants a unique way of exercising. Their exercise program consists of nutrition guidance, high repetitions, body weight, and various Olympic lifting routines that roll-up into an overall lifestyle. The “lifestyle” has allowed people to lose weight and get in shape quickly. There certainly are benefits when proper form, baseline strength is already obtained before beginning, and proper rest is given in between. However, the extreme “lifestyle”, or culture, has led to human injury and sickness as well.
In a study titled, “The Benefits and Risks of CrossFit: A Systematic Review”, conducted by
Jena Meyer, MSN, Janet Morrison, PhD, and Julie Zuniga PhD, this concept was looked into. What the group concluded was that CrossFit was comparable for injury rates than other comparable forms of high intensity exercise. However, they did cross examine another study[1] that compared CrossFit training with American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) training guidelines. That study concluded that “those individuals who train with CrossFit can expect greater post-exercise pain than they might experience with other exercise routines. The study suggested that “athletes should scale their training with planned rest cycles to avoid overuse and prevent injury”.
Overuse can be very common in CrossFit (and other forms of extreme intensity workouts). An article by the NY Post links a potentially fatal condition called Rhabdomyolysis (or Rhabdo for short) to CrossFit. Rhabdo occurs when there is extreme overuse of the muscles leading to severe breakdown and leakage into the blood stream. Their research links back to the above study we just referenced and more. There is documentation of posters of “Uncle Rhabdo” on walls of many CrossFit facilities. Getting rhabdo is almost a badge of honor in a way, even if your kidney’s fail. In other words, the potential of getting rhabdo is real, and the culture is well aware of that possibility, yet is acceptant of that backfire.
So how do you tone culture down if it exists on a consistent basis? The first thing is to never let it get to that point! Nip things in the bud early when there is a sniff of extremism that could extend to long term. How do you nip it in the bud? Influence. The message that “this approach may not best for the whole group and not everyone feels a certain way”. Explain, that one can’t force feelings or approaches on people and expect them to automatically feel the same way. Again, the key is to not let it get to a point where it becomes too extreme and cult-ish.
These negative and positive intended examples above are good to reflect on when one thinks about culture. Moderation is key, and extremes (positive or negative) could backfire. This is not to say an occasional sliding on the scale one way, or another will backfire. In fact, occasional, intense passion is good!
[1] Drum, S. N., Bellovary, B., Jensen, R., Moore, M., Donath, L. (2016). Perceived demands and post-exercise physical dysfunction in CrossFit® compared to an ACSM based training session. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness. Advance online publication. Retrieved from http://www.minervamedica.it/en/journals/sports-med-physical-fitness/article.php?cod=R40Y9999N00A16021203