Do you think that is a bold claim? A “rebirth” and “revival” of culture as it relates to individuals, teams, organizations, and communities coming together to perform? CreatorOfCulture.com is confident that this time period is liken to a renaissance of sorts. Why? Global inter-connectivity. Global inter-connectivity / intertwining has grown significantly in the past two decades specifically in the areas of technology, supply chain, economy, and philosophies / approaches. Regarding philosophies / approaches specifically, hundreds of millions of people worldwide view things (sometimes very strongly) from different lenses yet are collaborating either by choice or not.
What is to be done? Setting the culture baseline by taking the “best in class” from various places and taking advantage of global inter-connectivity. We will ask this again, a “culture renaissance”? Yes, it’s here!
We were wondering if you caught the phrase above regarding “setting the culture baseline”. This is important. As mentioned, there are hundreds of millions of people globally, all living in different conditions, have had different experiences, see life, and see others through different lenses. Those are their “natural” cultures established and not necessarily by choice. These “natural” cultures are the norms and expectations one was raised by, lived in, and consistently reminded of. The culture as we are referring to with respect to the baseline, is the team, organizational, or community culture that is crafted. Crafted? Yes! Culture baselines need to be crafted.
Here is the interesting part. Natural cultures have both strengths and weaknesses. There are also many positives and negatives associated with each. One may wonder, “who decides what is a positive or negative, or a strength or weakness in a natural culture?” It can depend on who you ask, but it is typically the architect(s) of the culture baseline for that team, organization, or community that is(are) deciding.
Therefore, it is so important that the architect(s) of cultural baselines can see perspectives, philosophies, understand human cognitive functions, biases, and environmental conditions. These need to be understood before setting a sustainable, best-in-class culture baseline!
How do the architect(s) understand these areas? Education and experience simply. With respect to education, formal and informal objective training in anthropology is beneficial. Also, any formal and informal training around human cognition is worthwhile. This provides the understanding of who we are, how we are built, and why we operate the way we do. Knowing this is key.
Regarding experience, there are a lot of natural cultures in the world. There are many even within geographical area. Sometimes there are even sub-natural, offshoot cultures! Experiencing these firsthand can be a great way to gain experience. A close second (the category which many people likely fall into) is to be aware of and learn as much as possible from objective sources.
The architect(s) now is (are) ready to set the baseline culture! Best-in-class baseline cultures take the best from many natural cultures to apply within their team, organization, or community. Let’s see a couple examples driving home this point of taking the best from different sources to create their own system/way of operating.
Mauro Colagreco is considered by many sources and critics to be one of the best chefs (if not the best!) in the world. Colagreco is of Argentinian ancestry and began his career working in Buenos Aires before making his way to France in the early 2000’s to become part of the cuisine staff at various high-end restaurants. In 2006, Mauro Colagreco started his own restaurant called Mirazur. Mirazur has consistently been listed in the top 50 restaurants in the world and has earned many prestigious Michelin awards for the overall dining experience and masterfully crafted, tasteful dishes.
Like many successful chefs, they obtain both formal and informal training (education), and then experience various natural food cultures globally (experience) before creating their own system (i.e. baseline culture). It has been documented by Mini Ribeiro of fistpost.com in an interview with Colagreco that he, “travels the world searching for new ideas and is never afraid to incorporate other cultural influences.” . In addition, finedininglovers.com, stated that Colagreco’s cuisine at Mirazur, “is inspired by all the cultures which influence a cook working on the border, gathering natural produce of the Mediterranean without never forget his Argentinian roots”. Colagreco created a baseline for his restaurant by seeking out the best cuisine within all natural cultures and applying thereafter at Mirazur. Colagreco is the “architect” and in his case, the cuisine and experience is his “baseline culture”! CreatorOfCulture would bet that his staff at Mirazur all buy into the same approach and outlook as well!
Here is another example. Bruce Lee was a martial artist and movie star originally trained in traditional Wing Chun. Bruce Lee realized when creating his own self-defense style of Jeet Kune Do in his later years, that he was going to take the best from many different systems to make his own. Bruce Lee took a little bit from karate, some from Wing Chun, some from boxing, and a little bit from grappling.
Bruce Lee was quoted saying, “Research your own experience. Absorb what is useful. Reject what is useless. Add what is essentially your own.” Does this not resonate with the above example? Bruce Lee was the “architect” just like Chef Mauro. Through his formal martial arts training and experience, he then built his baseline. Yes!
Building a “culture baseline” is no different than what Chef Mauro Colagreco and Bruce Lee have done. What was critical is they both followed the formula we discussed above regarding education and experience before designing their baseline. Without that understanding, culture baselines are not attainable or sustainable. There is not enough knowledge gained to properly analyze and extract the best from natural cultures. They both took advantage of global inter-connectivity.
As we wind down this discussion, let’s get back to the topic of a culture renaissance as stated in the title. A bold statement remember? Yes, it is happening right now. More and more people, teams, organizations, and communities have connected the dots on creating best-in-class culture baselines. It is a revival! We see examples in our own environments of culture currently working well, but mostly not so well. Applying it is the hard part, and there is a long way to go unfortunately. That is good news for CreatorOfCulture though!
We predict that Phase 2 of the “culture renaissance” revolves around the process of baselining culture. The examples above discuss the output of some product or service (cuisine and martial arts) with positive culture externalities. Those were analogies for a culture baseline in their particular settings. For our purposes, culture itself is our output and it involves people. With anything people related, there are many wildcards which is why future posts on CreatorOfCulture discuss why the process is so important.
Until next time!