Please Don’t Just Fake It

Something to consider when playing the culture game…

Companies have both “ideals” (prescriptions for how people ought to behave), and what are called “norms” (how people actually behave).

And if the ideals and the norms are out of sync, you’ve got problems.

The other thing to consider is, people, take their cues from watching other people’s behavior, and less from reading memos sent down from on high.

So if you’re telling people to act with say, “empathy”, while everyone around them is acting like cold, ruthless sharks, there’s going to be a disconnect.

There’s always going to be a gap between our idealized state and our actual state, the trick is, as always, how to bring them closer together.