Cultural Acceptance Is Just The Beginning
Organizations are built through culture. What is being accepted in your culture? Does cultural acceptance guide what happens next?
Whether it is ethics, dress code, or diversity and inclusion, your culture plays a role in what happens next. Your culture creates the allowance or defiance that shapes its future.
Observed Guidelines
Most modern social guidelines suggest more freedom, more openness, more be who you are and do what you want. Are there limits? What defines those limits?
Of course, there are limits. What does the group allow?
That customer just bought the fifteen-year-old hunk of junk car we had out back and never asked about the transmission.
We sold them a hundred units at ten percent over our list price. They never said a word.
I closed the deal and hung up before she could ask any more questions. (Fist bump!)
Our workplace is our community. What is the culture of your community and what do you allow, congratulate, or celebrate? What are the performance guidelines? How are customers treated?
Cultural Acceptance
You have a choice in your community. You can be part of the future or part of the problem. Often the problem is our quest for the short-term win. Grab the easy money or deliver with the sleight of hand to the unknowing.
What your organizational culture tolerates is what your workplace becomes.
The challenge is often connected to cultural acceptance. In matters of ethics, integrity, and moral values, nearly everyone knows better, yet fitting in is often why they were hired.
When employees weigh the risk of not fitting in with the perceived value of staying; they often choose to stay, regardless of the cost or potential value of the return on risk.
This is where things start but often not where they end.
-DEG
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
