Another Monday morning brings a mix of optimism and despair as usual. The news on the Radio is of the threat of Nuclear weapons from Iran, a depressing forecast on house prices and more news of problems with financing the public purse. But in my little world today these problems seem inconsequential as the sun is shining, the coffee is good and people are going about there business as if none of it really matters.
One of the things I researched on whilst in the US was the inertia that society has. As someone interested in the Future we used to make radical predictions about how technology would change our lives, how things would be different under various Governments and Economic conditions. What you come to realize if you study this stuff is that although there will be consequences of these changes the impact on our day-to-day lives will be actually quite small. OK we will change some of our behaviors - the way we communicate, the was we access information etc., but these will not significantly change the way we live our lives.
The pattern of our lives is encoded somehow and the question becomes then is it nature or nurture - are we repeating a learned behavior or are is there something engineered into our genes. I am sure there is much research been undertaken in this area and I am not arrogant enough to have an answer, however what I am interested in is the consequences of this societal inertia - the things that keep us from significant behavioral change - our culture.
In the late 1990's I did some primary research into societal and organizational culture - what is culture and why is it important? the research focused on the passing of the culture - the rules by which we live and work which make up how we get by on a day to day basis. My conclusions at the time is that culture is, as it has been almost from the dawn of man, is passed on in stories - much of it is told and retold and passed on through the generations. In some cultures this is stronger and more formal than in others, but the passing on of what is acceptable or not forms the basis of how we live our lives.
From an early age we are told by our parents what we can and can't do - usually though some form of discipline and we learn what is acceptable behavior. Our years at school and college then provide new behavioral rules - again many not formally written down anywhere but passed on either as stories or through observed behavior - we watch what other people do and if it seems acceptable we emulate or not dependent on earlier conditioning. In business too stories are very much in evidence as people pass on 'how things are done' and what and what is not acceptable.
So the question then becomes why is this important? My research posed the question 'If culture is formed by stories, can culture be changed by seeding new stories?' The conclusion I came to after months of interviews, observations and discussions was a very strong yes. By 'seeding' new stories organizations can change the culture of the company and I guess society. Many governments around the world have tried to use negative stories - weapons of mass destruction, the fear of terrorism, swine flu etc. to 'control' the populous - I am not saying that these are not all important issues and need to be addressed, however the media coverage of these 'events' trigger a new set of stories - some real, some not so real. These stories then elicit a behavior change and the way we live our lives.
An example of this is a neighbour of mine who is panic struck by Swine Flu. This couple have 'heard' stories about how swine flu will impact them and how it is dangerous to go into public places. And yes to some degree these things are true, however it has significantly changed their behavior in so far that they have almost become recluses. They have friends and family doing their shopping and refuse to answer the door to strangers and are destroying the post as it may be contaminated. Is this behavior normal? Well of course not but to me it is an extreme example of how stories can effect people's behavior - there is little actual fact about the stories they have heard but just hearing tales of woe has radically changed their behavior - perception is reality!
So why am I interested. As we move out of recession and into a period of slow and steady growth we need to think about not only the hard and tangible things we need to do but also the stories we start to tell as these will probably have a greater impact on the way we live our lives than the economic metrics that govern the recovery.
Powered by Qumana
Comments