This is the last in our series about culture.  We started at a micro level looking at forming relationships and indoor rock climbing.  From there we thought about culture, base flavors, and Blizzards/concrete mixers.  Last week we looked at team culture and sending signals.  This week we will reflect on culture, rules, and the board game Sorry. 

A while back I was playing the board game Sorry with my girls (5 and 3 years old).  In case you haven’t played Sorry, it is a board game where your goal is to get your pawns out of their Start space, all the way around the board, and then to Home.  Along the way you draw cards to dictate your movements, and from time to time you bump into other players saying, “Sorry” and kicking them off the board and back to the Start.  The other important thing to know is that in order to leave your Start area you have to draw a card with a 1, a 2, or a Sorry.

We were all playing Sorry and it’s going very slow and is incredibly boring.  Everyone is kind of irritated, because unless you draw a 1, 2, or Sorry you are stuck in your Start space and you can be there for a long time.  Alice eventually asks if we can change the rules.  She wanted to be able to get out of Start easier and she didn’t want to be able to knock people off the board.  I agreed to amending the rules to get us out of Start with any card, but I told her that we were still going to knock people off the board.  I explained that we would let people out of Start with any card to speed up the game.  I also explained that we were keeping knocking people off the board, because we all have to learn how to lose and how to deal with stuff when it doesn’t go our way.  After the rule change, we played the game, and it was much faster paced and much more enjoyable.

So how does this connect to culture?  The game Sorry has rules.  However, the rules can be changed.  All we have to do is decide what the rules will be and live by them.  In the same way, while any given culture might have rules (informal or formal) that govern it, those rules can be changed.  I bring this up because often we say things like, “Well, that’s just the culture,” as if “the culture” is some entity that is outside our realm of control.  The culture isn’t some kind of external force.  The culture is comprised of individuals in relationships with each other sending out signals about what is acceptable and not acceptable (Holy connected dots Batman!) 

I’m not saying that culture change is easy.  I’m saying it’s possible.  The first thing we need to do to change a culture is decide what the culture is all about.  What are the overarching rules that govern that culture?  For example, maybe you say, “We want our culture to be about valuing each other, moving quickly, and empowering each other to make decisions.”  Those are the rules/parameters you will play by.  After you decide what you want the culture to look like, you need to decide what it looks like to live by those rules.  What does it look like for the team to show they are valued?  Maybe this is about recognizing hard work.  Maybe this is about having tough conversations with people.  Finally, we have to live those rules on a consistent basis. 

The challenge:  What rules do you want to live by?  As a leader, are you being intentional and clear about the rules your team lives by and why?  As a follower, are you influencing what those rules should be?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry