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Unit 9 – Culture and the Impact on Change Initiatives

“Anthropologists have a saying: ‘Whoever tells the stories defines the culture”

(Sipe & Frick, 2009, p. 75)

Overview

 As organizational culture is taught to individuals joining the organization, it gets reinforced through story. In essence we learn about culture through the act of sharing stories. Pankau and Stallard (2008) asserted, “leaders are discovering the powerful effect of fostering a culture that values people and connects leaders, employees and customers.” (p.19). Culture explores the degree of values alignment, beliefs, and principles of an organization. Dennison, (1990), stated that an organization’s culture consists of the underlying values, beliefs and principles that define an organization’s management system, as well as the management practices and behavior that reinforce those principles within the organization. A number of credible, cultural assessment tools such as cultural surveys and facilitated focus groups are available and can be utilized to inform decision makers and change management practitioners about the cultural differences and areas of alignment among different departments and lines of business in the organization.

A more detailed definition of organizational culture comes from Dr. Edgar Schein (1992), who defined culture as the pattern of basic assumptions a given group has invented, discovered or developed while learning to cope with external adaptation and internal integration challenges. The assumptions, said Schein should “be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.” As Dr. Edgar Schein pointed out the challenge of assessing an organization’s culture, “is more a matter of surfacing assumptions which will be recognizable once they have been uncovered.” What aspect of culture in your work and organizations could benefit from shifting in service of the work of climate adaptation?

Activities and Assessment

Activity 1: Culture Online Discussion Forum instructions:

As you explore the readings and apply the material to the culture of your organization, community and your change initiative, what do you notice?

Consider the following questions:

  •  What “values in operation” are you observing?
  •  What “artifacts” do you see?
  • What aspects of your culture have a potential to hinder your organization in times of change?
  •  What aspects of your culture are you celebrating?
  •  What potential leverage points exist in your culture that can support your change?

By Wednesday post your initial substantive post to the Unit 9: Culture discussion forum

Activity 2: Peer Review discussion forum

Please use this forum to share draft assignments with your peer review partner for feedback in advance of the assignment due date. See the course activities schedule for the deadline.

Guest Speaker

Dr. Michael Lickers is a well-known Kanienʼkehá꞉ka (Mohawk) educator from Six Nations of the Grand River. 

Michael is a Senior Advisor of Indigenous Relations for Suncor Energy. Founder and past Executive Director of the Ghost River Rediscovery program, Michael has over 30 years of experience in leadership, cultural outdoor education, community development and youth leadership development. Michael is well recognized for his knowledge and work with Indigenous peoples in Canada and internationally, he is continuously engaged in presentations, training seminars and conferences.

Michael currently serves as the Indigenous Scholar in Residence and teaches at Royal Roads University in the School of Leadership (MAL), Interdisciplinary Studies (Global Indigenous Ways of Knowing), and Indigenous Environmental Leadership Pathways program, supports and assisted in the development of the MA in Climate Action Leadership in the School of Environment and Sustainability.

Session Description: Circle of Life and Climate Action Leadership

Opening of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving address

Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as People.

Now are minds are one.

We are all connected, we are all related, and what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. It is inevitable that our movements on this world will have an impact, it is how we conduct our movement that holds us accountable to our relations in the circle of life.

This brief session will explore an Indigenous way of knowing, being and doing called the circle of life. As my father shared with, I pass along some of those teachings to you. There is no one model or way of knowing as there are over 630 First Nations in Canada and Inuit and Métis Peoples, that may all understand this model in different ways or use others.

Central to this model being shared, is the understanding that what is shared in a brief session could take a moment to live and or appreciate, or a lifetime to realize and live. That is the beauty of understanding the circle of life. I am so looking forward to sharing this with you, in the context of Indigenous epistemology and Indigenous leadership.

Michael Lickers