Ducks in a Row: The Seeds You Plant
by Miki Saxon“That culture is like the air we breathe or the water that fish swim in. It has the potential, for better or worse, to affect everybody in the same way.” –Dr. Linda H. Pololi, a senior scientist at Brandeis University
Dr. Pololi was talking about the culture in academic medicine negatively affecting men as well as women, although the women’s situation has a higher profile.
While the information in the article is interesting, as well as unexpected in part, it’s her comment at the end on which I want to focus.
As a manager you set the culture of your own group; it may closely resemble your company’s culture or may be wildly divergent.
The divergence is not always a bad thing—many managers have created great cultures in the midst of toxic ones.
By the same token, toxic mini cultures have been propagated within good company cultures by managers who believe that approach is the best way to manage.
Companies are much like gardens and the cultures within its main culture are what grow therein.
If you equate good culture to flowers and bad culture to weeds the problem becomes obvious.
Flowers are fragile and require more thought, attention and cultivation for them to spread.
However, with no effort on the part of the gardener, weeds spread quickly and if ignored will take over the garden.
There is an anonymous poem that I do my best to emulate throughout my life,
Your mind is a garden,
Your thoughts are the seeds,
You can grow flowers or
You can grow weeds.
With a bit of tweaking you can use it for your company,
Your company is a garden,
Your cultures are seeds,
You can grow flowers or
You can grow weeds.
It’s always a choice, but this choice will affect your employees, customers, vendors and investors.
Be sure to choose consciously, wisely and well.
Flickr image credit: William Murphy
