[Neurons] 2014 "Neurons" Meta Reflecteions #52
L. Michael Hall
meta at acsol.net
Sun Dec 28 22:29:24 EST 2014
From: L. Michael Hall
Meta Reflections 2014 #52
December 29, 2014
DEEP CULTURAL CHANGE
Given the posts on "Neurons" in the past weeks about race, conflict,
cultures, etc., is there any question about that we humans need to create
some very deep cultural changes in a great many aspects of our lives? We
need cultural changes in just about every area of life. We need cultural
change in business- in corporations, in the ways organizations operate, in
the way the markets work, in families, in ethnic groups, in politics, in the
world economy, in education, and so on.
What is the culture that needs changing? In business, the culture which
need changing refers to the ways that groups of people have learned about
how to manage their processes (e.g., leadership, followship, organization,
resources, etc.). The culture also involves the group dynamics of
inclusion and exclusion, communication, connection, collaboration and
competition, trust, truth, secrecy, openness, and much more.
Earlier in the year I wrote a series about Creating a Self-Actualizing
Company (#7-11), and quoted from former CEO of VISA, Dee Hock regarding his
discoveries about the challenges which he faced when he set out to create a
brand new kind of organization. In the aftermath of his decades of work,
the realization which he highlighted in his book was that the cultural
change part of the process was much more difficult than expected. And why?
It was due, in part, to the power of old habitual ways which we are
constantly revert back to, usually unconsciously. Falling back to the old
ways speaks about cultures as self-organizing systems and how they
inherently strive for homeostasis.
Now what is a culture? Culture results from how we have cultivated our
mind, emotions, speech, behavior, ways of relating, values, rituals, etc.
In a word culture is "the way we do things around here." Culture then is
the internal set of beliefs, understandings, identities, decisions, etc.
that have developed over the years or decades or even centuries. Then, from
those internal meaning frames, culture is manifested externally in the
actions, ways of relating, rituals, architecture, etc. Often, this seems to
make "culture" an external thing. It is not. While coded as a
nominalization, it is not a thing, but the process of "cultivating."
Culture is an internal thing that we project on the outside. It is a set of
meanings that give sense and significance to our world and when we
externalize it in how we greet, organize groups, communicate, value, etc.,
it seems that it is on the outside. But those are just expressions of
culture, and not the culture. Culture is not an external thing.
That culture is the inside reality is revealed in how we all carry our
"culture" with us everywhere we go and how we only become aware of it when
we see, hear, and encounter something that violates it. Then we become
aware of our culture and the difference in the cultural ways of doing things
before us. Where is my "culture?" It is in the frames of meaning that I
carry around in my mind about things. Typically, I never notice it. It
operates as the invisible atmosphere or environment in which I live and
move. I only begin to notice it when something around me doesn't validate
my mental "cultivated frames" and then I don't know what this or that means?
Or even what it is. It doesn't make sense-to my mental mapping.
If this is what culture is- how do we detect it and change it? If there's a
natural homeostasis energy in a system resisting change and re-organizing
for getting things back to the way they were, how do we ever change a
culture?
Within every national culture there are scores even hundreds of
sub-cultures. Many of these sub-cultures are highly dysfunctional and
really need changing. How do we change the sub-culture of violence (gangs)
that's in most culture? The culture of consumerism that's driven by
competition and the idea that "more is better!"? The culture of status
(regardless if the "status" is determined by social standing, clothes,
money, degrees, who you know, "likes" on Facebook, or whatever). The
culture of glorifying bad news (called "the media"). The culture of
victimhood (blaming others for one's own ineffectiveness).
To change "culture" we first have to detect it and where it resides. This
is the tricky part. It seems to be external, yet it is not. What's
external are the symptoms, not the essence. The problem with the violence
culture is not the violence. Yes it is a problem. Yes it is destructive,
dehumanizing, and yes it needs to be changed. But the actions of violence
are derivative from the "culture"- the cultivating of mind-and-emotions in
the minds of those who comprise that culture. They are members of that
culture due to how they had their mind-emotions cultivated and how they have
cultivated their mind.
What is called racism is not merely the unequal treatment of people. The
obvious fact is that we are not equal in so many ways-understanding,
intelligence, talents, skills, values, etc. Pretending that we are all
equal is not the cure for racism. The cure is to value people as human
beings and to treat with respect and to create as equality before the eyes
of the law and then of opportunities as much as is possible. If a person is
in a culture and has not cultivated their own mind-emotion in a way that
assumes access the critical success factors that are needed, i.e., personal
responsibility, valuing hard work, effort, discipline, study, social skills,
etc., then whatever "equal opportunities" that might be available to them-
will not be accessed and utilized.
What needs to change is the person's inside mental culture of
mind-and-emotions in order to take advantage of opportunities. Throwing
more money at the "problem," giving more things away, protesting about being
discriminated against- these things do not address the core problem, they
are only band-aides on the symptoms.
Culture resides inside. Culture is one of the "logical levels" of the mind
along with beliefs, values, identities, memories, imaginations, decisions,
permissions, prohibitions, rules, etc. And as a logical-level, it is one of
the most unconscious meta-levels- which is why it seems like our
mental-emotional atmosphere. Culture speaks about your neuro-semantics- the
semantics (meanings) that you give to things and then experience externally
in your neurology (body).
L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
Neuro-Semantics Executive Director
Neuro-Semantics International
P.O. Box 8
Clifton, CO. 81520 USA
1 970-523-7877
Dr. Hall's email:
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