A bit off the wall but who cares

This post won't appeal the the majority of people who follow my blogs, but here goes just the same.

If you type organic culture into the Google search bar, you get results which include fabrics from bamboo, pro-biotic foods, crops and gardening etc. Or to put it another way, semi-structures derived and evolved from existing natural materials.

I was having a conversation with a colleague this morning. We were talking about a system which requires someone to produce something (new) and then receive approval and feedback. The people who submit the products are also the people who will be approving/disapproving other people's products.

Let's just image for a moment that it's you who have been working long and hard on a product with all the best intentions. You are hoping to gain some credibility for your efforts. You send it out for approval. The feedback is negative, in places, missing the point that you have taken time and care to convey.

How likely are you to provide positive feedback to the next product you review?
How likely are you to provide positive feedback to the next product from the person who gave your work negative feedback?

Most organisations have a culture. An organisation I once worked for have a very positive, mutually supportive culture. As time went by, this culture was organically shifted to one which treated new ideas and efforts as an opportunity to pour scorn and score short term points.

Once this type of culture takes hold, it's a bit like fabrics from bamboo, pro-biotic foods, crops and gardening etc. Very difficult to untangle or remove, but for us who wish better for our working lives and for our organisations, we must. And we must replace it with a culture which gets behind something good, works with the originator and builds upon it to create excellence. Only then do we deserve and pat on the back.