Why is it important to study your culture?
We all know it’s important, we talk about it, say it is what separates the good from the great, but it is often hard to put your finger on. I am talking about “culture.” Culture is synonymous with sport, teams that rise to the top often are credited with having the best cultures. This week, Coach Dawn Staley, head coach of the University of South Carolina’s 2022 NCAA Women’s Championship basketball team explained “culture matters.” This is no surprise, as the best sports teams and organizations are described as having a shared identity, openness to change and meaningful interpersonal dialogue. Yet, understanding what makes the culture of an organization or team unique can often feel elusive. Using rigorous research methods, we can begin to systematically unpack a team or organization’s culture to explain what is going well and what needs to be improved. Culture can be described as the shared beliefs, attitudes and behaviors of a collection of individuals. This means every team and organization has its own unique perspectives, values, decision-making processes, not to mention its challenges. Since an organization’s culture is defined by its people, self-examination can reveal the culture of an organization, but more importantly, this means once a culture can be quantified, people can take meaningful action to change t