THE NEW WORK PLAYBOOK
The Culture Myth
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast." Peter Drucker never said or wrote it. It became a popular claim anyway and we often read a good culture into it. Read plainly, it doesn't say anything about which kind of culture beats a strategy. This episode explores what that line actually claims, why the gap between stated and lived values is so common that most people read straight past culture statements. I take a look at what happened after culture became a serious business topic in the 1980s and explore how Edgar Schein gave us a better understanding of how cultures form, transform, why they resist change and how we can influence it. Then we move to the level leaders actually shape. Your team is a group with its own culture. It's the one under your responsibility. Building a new team culture, shaping an inherited one, and transforming one that doesn't work are three different jobs but trust and psychological safety are the foundations for all three. As it changes how we work entirely, AI adoption is a culture transformation that needs to be managed well. We're asking people to work in a way they never have, with a technology they don't fully understand, while they read that it potentially replaces their jobs. Have a look at the values your company states, and ask yourself honestly whether you can see them in how people work. The next reflection episode turns culture work into leadership practice.
