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2.4 | How would you define and characterize your organizational culture? What are the gaps between what is and a more values-aligned, resilient, and compassionate culture?
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I might have to preface this with the awareness that my POV is potentially biased having written the Core Values for my organization. This said, I would define our organizational culture as Creative, collaborative, trustworthy, and optimistic. I would characterize us as authentic. Individuals are encouraged to bring their true selves to our environment and are inspired to take leaps, ask questions, and share thoughts and ideas in an effort to learn and contribute. We discuss the relevance of our manifesto, values, brand promise, and excerpts from our Handbook regularly. Because we are primarily champions of Creativity with our core mission to promote empathy, our group leans on the thoughtful and compassionate side of the spectrum. The current gaps can be found with trying to learn boundaries around when private life begins and ends which may lead to unexpected Creative burnout, even for the most passionate and intrinsically driven members of our organization. Loss of regular physical touch points makes spontaneous conversation and opportunities for divergent thinking and building on fruitful ideas a challenge. Having to build connection and learn the needs, desires, strengths of some new team members from a distance also creates some hurdles. Resilience has come from proactively fostering open communication in any way possible to discuss our pain points and having patience to solve our current challenges through acknowledgment and acceptance of reality, innovation, and mindfulness that we are not alone in this endeavor.
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As a startup we care about getting things done and supporting each others. It was great the last team health check showed very good results except velocity.
When we have self-compassion, we seek to get better via retro as opposed to finger pointing. We acknowledge that we are not perfect. We are not defensive and we want to get better every time.
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Our organizational culture is really compassionate, kind, and motivating. We are a hard-driving bunch trying to save the world but we also make space for self-care. The gap lies in the nonprofit starvation mode we find ourselves in where people are underpaid, overworked and burn out and leave, usually because their position requires too much for one human or because people are out sick for extended periods of time or it takes awhile to fill a position. I wish we had more resources to hire more people so that folks didn’t get so burnt out.
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My organizational culture evolves mainly in being resilient and compassionate, and this can be seen in all segments of the organization, which aligns 100% with what I expect of a workplace. The words uses to describe the culture are Safe, Inclusive, Non-violent, Empowering, Results-oriented, Global South, Innovative and Amicable.
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I think we’re okay in terms of being compassionate. But of course compassion has to go hand in hand with wisdom and that’s why there are rules and procedures that have to be respected. I think one of the flaws we still have is giving more autonomy and empowerment in project design and planning for the team, something they always ask for. This is often not done because we don’t have enough time to engage people and have more collaborative processes. It’s something we know we have to improve and we’re looking for solutions.
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One organization I work with, their actions are closely aligned with their values. Actually, we revisit our values as faculty before we begin our planning phase for a semester course. This allows us to refocus and remember the values we want to model for our students. The organization is a work in progress, reshaping itself in response to current global influences. I see that as a really good sign of resiliency.
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I am not part of an organization at the moment. I am doing this course because I want to be better prepared to create one that is mindful and values-aligned.
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As a racial justice organization, our culture is one of learning, collaboration and very much mission driven. We are highly collaborative and work across programs. As the person helping create culture, I would like to focus on improving accountability and the importance of having diffcult conversations. The pandemic has made these areas difficult but so important to the success of the organization at this time.
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There are large gaps, but the culture is starting to change with a new director in place a little over a year now. It will take time and is long overdue. For a contemporary art organization that focuses on accessibility for all, advocacy for under-represented and under-recognized artists, it’s astonishing to me how antiquated internal structures had been for so long which did not reflect our contemporary moment. Even before the pandemic there were many issues surfacing that were left unaddressed, such as undervalued/underpaid workers, considerable lack of transparency and accountability, and fear. I believed for a time that this was everywhere to a degree, especially in the museum environment. I entered the field hopeful, wide-eyed, and passionate, but seeing how long it has taken for change to occur has been depleting on so many levels. It has left me seriously considering a new path.
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I work in a social justice nonprofit so our organization culture is very values-driven. It also thrives to be transparent, flat, empowering of employees, and open to feedback. Due to being an international organization, there are times a lack of understanding with international cultures and our international expansion pratices with some staff which can lead to an inadvertant lack of compassionate behavior.
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We are values driven and resilient but e could always stand to have more compassion for one another when things get tough and we are compressed for time. Scarcity of time to meet deadlines is where we can shift from being our best selves to being so focused we get tunnel vision focus more on output than connection. While connection is still very present we can get rougher round the edges.
There is work to be done to smooth those out.
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Our organizational culture is difficult to define, is a mishmash of many different impulses. I would not say is particularly values aligned in practice. In some ways talk of values is used to make people feel better about what we do, without actually doing the work of seeing clearly what our impact is.
I am not particularly worried about any of this. I would prefer that we had a clearer purpose. But overall I find it hard to imagine an organization of our size that is not explicitly non-profit that would not tramping on what I think of as core-values and still be “successful”.
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I think this question is the one that I have been using as a story to keep me separate from the class material and this class in general. I was feeling imposter syndrome at the beginning.. “I am not in an organization. I am dealing with a significant health thing. I am not in a full-time work setting” are all things that I have told myself during the class that have kept me separate. There has been plenty of relevant material. I am a person. with a self, and relationships. So it hasn’t been a huge obstacle but this piece has been dangling for me. At other times in my life it would have been a no-brainer to explain my role and the organization and the organizational culture. After a health crisis and needing to make some big changes my current organization where I work and practice is my own practice where I offer psychotherapy and spiritual direction to people on an individual basis. My practice is constantly evolving as I learn and grow and integrate more of my self and all of the things that I am exploring and learning. Nervous system healing and a sense of safety is at the core of my current explorations so this class speaks to my curiosities about personal health, the para-sympathetic nervous system, mental health and relational and organizational expressions of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system in relationship. So much of it comes down to the intangible “feeling safe in one’s own body/being” which these practices address directly and wit the subtle body. My organization is me.. and my clients… all of my clients live and work in relationships and organizations.. working with individual people who want to increase their sense of equanimity is a passion of mine. As one person liberates themselves all their relationships can’t help but be impacted in an honest and true way.
As I am reflecting, I would like to make my values and aims and goals for my practice more focused and precise and express them and represent them more professionally.
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I am only remotely affiliated with an organization at the moment, but this training is allowing me to reflect on mindful engagements with past organizations and hopes for future ones that are more values-aligned. A number of these responses resonate, and I am grateful to everyone for sharing. As I continue to deepen practices in varied settings as a contractor, the feedback from my colleagues continually illuminates how many people wish to hold space for compassionate values, struggles, questions, generous and generative hopes to come together. The pressing questions for me continue to circle around systemic injustices.
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Our organizational culture is based in helping others to have a more productive and enjoyable journey. I am nurturing and fertilizing the ground for this to prosper. The large gap lies in the resistant chasm between where I feel this as an asset to our field and the ability to include, and collaborate with others to make it grow. The bridge to opening my heart to trust and curiosity, you are leaching me board nby7 board here.
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