What is culture? To articulate it one way, culture is a set of values, norms and practices that shape or define a group's experience. A cult is a group of people who share devotion to a set of values and norms and/or a particular leader. Much has been made of the similarities between cults — often identified by the mainstream as "bad" — and organizational cultures celebrated as models of success.

In his book Corporate Cults, for example, author David Arnott identifies as cult-like and human-unfriendly some of the same organizations defined as visionary by James Collins and Jerry Porras in their oft-quoted book, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. The question, it would seem after reading these and other conflicting positions, is, "Successful perhaps, but how, and at what?"

In their book, The New Corporate Cultures, authors Allan Kennedy and Terry Deal highlight the decimation of such cultures during two decades of massive downsizings, mergers and acquisitions. These authors and others say this corporate blood-letting is akin to ripping out the heart, and some would say soul, of business.

Others, like author and economist David Korten, who penned When Corporations Rule the World and The Post-Corporate World, suggest that a business is a legal entity that itself has no heart or soul but, in a rabidly pro-investor world, consumes the heart and soul of its people. The problem, they might say, is one of ethics, accountability and human scale. To me, the two seem inseparable; a corporation is certainly a legal entity, but the decisions are made by human beings who, perhaps so consumed by the needs of the entity begin thinking legalistically instead of humanistically. Such decisions, and the day-to-day behavior they inform, help to shape an organization's culture.

To be sure, organizational culture is a vaporous yet pervasive concept, tough to get your arms around yet a key element in any type of organizational transformation or growth. It remains a hot topic in leadership and management circles, yet is no more honored or understood despite abundant discussion on the subject. And trying to change an established culture is vexing for the hardiest of change agents, particularly if they don't challenge the beliefs and systems that created the now-undesirable culture in the first place (many of which stay in place following a merger or reorganization, making culture transformation nearly impossible in these cases). So what’s the deal?

As with many overly-mystified and guru-ized subjects, a good place to begin is with the basics, within your own organization. Every organization, every group of people, has a culture, whether that culture is recognized and articulated or not. And that culture will help define how the group behaves, who fits within it, what it excels at and what it doesn’t do well at all — one of the reasons organizational change initiatives, mergers and the like are much more challenging, and expensive, than one expects.

The trick for your organization is to know what the actual culture is — really — and assess whether or not that culture is compatible with your vision, mission and strategic plan. Because the culture was appropriate to get you where you are does not mean it's appropriate for where you want to be tomorrow. Knowing your reality will help you to determine the best next steps.

This Ivy Sea Online Issue Portal features resources to help get you started. Why not start with these feature articles?

— How can your group shine? (Tips from big-vision enterprise)

— Do you have tribes or factions? Why it makes sense to foster unity on common ground

— Why align culture and reality?

— What are the elements of culture?

— Ivy Sea Culture ToolSheet: Does your culture fit?

— Ivy Sea's Inspired Visioning Tips Series

— Bringing your organizational vision to life

— Communication and the bottom line

— The high costs of incivility

— Conflict resolution basics: a check list

— How do you affect your community?

— Are you sabotaging effectiveness?

— Do you have a hoarding culture?

— Do you drive employees nuts?

— Create a culture of praise

— Handbooks that support culture

• Working Well Consulting - Articles

• Culture: Downsizing and Forgiveness

• Workforce Online

• Auxillium's Culture Overview

• Worldbiz.com - Int'l Business Customs

• Strategy & Business Journal

• Culture Links from David Swensen Ph.D.

• The Pecking Order Report

• Richard Barrett & Associates Articles

• Work911.com's Article Indexing Project

Please surf carefully and apply your findings mindfully! There's lots of great information here on the web, but only you can decide what's appropriate for your group.

• Celebrating Independent Spirit
• Change and Communication
• Community and Dialogue
• Conflict and Communication
• Corporate Culture and Communication
• Ethics and Communication
• Leadership: Leading Virtual Teams
• Morale and Motivation
• Renewal and Transformation
• Right Relationships - Valuing People
• Social Responsibility
• Spirituality and the Workplace
• Storytelling: Unleash the Power!
• Strategy and Communication
• Vision, Inspiration & Creativity