What’s culture got to do with purpose?

So here we are, hopefully all jolly and celebrating however and whatever it is we celebrate at this time of the year. If anything, maybe it’s just some time off with our loved ones and an opportunity to regroup and reflect. Yet like a wisp of cloud curling inexorably around a peak, somewhere, somehow, sometime, someone is going to bring up the topic of plans for the coming year, maybe even the dreaded word resolutions… That can dampen the festive vibes pretty fast, eh? It can feel like Al Pacino lamenting, Just when I thought I was out….

Let’s go with this. Maybe it is resolution time. Maybe the question is indeed going through our heads. Just what on earth am I going to do this coming year that’s aligned with who I really am and how I want to contribute? How can I make a difference? How can I live more fully? What, in short, is my way forward?

Chances are, just as it influences what we do around this time of year, our cultural background is going to play a bigger role in this internal conversation than we realise. For our culture – that glorious iceberg of assumptions, beliefs, values and artefacts – is our own unique DNA, our own operating system for handling the world.

Culture is like gravity – you don’t notice it until you jump in the air

Fons Trompenaars

Culture is a notoriously hazy concept. At its simplest, it’s the way we do things around here. Trompenaars would be a little more explicit – it’s the way we approach problems and reconcile dilemmas. For the sake of this Postcard on individual purpose, our lens can be an Instagram of filters, including factors such as nationality, ethnicity, religion, age, orientation, profession, and more. Let’s leave out team and organisational elements as those are a topic for another piece and indeed another book, aren’t they, Dr Adrian Waite?:)

And as with purpose, there are lots of gurus and models to select from when we discuss culture. Distilling the big names and the host of factors that are potentially involved, let’s focus on the following five elements as our primary cultural influencers. With each relationship, I’m sure we can think of examples, yes, perhaps even stereotypes, that illustrate the determining influence in terms of nature, extent, and choice of purpose or goals. In doing so, it’s important to remember these values are not binary but sit on a spectrum…

Where do you map yourself on the respective cultural dimensions? And most importantly, when you reflect on your way forward for this and the coming years, which of these voices are mapping your direction? Which influences are colouring the nature, extent, and choice of your purpose or goals?

For the answer to the title question of this Postcard is simply ‘Everything’. Our culture is the single most important determinant of what we value and find meaningful. Accordingly, in our REALM framework, culture is an integral part of Rooted – I know who I am and where I come from. The essential question here is not of if and how our cultural heritage can assist and hinder us, but of shining the spotlight of self-awareness on what is driving our decision-making, and accepting or adjusting as may be needed.

This underlines the emphasis the REALM model places on exploring and clarifying the self before exploring and clarifying the way forward. This is the essence and the gift of self-leadership.

Be well and have a truly great 2023.

Julian King

I help people lead their own way forward

Author of Mapping Our Purpose REALM – The Tribe of the Cowbells