ToastmasterMike

Cultural Change

&

Paradigm Shifts

Part 1

In 2013, our International Director approached a fundamental issue being experienced throughout many districts.

Toastmaster International Executive Report by Daniel Rex:

“it was clear that significant cultural change would need to take place at the district level.” He goes on to say that the key to success lies in the hands of the Area Governors/Directors.

* This is an excerpt from the report. I highly recommend reading the full report:     https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tKidZC6P8VGXSYezGHS2KDRG5tClPqR6

Changing the cultural dynamics of an organization is incredibly difficult, it can get bloody for those attempting change. Especially, when the past leadership culture stands firmly against the needed change. What did Daniel Rex mean by cultural change at the district level?  What is meant by the term “a shift in the cultural dynamics of an organization”? How is it possible for the success of the district to lie in the hands of the Area Directors? How is all this connected?

Let’s explore. . . 

Imagine for a moment you have been striving to grow the perfect rose. Year after year the most vibrant hybrid rose your imagination can hold, fails to manifest itself. You try all sorts of techniques, fertilizers, even miracle grow, talking lovingly and kind to it, and to no avail. Year after year the most vibrant rose imaginable, dies. Then, the epiphany comes like a bright shining light from the heavens. You realize that a rose will never grow…, in the desert. The recipe will work perfectly inside the environment it needs for nourishment, so we shift toward the environment that works in order to manifest the rose worth having. People are as delicate as the rose, our culture (the paradigm in which we operate out of) provides the nutrients and the nourishment we need to grow. . . or. . . it does not. What we believe to be true of everything creates our paradigm or environment. When we develop a team belief of what is true and what is not, it is an organizational culture or paradigm. When presenting needed change to an organization there is either an experience of planting the seed of needed change in a desert, or. . .  in those rarest of times, we truly experience planting a seed of change in a welcoming fertilized bed with genuine hope of harvest.

Cultural dynamics is the belief system from which a person or group operates. Cultural change challenges those set beliefs, or basic assumptions. A shift, in my opinion, is a better description of the process required to achieve the desired change.  I don’t believe we change at all, it is more of a shift in the way we think and feel about the way we have always believed things to be. Our basic assumptions (about everything) create the paradigm we live in, like a bubble. A bubble that harnesses the power to hold us hostage, when we disallow other views.

Paradigms (our individual bubbles we operate out of) are as unique as the individual due to the fact it is made up of our experiences since birth. No two are alike. If we continually maintain basic assumptions, some since birth, without ever challenging them, we will continue to be blind to the ultimate experience surrounding us (or we are submerged into). So, the process isn’t really a change, it is a shifting of the way we think and feel that manifests the change.

Unfortunately, shifting is not always easy, especially for those who believe they are in charge. Some past leaders have no intention of shifting the way they think or feel. To the chagrin of new members and emerging leaders, past leaders hang around much longer than they’re needed. Operating as armed guards, protecting the existing culture while forcing their interpretations on the new. Bringing needed change to a district where the past leaders won’t go away, can get bloody. 

Let's begin to ask ourselves: As a District Leader will the membership experience me as fertile ground to receive ideas of needed change. . . or am I a rock. . . unable to receive a seed being sown?  

to be continued...

Mike Woodall, DTM

DTMspeaker@gmail.com
812-266-3582