Culture, Values and the Courage to Live Them – ElPropósito4 min de lectura

The dilemma of something intangible, magnified by technology yet deeply important

Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

Companies face a very big challenge: keeping their organizational culture alive amid so much technology. It’s worth remembering that an organization’s vision describes where we see ourselves at a given point in time, the mission gives a face to the business we’re in, the purpose is the organization’s very being, and the values are the culture we want. Today, after this huge crisis that has driven every kind of change, we still don’t agree on the next step, especially the one that will let us keep living the values and culture we want to pass on for good.

Living our values, whether in a team, a country or an organization, takes time, discipline and, above all, the bravery to hold to a way of life that lets us walk with a firm, confident step. How do we model, show or embody a desired behavior, a way of living and being in this world, when our conversations have been reduced to technology? A face-to-face conversation lets us pick up and read much more about the other person and all the kinds of language they convey.

Culture passes from generation to generation, and its DNA carries the values a group or society wants to keep living. It’s enough to look back and read a little about the great wars, conquests and every kind of major change (political, religious and others) we’ve been through to see how we’ve managed to hand down the behaviors needed for human survival.

We’re social beings, and interaction is part of our nature, a fundamental pillar of how we reproduce and evolve. We may be wrapped up in a virtual world right now, with very few points of contact, but I’m convinced that if our values are deeply rooted, this is the moment to make the most of the small spaces we’re gradually opening for teams, and people in general, to see each other and interact again. In those spaces we can live our values to the fullest and pass them on in a much more special and unique way. That’s what has always happened.

What’s left is to trust ourselves and our abilities. Cultures or values that exist only on paper are bound, as in any good crisis, to vanish from the map. The cultures that have adapted best are those that made the most of the small spaces for contact that great crises left them. Their values are so strong and so important, and living them every day brings such proven successes, that it will be impossible not to pass them on, or to find a way to do so.

How focused are you on passing on the culture of your organization, team, country, family and so on?

Warm regards,

Rodrigo Baccaro

P.S. This week’s VELA (what I was Watching, Listening to, Reading and Learning):

• What I was Watching: Somos lo que la educación hace de nosotros (We are what education makes of us). After Dr. Mario Alonso Puig, Jordan Peterson and others, Dr. Francisco Mora has been one of my biggest discoveries. A must-watch for every professor teaching in a classroom today
  – What I was Listening to: La plegaria del hombre lobo. Americamorfosis is my favorite album by Alux Nahual (a top 80s band from my country). I owe it to my brother Luis for getting me hooked on this band and so many others that, back in my childhood, shaped my taste for great rock bands in English and Spanish like Alux. Happy birthday and happy Father’s Day, dear bro, here’s to 100 more. I don’t know why this is the only album missing from Apple Music and Spotify, but luckily you can hear the whole thing on YouTube, with good sound. It’s 200% worth it, and EVERY song is good, EVERY one
  – What I was Reading: 12 more Rules for Life. This book has been a turning point in my life. Above all, it’s improving my English, since it’s fairly dense reading for me (though not as dense as James Joyce’s Ulysses in English). Still, I’ve taken it on as a challenge to understand Jordan Peterson’s ideas more deeply
  – What I was Learning: Turbina Tesla (The Tesla turbine). I’ve always been a fan of revolutionary inventions. Case in point, my two favorite machines are the turbine and the hydraulic ram. This video explains the Tesla turbine, and it’s wonderful

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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