Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Leading Change: A Third Edition

THE POWER OF AN INCLUSIVE CULTURE

One of the fundamental elements for sustainable change and transformation that must be addressed is organizational culture: how people interact with each other, the dominant styles that are reinforced in a million informal ways each day, and the mindsets and behaviors that drive people. Culture gives leadership to an organization and defines how it functions. No matter how much a new program or procedure is reinforced, it won’t succeed if it is at odds with the organization’s culture. Culture trumps policy and strategy every time.

Culture is transferred from generation to generation. It is comprised of the oral histories that are shared about what and who is valued. People learn much more about an organization’s ...