Rol,
You wrote, "A system is a regular, orderly way of doing things (my dictionary),
but it is generally not self-correcting. It continues to do whatever it was
intended to do, regardless of whether or not that is still appropriate. The
culture, on the other hand, is the tool set with which people work. It is the
concepts, habits, skills, arts, instruments, institutions, and so forth of a
group of people (my dictionary)."
I think part of what's happening in this conversation is that different people
think of the word "system" differently. I appreciate you offering your
definition, so that I can see how it compares with mine and others. My notion
of system includes those things that you include in "system", pluse the things
you include in "culture", plus perhaps many other factors, such as identities,
relationships, information, structures, histories, operating metaphors,
processes...
It will be interesting to see what emerges as we continue talking about
"systems."
You wrote, "I want to again throw out the suggestion that when systems are not
working as they should, and when no one is fixing them, then the blame, if one
exists, rests on the 'culture', not on the system, and not on the
participants."
I think it's a mistake to look for *anything* (systems, employees, managers,
culture) to blame. (Not that I don't get caught up in that myself, sometimes.)
I don't know what to do with the thing I'm blaming once I've blamed it. My
preference is to continue to explore what is here, and what is possible.
Perhaps you have a different understanding. What does it mean to "blame
culture?" Is blame something like identifying the thing you would most like to
change?
You said, "It really is management and leadership's job to create and mold the
culture of an organization."
I agree, especially if you aren't limiting "leadership" to some subset of the
people in the organization. Creating and molding the culture of an organization
is the job of everyone who would like the culture to be different than they
perceive it to be.
Dale
--Dale H. Emery | 27 Tall Pine Road Consultant | Berwick, ME 03901 Relationship and Communication | (207) 698-1650 For Successful Organizations | 72704.1550@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>