We had a conversation amongst ourselves this week about the difficulties of helping organizations understand that changing culture is more than changing schedules or environments. We began to ponder self-assessment tools and how these might help point organizations in the right direction.
However, even with the best of tools and resource materials, it can be very hard for staff undertaking this effort to fully realize what deep level change means. After much discussion, we decided that the process comes down to two critical things:
• Adopting a collective organizational mindset that pays attention to and assesses EVERYTHING from a person-centered perspective, questioning the status quo over and over again without blame.
• Building trusting and intersecting relationships at all levels of the organization and within the community, and consciously doing the things that strengthen and maintain those ties over time.
This is what it comes down to-There can not be deep and lasting change unless these two things are integrated into daily organizational life.
