There is a famous thought experiment, ’The ship of Theseus’.
It goes something like…
“The famous ship sailed by the hero Theseus in a great battle has been kept in a harbour as a museum piece. As the years go by some of the wooden parts begin to rot and are replaced by new ones. If one plank is replaced is it still the same ship? How about two? Half? All but one? After a century or so, all of the parts have been replaced. Is the “restored” ship still the same object as the original?”
When thinking about organisational culture it can be helpful to consider the ship of Theseus. People often talk about ‘culture’ as if it’s an object. As if it’s somehow static or immutable. But culture will, of course, evolve and change. It can’t not.
But there is often an enduring quality to culture, for good or for ill, it’s passed on. It’s mimetic. So the overarching question might be, ‘how?’.
Where is that culture contained?
What makes your culture what it is? What are the attributes and language you’d use to describe it?
What are the behaviours that are brought out in new people when they spend time in your organisation?
How is culture transferred? How do people model culture?
What happens when you grow? Can it be the same ship if it’s 10x the size?
Would you like it to be?