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CHAPTER 11
FUTURE PULL Understanding the Culture in Culture Change by LaVrene Norton
really hard on that one,” says Ms. Lib. “We had a won- derful crowd and everybody was very complimentary.” Today, she leads devotion at her breakfast table in the household every morning. “Anyone can join in,” she says. She has evolved into the quintessential wise elder in the nursing home. “I’m here to take care of her, but I have learned so much from Ms. Lib,” says Graham. “She has taught us how to pray and how to respect oth- ers. She’s gotten staff and residents in Hayworth into the habit of saying ‘thank you.’ She has made me a stronger person.” In other words, Ms. Lib has achieved her lifelong dream. “It didn’t happen until she was 92, but now she’s a missionary,” says Graham (Action Pact, 2011, p. 9).
HOW DO WE ASSESS OUR AGED CARE ORGANIZATION’S CURRENT CULTURE?
You may hire a professional consultant to lead an as- sessment of your culture or do your own. If you choose the latter, we offer the following guidelines with a note of caution.
DETERMINE WHETHER TO SELF-ASSESS AND WITH WHAT TOOLS
You might self-assess rather than hire outside con- sultants if
- ing renovations or new construction and mov- ing into households.

together long enough to build stability in the team and be open enough with yourselves and with each other to give and accept can did feedback.

articulated vision that is generally in sync with your organization’s functioning reality and that can be defined fairly accurately by most of your board, the executive team and leader- ship, and a large percentage of other staff.

to people who share negative feedback about your performance or projects and issues that are near and dear to you.

shared leadership style.
If these checkpoints are all in place, then perhaps all you need are good self assessment tools. If you fail on any of those, then you are probably better off seek- ing eyes outside your organization to observe and tune into your organization’s culture and provide clear, ob- jective, and honest feedback.
PLAN FOR AND FACILITATE DISCUSSIONS
Whether you self-assess or bring in external re- sources, you must be willing and have time and staff support for meaningful discussions in small focus groups and individual interviews. If you are not using a consultant, you must be able to observe these discus- sions objectively and have means of gathering and re-
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