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CHAPTER 11
FUTURE PULL Understanding the Culture in Culture Change by LaVrene Norton
MOVING FROM KNOWING (GAP ANALYSIS) TO DOING (CULTURE CHANGE)
As you go through the process of understanding the components of organizational culture and what your organization’s culture is, you become aware of the gap between what it is and what you want it to be. You see that the culture needs to change, and you begin to get a sense of what the change must be (i.e., a good daily life with residents in the driver’s seat and fulfilling work for staff). People begin to see things they never saw before. They realize that being in the driver’s seat goes beyond superficial choices such as which of the two events scheduled by the activity director to attend today, that it means getting to know the resident on a personal level and how he or she wants to spend the entire day.
Now, your job goes from understanding how it is
to learning how to create what you want it to be. What constitutes a meaningful life for residents and fulfill- ing work for staff is different for each organization. But the vehicles that take you there are the same: sharing leadership, continuously learning by listening to each other in new ways, and working side by side in self-led action teams to achieve the vision.
It is very different from the type of learning you get at a leadership seminar or conference. We have all been there: You meet wonderful people at the seminar and learn a valuable insight or new tool. With renewed vigor you return to your organization with what you have learned, ready to share it with others, only to see it fall flat. Perhaps your colleagues do not get it, or maybe it proves unworkable in your organization’s en- vironment. Most likely, it gets trampled beneath the comfortable old habits of how things have always been done. In the end, nothing changes.
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