Change a culture
changing the world one cookie and cake at a time.
It seems somewhat appropriate on this #InternationalWomensDay to talk about how we can change the culture.
Listening to a panelist on the radio this morning, her figures indicated that if we continue at the rate we are going, gender balance might be achieved in 200 years time.
I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t seem soon enough for me. I’d quite like to see it while I’m alive, to be honest. If we can’t get it right for my daughters before they move into a workforce I’ll be very upset.
But how can we change the culture?
Firstly, let’s acknowledge that there isn’t ONE culture. There are many. Pick the battle.
Then find the others who believe in the culture you want to see. If we’re talking gender balance, we have to find the people for whom it matters. Whatever the change you want to see, find the others who want the same thing.
Culture in motion
There are two things needed to make major change. Strategy and action.
It takes an understanding of what culture is, where we would like it to go and what actions we can take to change it.
And if we think of culture as ‘who we are’ rather than something we do, it’s about our collective ‘us’ taking action.
Pick one thing. Do one thing. Change one thing.
The collective ‘us’ all doing that one thing will make a difference. The word will spread. A culture will be created, changed or renewed.
We can teach our children to do things differently than the way we learnt them. That it’s healthy for young boys to show emotion and not bottle it up. Teach them what to do with their emotions.
What if we teach our young girls that to be strong, fierce and independent does not mean you have to be a bitch. That gossip is different to friendly chatter. That kindness and empathy are not character flaws.
Teach all of them that there is always more going on for others than our limited perspective allows us to see. Help them to see others with empathy.
One bite at a time
If we imagine that we have to teach the whole world how to be kind, it looks like a massive task. If we believe we have to tackle all bullying, rather than the one example in front of us, we’re defeated already. If we imagine that to achieve gender balance, we have to have the whole business/town/country/world in agreement, we’ll probably never get started.
Start with one child, one person, one colleague, one friend… make a difference to one.
The networking effect takes place as those we cared about enough to make this change, pass on the new ‘culture’ that they see as normal.
If we care enough to change a culture, we might just change the world with just one little thing we do.
How do you eat an elephant?
PS. International Women’s Day coincides with my son’s birthday. Every year on this day I am reminded of the balance issue. That ‘one’ thing I can do is raise him in a culture of balance, respectful of women, while ensuring that he is also respected and valued. It is about balance, not raising one up to push the other down.