Does your college talk on and on about its changing culture, but there doesn’t seem to be any sustained movement toward change. I am intrigued by how we might discover the cultures on a campus and how important language is in shaping and changing culture. I seems to me that if “culture is people thinking together”, then language should not only be a powerful indicator of the existence of culture(s) on any campus, but also the keys to holding a culture together or changing it. For instance, I have been reading about Valencia Community College’s Right program which is focused on improving student persistence and academic success. They have created the umbrella of Connection (contact) and Direction (student planning) as the language under which focus all its efforts. This seems to me to be a powerful use of language to keep the focus of cultural change on a path that brings the thinking together and create a culture of improving persistence and student success. Perhaps there are some nuggets below from various sources which provide clues to the resistance and blocks to effective change.

“Senge (1990) suggests that a culture is people thinking together. As individuals share meaning, and as they become more skillful in employing thinking operations and habits, they renegotiate the organization's value system, changing the practices and beliefs of the entire organization. By employing thinking skills, the group mind illuminates issues, solves problems, and accommodates differences. The shared focus on thinking helps create a common vision.”

“As individuals, we organize ourselves around identities and beliefs. When we voluntarily join groups, it is usually because we want to ally ourselves with the causes and values those groups represent. Similarly, schools organize into communities in the process of determining purpose, values, and vision. A shared identity creates a powerful sense of direction. Without a common purpose, values, and vision, the school will be fragmented and lacking congruence and integrity. Pettiness, competition, and self-serving behavior will be prevalent. However, with a shared focus on thinking and intellectual development as outcomes, the school creates partnerships that transcend traditional boundaries, roles, and grade levels and make stakeholders feel responsible for the whole. Staff, parents, and students become committed to a shared destiny—for the students, for themselves, and for the organization.”

Bohm (1990, pp. 7–8) writes insightfully about the importance of coherent, unified thinking:

“The power of a group . . . could be compared to a laser. Ordinary light is called "incoherent," which means that it is going in all sorts of directions, and the light waves are not in phase with each other so they don't build up. But a laser produces a very intense beam that is coherent. The light waves build up strength because they are all going in the same direction. This beam can do all sorts of things that ordinary light cannot.

. . . Ordinary thought in society is incoherent—it is going in all sorts of directions with thoughts conflicting and canceling each other out. But if people were to think together in a coherent way, [the organization] would have tremendous power.

“To live and learn in an incoherent organization, people must devote considerable energy to staying out of one another's way. By contrast, when people are standing "shoulder to shoulder" and heading in the same direction, they can focus their energy on moving forward. If educators can collectively agree on the thinking behaviors they value, they have a better chance of realizing the ultimate goal of building a learning organization for all members of the school community.”

“Appreciative Inquiry may be the “missing link” in optimizing change. As you read the following about problem-solving management style; does it look like your style or your organization, division, program’s style? If so, your organization may be underperforming and consideration of "Appreciative Inquiry which changes an institutions approach "from problem-oriented, deficit discourse to possibility-oriented, appreciative discourse." may be in order.:

From: The Appreciative Self: Inspiring the Best in Others

http://www.gervasebushe.ca/chap7.htm

“In traditional organizations many managers see themselves as “problem-solvers”.  Authority to act on problems rests in the hands of the few, while the many are there to gather information, make suggestions and execute the “solutions” arrived at by the few.  The best problem-solvers are promoted up the hierarchy and in many organizations “management” is synonymous with “problem-solving”.  Management schools have been, I think, justly criticized for training MBAs mainly in how to apply problem-solving formulas.  There are a number of deficiencies with the “manager as problem-solver” model that is contributing to the demise of bureaucratic organizing.  One is that such organizations make sub-optimal use of their biggest operating expense, their payroll.  Instead of using the minds of everyone to achieve and sustain competitive performance, most people are used as the hands and feet of the organization while only a comparative few are used for their brains.  This separation of problem-solvers from solution implementers creates a number of other problems. One is increased resistance to implementation from those who have had no say in the “solutions”.  “Those who plan the battle don’t battle the plan” as the saying goes.  Another is that the “problem solvers” tend to be a few steps removed from the actual problems they are solving.  Research has shown that solutions tend to be more efficient and more effective the more “variance is controlled at source” – that is, the more people close to problems are the ones solving the problems.  Finally the separation of those who report problems and then execute solutions from those who actually solve the problems considerably slows down processes of adaptation and innovation.  In today’s rapidly changing business environment this traditional form of leadership takes too long to find the right solutions and get them implemented.”

“New, “empowered” organizations are being created.  These organizations “flatten the hierarchy” precisely so those solving problems and making decisions are close to where the problems are.  In theory, everyone is a problem-solver and local adaptations to local problems occur rapidly.  In practice, however, these new organizational designs are still often managed with traditional leadership styles so the results are far below what they are when people are using clear leadership.” 

“Once again, Appreciative Inquiry resources: Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to organizational change based on strengths rather than weaknesses, on a vision of what is possible rather than an analysis of what is not.”

-David Cooperrider, Case Western Reserve University Appreciative Inquiry provides leadership and change management techniques that challenge the status quo. Traditional approaches to intervention into a group, a team, or an organization look at the unit as a problem needing to be fixed. Appreciative Inquiry works from a strength-based foundation of guiding principles. If you accept the following principles, Appreciative Inquiry is a process for change of interest to you:
·                                 What you focus your energy on increases.
·                                 Focusing on what you want to see achieved rather than on what you do not want to see promotes effectiveness.
·                                 Every individual, team and organization has positive qualities to be discovered. Focusing on the positive and working from strengths is more engaging to people than telling them they are a problem that needs to be fixed.
·                                 People are receptive to being asked to share positive aspects of themselves through the process of telling stories.
·                                 Organizations are living social structures. Through telling our stories we can co-construct the social systems we engage in daily. Through enhanced interactions we can impact processes including communication, conflict resolution, decision making, performance appraisals, and team interaction.
http://www.learningconnections.org/ai/