#cltrshck weekly ammo 6

Hello peeps, here’s the latest Culture Shock update – 5 tasty handpicked progressive peaches for you to sink yer teeth into…

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The plural of personal is social by JP Rangaswami

Just a brilliant, brilliant post by JP that nails our mission at NixonMcInnes.

“Social” is not a layer. “Social” is not a feature. “Social” isn’t a product.

Social is about bringing being human back into business. About how we conduct business. About why we conduct business.

Social is something in people’s hearts, in people’s beings, in their DNA.

Man is born social.

Many companies were not.

Yes, JP! 100%, yes. A rousing reminder that we are not just putting lipstick on a pig.

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Much of what you know about business is wrong. You will continue to believe it even now that you know it’s wrong by Alexander Kjerulf

Really nice piece by Alex on the biases and deeply held beliefs that we have around work which powerfully influence our behaviour without us even realising.

Here are some examples he provides before giving us some steps to address the problem:

• Work is unpleasant but that’s normal and there are no happy jobs.
• The more hours we work, the better.
• If you’re enjoying yourself, you’re not getting enough done.

I know I definitely hold the second belief and that it traps me, and I know I fall prey to the third too at times…

Important stuff.

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The Power of Listening from Inc. Magazine

Lovely old inspiring article about an American cardboard box factory business that runs democratically and in doing so gets an edge in a ruthless horribly commoditised business.

What I still really like about this article, is the story of how they educate over time their workforce in the intricacies of the company’s finances:

“We believed that people should have stock,” says Peter. “They should have ownership. And we thought if we were going to sell people stock, they’d have to have education.” They’d also have to have access to all the financials — open books. Maybe they should even have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives.

In fact, this was the article that inspired me sat at my desk in a dull ‘business park’ in Burgess Hill, near London Gatwick airport, that showed me that business could be done differently. Luckily it inspired Tom too, and that’s what set us off on the difficult but rewarding path of doing business differently. So this is a pretty important article for us 🙂

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A tool for listening to culture by Hugh Garry

Absolutely love this quick read from Hugh about culture and curators.

Informed by his 15 years at Radio 1, the piece is about how an organisation can best match and engage with the preferences of an audience (by listening) and my take out is pretty simple: you do this best by truly being part of that same culture and hiring and nurturing people that match that culture. Absolutely love the Tumblr-esque images that Hugh starts and finishes with too.

In fact, this one image of Willy Wonka has been creeping into my thinking about my own business all week…

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And how about a finish with Caroline Lucas MP’s fantastic, funny and challenging talk from Meaning 2012? Brilliant.

I know that this talk inspired friends of mine to join the Green Party and others to despair that the excellent Caroline is a lone voice in parliament. Watch this to understand why.

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Further reading: For a book that wraps these ideas up into 8 chapters, check out Culture Shock. It has a five star rating on Amazon, I wrote it and I believe in it.

Onwards! Will.