Culture Ready or Not

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Fermentation interests me. 

Over the years I’ve really enjoyed making artisan bread, mead and fruit wines. I’ve mostly opted to let nature take its course. Natural fermentation relies on airborne yeasts taking residence in whatever you happen to be brewing. 

If the conditions are right, you get healthy yeast cultures and yummy results. 

But… a slimy, stinking mess is also possible. Definitely not edible, and probably toxic. 

A good culture takes care. Neglect it for too long, and the culture feeds on itself. It turns nasty pretty quick. Sometimes, you can repair it with some concentrated attention to the environment, but it only works if you haven’t neglected it for too long. Occasionally, a desperate removal of two thirds of the culture and replacement with fresh ingredients will bring it back, but it’s a long shot. 

Part of the reason commercial bakers and vintners use commercial yeasts, is that they can quickly establish a culture with predictable and repeatable results.  

Whether you intentionally create and maintain it, or leave it to chance, there will be culture. It may or may not be the kind you want or expect. 

In an organisation culture is the collective result of assumptions, values and behaviours that repeatedly show up in action. This may or may not align with what is said or written about the culture.

I’ve had lots of conversations with leaders over the last month or two about culture.

There are 2 central themes

  • culture has deteriorated during lockdowns/working from home

  • people are behaving in ways that don’t fit the culture we would like to create.

When I go digging for more information, there’s usually a set of assumptions about what the desired culture should be, but little current effort to bring that culture to life or maintain it.

How have you been maintaining your culture this past year?