Swimming - and real beliefs

Swimming is pretty important to me. It's a great way to unwind. If I don't answer your call at lunchtime, that's where I am.

And so, when people don't play by the rules, I get cross. Cross enough to come up with a snarky flowchart.

But there's a thing about rules. And it's been highlighted by this year's headteacher-sends-home-kids-for-minor-infractions-of-uniform-rules headlines.

You can set out the rules as clearly as you like. But - as in my last post - it's hard to set rules, people are always trying to bend them, and most importantly, they ignore what contradicts their beliefs.

That's vital for company culture. You can state, promote and model the culture that you desire as much as you like, but if that conflicts with the fundamental beliefs of others, it won't change.

So in the pool, the belief might be: "It's not important how busy the pool is, others will have to move round me". Not a disaster, just some annoyance. At worst, a mild concussion.

But at work it could be: "The customer can wait, it's my break", or "That decision's above my pay grade", or "The most important thing is to hit my targets, everything else is secondary", or "Someone else can clear that up, that's not my job". None of which may have any great consequence. But they might. Especially if these are widely held beliefs, or if this is the real culture, rather than the prescribed one.

So before you can embark on changing or tweaking your culture, or encouraging new behaviours, you first need to understand what the reality is now. What do your people really believe?