CEO
Cultural Shifting
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
The Voice, Summer 2002
Understanding community and finding ways that culture can change is a topic critical to UCP/CLASS today. In business, neighborhoods, and families, we may be faced with the challenge of getting these communities to change or to consider a new perspective. Recently, my new book, “Cultural Shifting” explores this challenge. This concept looks to address ways and means that new ideas, products or people can come to be incorporated into the greater mix of community.
In “Cultural Shifting”, I suggest a four-step process by which communities come to incorporate something new or different. The first step is to find the passion or point of connection between people that they feel good about and still have in their lives. Some of these points of connection can include: interests, hopes, dreams, skills, talents, fantasies, hobbies, and strengths.
The second step is to find a venue or play point where the person, idea or product might be accepted. This step sets the state for inclusion and cultural shifting. If you find a place or setting where persons may reunite with other persons of similar interests, this presents the first step in the passage to community. Similarly, if you find a venue where an idea might take hold, it is a much better start point for change.
The third step is to understand the elements that are specific to any culture. These elements include rituals, patterns, jargon and memory. All of these elements are found in any culture that we hold membership in and define how that culture behaves. For cultural shifting to be successful, under step three, a person must ask, observer and read as much as they can about the community they want to influence. These cultural elements are interwoven into any community that we are interested in and become key for us to know if we would like to have them act or behave in a different manner.
The final step in cultural shifting, and the one that seems to be the most critical, revolves around finding and enlisting a gatekeeper. This person is an existing member of the communities who can either formally or informally influence the culture in question. The gatekeeper can influence in a positive or negative manner and sway others to accept or reject the new person attempting to join the club. In a way the positive Gatekeeper acts as a welcoming agent to the community in question. The only way new people, ideas or products can enter an existing community or culture is when a gatekeeper endorses them. All of us might remember the gatekeeper who embraced us as we looked to join or be part of a new community.
Building community and social capital is not easy, but the notion of “cultural shifting” can offer us some viable step and stages in which to consider community change. With cultural shifting we have a process by which people, products or ideas can come to be accepted. For more information regarding the book, “Cultural Shifting: Community Leadership and Change” you can call the publisher, TRN Press at (866)823-9800 or visit www.ucppittsburgh.org.
For further information on Cultural Shifting, please see the following:
- Preface to Cultural Shifting
- The Positive Gatekeeper
- Vision
- A Review of Cultural Shifting by Al Condeluci
For more information about Al Condeluci, please click here.
View a Printer-Friendly Version
Go back to top