CEO
Review of Cultural Shifting
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Understanding community and finding ways that culture can change is a topic critical to many of us 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. A recent book by Al Condeluci, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of United Cerebral Palsy of Pittsburgh, explores this challenge with a concept he calls, “Cultural Shifting”. This notion looks to address ways and means that new ideas, products or people can come to be incorporated into the greater mix of community.
Condeluci is a life long resident of the McKees Rocks, PA area and has been associated with UCP of Pittsburgh since 1971. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1984 and holds a faculty appointment in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences there. Although he uses key examples from his 30 years experience in the disability movement, the concept of cultural shifting is applicable for any notion of cultural change. In his book, Cultural Shifting: Community Leadership and Change, (2002, TRN Press) he uses the metaphor of a bridge to make this point. “Bridges are interesting structures as they blend two important notions, the simplicity of connecting two points, and the complexity of the engineering necessary to make the connection. This blending is clear when you look at the challenge of seeing the reconnection of people to community. The challenge is simple as we try to find ways for people, who are disconnected, to be reunited. The complexity is making this happen.”
In “Cultural Shifting”, Dr. Condeluci’s 4th book, he suggests 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 stage 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 that Dr. Condeluci addresses in his book 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. According to Dr. Condeluci, for cultural shifting to be successful, under step three, a person must ask, observe 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 Condeluci holds as 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. Condeluci contends that 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.
In this book, and workshops he does related to this topic, Dr. Condeluci offers us a lens in which we can better understand how communities operate. With cultural shifting we have a process by which people, products or ideas can come to be accepted.
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