Culture Can't be Wrong
SteveOn the way to trulondon last week I read Chuck Klosterman's excellent book titled 'IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas'. 
One of the articles 'Cultural Betrayal', contained the observation 'Culture can't be wrong'. The main point of the piece is the idea that if 25 Million people watch 'American Idol' each week, and you can't see the point and despise the show, that the 25 Million people are not 'wrong'. You may not share their tastes or affinity for pop singing, or karaoke-bar style performances, but in a way you are the one that is 'wrong'.
What does all this have to do with technology, workforce, or anything remotely near what we typically cover on this site?
Not much probably, but let me take a crack at what I see as the connection, a take on technology and perhaps even social media elitism. At times in the new media echo chamber there is a kind of self and mutual reverential society happening. Like we are all in some cool, elite clique and boy the folks that have not jumped on board, or don't 'get it' are somehow not in our cool kids group.
So here is my take:
You are not 'better' or smarter than your buddy who has never heard of Twitter while you are sitting feeling cool about hitting the 1,000, 2,000 or whatever follower mark that is currently consuming your thoughts.
You are not of more value to society simply because you refuse to play 'Farmville' on Facebook. Something like 60 million people play Farmville. Some of those people are your friends, co-workers, nurses, firefighters, teachers, and coaches. 60 million people!
How many of your suppliers, customers, and shareholders are in that group? How many of the people that can directly and impactfully influence your organization's success are in a group that participates in a game that you may have shown public disdain for?
Failing to understand that group shows a marked lack of awareness and appreciation for what is actually happening in the world. Ignoring that group will result in missed opportunity. Insulting that group (and you know some of you do) could be a disastrous error.
Stop acting like a smart-aleck social media smartypants. Don't be an elitist. Don't be that person. Don't.
Culture can't be wrong.
Reader Comments (10)
Ok you had me until Farmville. Really, if I can another request for HENS, someone is gonna pay. :)
Ya know I had Paul Hebert ask me at HRevolution "Who buys certificate frames anymore? I'd figured that was a dying business." Paul is always one to make you think. And my spin on his comment was that I needed to do a better job articulating my business. I sell to the Farmville fans of the world who love collecting certificates for training, who love something hanging on their wall to show an accomplishment. There is a "certificate expectation" that is a cultural norm. It may not be cool in the eyes of digital innovation in awards and incentives. But, the market is still there.
And BTW- I block Farmville.
Steve—
Agree completely. As HR professionals, it’s a dangerous game to pass judgment on the interests/activities of any group. As you say, you might not know which of your clients is passionate about Farmville, watching Seinfeld reruns, or playing fantasy baseball.
It’s too easy to make fun of stuff we do not understand completely, but it is more valuable as a leader or HR professional to find out about the topic, learn how it can be used, and then leverage it in a way that makes sense for your purposes. I might not care to tweet 20 times a day, but I have learned a lot by following folks in the industry who do.
Hold on there. The 25M people who watch Idol might not be wrong. But it's does not mean they're more RIGHT than you are! Culture CAN be wrong!
Hypothesis test: In some Middle-Eastern cultures it's ok to stone people to death for what would be a relatively mundane infraction here in the Western world. If culture can’t be wrong, then stoning people is 'Right'. However, public stonings are not allowed in Western countries, so a culture of stoning people can't be right everywhere. Therefore, stating that 'Culture can't be wrong' is untrue.
Finding: The theory that 'Culture can't be wrong' has been proven to not be true all the time. Hypothesis disproved. Moving on:
Knowing something obscure doesn't make you better than someone who doesn't know about or use this or that service, all that matters is what’s accomplished with that knowledge or access that the end of the day.
There is no magic answer or one-size-fits-all solution. Whatever gets you to YOUR goal is all that matters, not other people think. Individuals need to make their own decisions and not do something because people think it’s cool or avoid doing what’s necessary because it’s perceived as elitist.
Bill Cosby said it best: "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone."
Falling in line with what everyone else is doing means you’ll never really make a difference.
Steve - I think you've captured the new challenges around embracing diversity in a transparent world where people are living "out loud" a good percentage of the time. It's an interesting component of social networks and a challenge for us all to check-in on how we react to that which we don't understand or value.
There's a great John Sebastian song titled Younger Generation - ok, that may have dated me a bit! The lyrics capture how a father always thinks he'll be able to relate to his son because of the challenges he faced with his own father. What he's not prepared for is the persistence of change and the evolutionary aspects of life and that its just not possible to envision what someone else will gravitate towards.
I loved this post Steve. Something I feel that we're lacking time and again is perspective for those whom we neither understand nor agree with. Your examples were terrific (although the Farmville numbers were terrifying... see, that's me not having perspective). Thanks for making me think.
Steve,
Your idea is not a stretch at all-- you're talking about valuing diversity-- of thoughts, preferences and tastes. Different doesn't equal bad, it's just different. Please consider submitting this post to Becky Robinson (@LeaderTalk) for the Mountain State University Leader Talk site. This month is "a leader values diverse opinions" and you've hit it smack on the head.
Steve, being an "HR Social Media newbie", I have to say that I agree with you completely. I abhor elitism.
You may be looking at my personal brand (Rob Lockard, SPHR), saying really Rob? Get real man – your brand reeks of elitism.
My hard work and dedication to the HR profession give me the right to place letters behind my name, and I have earned it – but it does not allow me to criticize anyone. If anything, the letters behind my name remind me that I am a keeper of the HR professional brand. For those “from the outside of HR”, I represent the rest of my fellow professionals…which includes each one of you.
Having said that, your points are good ones Steve and not lost on me. However, don’t be too harsh on folks – I think that they should be able to represent themselves, and their thoughts. If we are shaping the HR echo chamber – we need to hear all points of view, good, bad, or ugly…it will help us to come out the other side of this HR Tech evolution better for having worked out our differences.
I will close by asking this question to the general HR Social media populous – have we thought about the fact that we are the counter culture? I am sure that TONS of people make fun of us because they are ignorant of the information that we carry on a daily basis. What we are doing is new and people don’t understand it - yes, but then again so where the ideas, actions, and works of Galileo, Columbus, and Einstein in their respective day. Instead of being an elitists, we need to be informers and educators trying to reach out to the mass populous, not alienate them. Inclusion, not exclusion is the answer.
What a great, thought-provoking statement: "Culture can't be wrong." I'm gonna be chewing on that one, and its personal and business implications, for a while. I'm trying to weed the snobbery out of my life, and this helps! I believe in absolutes, so I do believe culture can be immoral, but culture is what the majority of folks like or want. The "pop" in pop music stands for "popular." it's what most people like. It isn't inherently wrong. And as my friend says, "Taste is in the mouth."
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