Press release 1st Feb 2010
The Culture Challenge
When the old ways stop working what do you do? More of the same, or something different?
Everywhere you look there are signs that we are pushing against ecological and human limits in ways that can’t continue. The crises we’re experiencing in the financial, corporate, political and social spheres as well as environmental decline and the threat of sudden climate upheaval in a warming planet, are all interconnected, and they’re not a temporary little glitch. Our society is at a cultural crossroads.
An awesome responsibility rests on the shoulders of all of us who do the work of the world, especially those whose decisions are shaping and determining the quality of the future, for everyone. Growing awareness of what’s at stake is turning the spotlight of public scrutiny on the world of work, its values, its leadership, its purpose. Pressure is mounting on the organisations that mediate our lives to re-evaluate their activities and their impact to help create a fairer and more just world. The presumptions underpinning ‘business-as-usual’ are no longer sacrosanct. People want the organisations they support with their custom and their labour to be part of the solution - not part of the problem.
The principles of life and living systems are critical because they offer a whole new way of understanding how the world and how things work. They challenge conventional wisdom about organisation, leadership and change and turn upside down the popular assumptions about where intelligence, power and responsibility lie. But this perspective is also liberating - for those at ‘the top’ who believe they’re supposed to have all the answers, and those ‘somewhere below’ who want to be engaged as human beings whose intelligence and experience matters.
The Culture Challenge is a stimulating and timely provocation, which outlines the challenge of culture change in a world undergoing a radical transition and paints a hopeful perspective on what is possible if we understand the relationship between professional decisions and systemic outcomes, and use our work to open up new pathways to a very different future.
Paula Downey is a partner at downey youell associates, creators of CultureWork, a living systems approach to organisation and change for a world in transition (www.dya.ie).
She has a Distinction in Communication Studies and a Masters with Distinction in Responsibility and Business Practice from the University of Bath and has studied Systems Thinking at the Open University. Alongside her organisational development work she writes and speaks on the challenges and opportunities of system change.
She is a co-author of Exploring the Communication Dynamic: 301 Building Blocks to Enrich your Working Relationships. She also helped create Q5 - New Leadership at Work, a development programme for leaders navigating a world in transition.
Discover more at www.dya.ie
County Museum Dundalk
Monday Feb 1st 5.00pm tea /coffee served from 4.45pm
Cost 20euro Booking on line at www.Bratbhride.com. Tel 042 9371901
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