Systems are ultimately messy, and they cannot really be understood without taking a longer range point of view, as system dynamics has convincingly demonstrated. Articulating the Challenge Creating a learning culture from this set of assumptions is very difficult. But the first and most necessary step is always a frank appraisal of reality. If we understand our cultural biases, we can either set out to overcome them slowly, or, better yet, figure out how to harness them for more effective learning. But we first must acknowledge the difficulty of our task.
Culture is about shared tacit ways of being.
Because it operates outside of our awareness, we are often quite ignorant of the degree to which our culture influences us. Therefore, we cannot expect that we can just set about to create whatever culture we want, as if it were the same as creating espoused principles and values. Only shared successes in using a new way of thinking, perceiving, or valuing will create this new approach, and that takes time. I believe one mechanism by which cultures change is to reprioritize some of the shared assumptions that conflict with others. For example, as we discover that competition and rugged individualism fail in solving important problems, we will experiment more with other forms of organizing and coordinating.