Culture changes as the Third Lesson in a Lean Six Sigma environment

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Several centuries ago, humanity believed that the Earth was flat and the entire Universe was rotating around us [1][2]. Although an interesting concept since people have always wanted to know how the Universe evolved, there is a direct link between the brain development and our worldly evolution. As the brain is self-organizing based on the individual experiences, the need for changes happened at the individual level. If people at that time did not have the knowledge to develop the tools that would have helped them to determine the Earth location and position, “the brain” have developed and forced people to move the system upwards towards new discoveries. The belief that human beings are at the center of their own discoveries can be found in how cultures have been developed through centuries. Culture as defined by a set of integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations, have required major shifts in time to be able to pursue their own discoveries.

Although many companies or organizations when compared at global level refer to culture as non-shifter, and many of them try to hold on to what they have gained in the past, the history provides us with enough information that systems are continually moving therefore cultural changes are part of a normal and systemic behavior. An illogical thinking is when we believe that there will never be a shift in the company or organizational culture. Nothing will stay the same because we, the humans have the possibility to mentally recreate patterns and re-adjust our mind and behavior constantly. Before a company can self-development or self- discover, people who work in the company or organization need to have their own self-development and self-discovery in mind connected towards social responsibility [3].

The challenges with companies or organizations that believe that cultural changes’s responsibility goal is mainly to monitor and control costs, but cannot help people to change their behavior due to lacking the tools to better understand the internal challenges in the context of social involvement, have a tendency to be absorbed in the continual and perpetual changes without benefiting our societies. Social interaction between companies and society will always contribute to business success in the area of operation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth [1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myth_of_the_Flat_Earth [2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_responsibility [3]