The Groove Issue 48 - Four Strategies to Be a Culture-Maker
Welcome to the 48th issue of The Groove.
If you are new to The Groove, read our intro here. If you want to read past issues, you can do so here.
FOUR STRATEGIES TO BE A CULTURE-MAKER
Being creative and having ideas precedes every action you take, so it’s fair to say that it is your creativity that actually models your leadership style and your leadership is what creates culture.
Culture in this context is understood as the beliefs, values and symbols that guide people’s behavior in specific environments, whether that is your company, your studio, your practice or anywhere you work.
Making culture is intimately related to being relevant and your ability to adapt to change.
Here are four major strategies that I’ve seen in culture-makers with long-lasting impact:
Pay Close Attention to The Margins
Jean-Michele Basquiat in 1988. Photograph: Julio Donoso/Sygma via Getty Images
No company ever started as a Fortune500, no lasting artist went from an unknown to world-known celebrity overnight. (I know it feels like that today, but there’s a lot of hustle, years of practice and risk-taking that goes along the way.)
You don’t have to be the CEO of a big enterprise to influence people around you with your ideas, your leadership style and the culture you produce. Yes, each one of us has the ability to make culture and positively impact others with what we do.
In fact, big culture shifts always start at the margins. Like hip-hop once was in the early 1970s: an underground urban movement in the Bronx, New York, focused on emceeing over house parties and neighborhood block party events held outdoors.
Basquiat’s “Hollywood Africans,” from 1983, in which he depicts himself and his friends, hip-hoppers Rammellzee and Toxic.
DJ’ing, breakdancing and graffiti also became pillars of hip-hop. The post-graffiti moment in 1980s New York, marked the transition of street art from city walls and subway trains onto canvas and into the galleries.
This is where Jean-Michel Basquiat came in shining with his subversive paintings, grabbing the moment with authenticity and fearlessness. He went from the margins - tagging the walls of the streets of New York in the late 1970s - to a darling of the art world by the mid-1980s. His influence in art, fashion, music and culture has lasted for decades after his untimely death in 1988.
Have you observed small trends here and there? Pattern recognition will serve you well if you want to spot the next shift in culture or become a culture-maker while developing it yourself.
To Make Culture You Must Have a Deeper Meaning
Jean-Michel Basquiat, In Italian, 1983, acrylic and oil paintstick on canvas with wooden supports and five smaller canvases painted with ink marker.
Although Basquiat had very little schooling, he was interested in topics of social and racial justice as well as cross-cultural issues (the latter was very meaningful to him since he had a Haitian and Puerto Rican background). His social commentary often focused on marginalization throughout history.
Think about this: What makes culture is not just the outside - it’s the inside, the purpose, the value of what you intend with your work. It’s both the text and subtext. You don’t have to give it all away or explain every single detail of what you do. A person’s subconscious will pick up on underlying clues if your purpose is intentionally well-crafted.
And trust me, this is valid anywhere: the greatest inventors, entrepreneurs and scientists have a deep desire to solve complex problems and give value to the people they serve. That’s the intent. It's much bigger and overarching than just what we see at face value.
You know how Warby Parker changed the culture of buying eyeglasses in the United States? There was an underlying reason: to make stylish corrective eyewear accessible to as many people as possible at a fraction of the price by cutting every middleman.
More important, though, is that for every pair of glasses sold, the company donates one to a person in need. CEO Neil Blumenthal told Inc.: “Frankly, the social mission is what drives us. It's what gets us up in the morning. It's what prevents us from hitting the snooze button and spending another 15 minutes sleeping. And for our 1,800 current employees and for people that we're recruiting, we lead with social mission. That's the No. 1 reason people want to come work for Warby Parker.”
Before you embark on a new project, ask yourself: What’s the deeper meaning behind it? What’s the true intent? Who are you serving and why? What will get you going and prevent you from hitting that snooze button?
Stay Relevant
The other day I watched a video released by Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, where he said that the competition with TikTok and YouTube is having him rethink the company’s strategy. He has to push the app more toward video-making and wants to give people even more tools to create, edit and amplify messages using this medium.
Note that he didn’t say he will kill static imagery, he said that he wants to stay relevant to face the challenges of today. Mosseri needs to make these shifts because his job is to have billions of engaged users, generate money through ads and other programs, and keep the business thriving.
Believe me, nobody can keep up with the changes in their own industries, technology, society and everything in between. But we make a conscious effort to try. I go to as many art exhibitions and art fairs as I possibly can to know what’s happening in emerging, mid-size and mega-galleries and discover the artists they are working with and why. I read the news that pertains to my business and those that don't. I watch my kids play video games and try to understand how they use social media and what their preferred channels are and why.
If you feel overwhelmed by so much information, laser-focus on a specific part of your own industry and subscribe to Google Alerts, adding a keyword or keywords that represent what you are interested into. Let Google do the job for you and send you at the end of the day the most relevant articles on the topics that you chose.
Surround Yourself with People from All Walks of Life
The best leaders always surround themselves with people who are better than they are, who know more than they do, so they can increase their own competencies to influence people and make an even bigger impact in culture. But on top of that, it’s important to work, hang out and get to know people from all walks of life and from diverse backgrounds.
Nothing creative has ever come from homogeneity. Culture can start in silos, as I said above, but that doesn’t mean that it should stay there. The broader the appeal of your culture-making activities, the bigger the influence you bring to your space.
Caroline A. Wanga worked at Target Corporation for 15 years, starting as an intern and moving all the way up to Chief of Culture, Diversity & Inclusion. She is now the CEO of Essence Ventures and has been considered by many as one of the most successful black women in the United States.
I found the statement she wrote in her LinkedIn profile to be filled with meaning for impact and culture-making: “I define success by helping people get to their destination, their way. I manage teams by setting the destination and negotiating the many paths to get there. I model authenticity and fearlessness by first doing the things I ask others to do.”
Note how she said “their way”; not “my way”; she acknowledges that there are “many paths to get there” - not just one. This is how you build solid influence: by adding others’ perspectives, experiences and backgrounds to the mix and making your own adjustments as circumstances change.
And now I ask you: what of these four strategies can you adopt today in your own culture-making?
Thank you for reading this far. Looking forward to hearing from you anytime.
There are no affiliate links in this email. Everything that I recommend is done freely.
THE EXTRA GROOVE
Read:
Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang
Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip-Hop Generation by J. Faith Almiron, Dakota DeVos, et al.
Tribes: We Need You To Lead Us By Seth Godin
Watch:
Style Wars, a documentary directed by Tony Silver and produced in collaboration with Henry Chalfant
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child, a documentary directed by Tamra Davis