Culture

Culture can be difficult to recognize or even define, and yet it permeates and shapes the dynamic of any group of people that interacts regularly. In our global West Coast Swing community, we have a culture – and many subcultures – that dictate how we think, feel, and act. In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Jennifer Parlamis, Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco School of Management, to talk about organizational culture more broadly and our dance community culture more specifically. The topic is a big one to chew on in one hour, but we look at some of the aspects that define who we are as a community, how leaders and influencers shape our culture, and what steps we might take to create the culture we want to see. It’s a heady and robust conversation, but chock full of interesting ideas that hopefully get us talking more about this topic.

footnotes
Dr. Jennifer Parlamis
Burke-Litwin model of organizational change
Edgar Schein on culture (blog post)
Edgar Schein on culture (video interview)
Everybody’s Free To Wear Sunscreen (YouTube)