Working within Global Boundaries Part 1

The forces, trends, and pace of the business environment have the single greatest influence on shaping organizational culture. But there are even more global forces affecting the business environment in subtle, but profound ways. The Breckenridge Institute® has identified Four Global Forces that will define the logical geography of the business environment for the next 50-100 years. This month we feature the first of four - Advances in Science and Technology.

The 20th Century discoveries in quantum physics that led to the development of solid-state electronics, information technology, global telecommunications, the media, and the Internet combined with the mapping of the human genome and the development of nanotechnology have changed our world forever. “These scientific and technological advances have extended the biological range, speed, and accuracy of the human senses and enhanced our ability to communicate,” notes Mark Bodnarczuk, Executive Director of the Breckenridge Institute. The “global village” that has emerged because of our ability to know what is happening on the other side of the earth instantaneously has irrevocably changed the human experience of space and time that existed for more than 10,000 years. Despite the continued expansion of silicon-based memory, the information processing capability of the human brain remains more or less constant, so this Global Boundary Condition places enormous and immediate stress on people’s ability to manage ever increasing levels of data and information. “Advances in science and technology will continue to have dramatic affects on the business environment and the ways in which organizational culture evolves in response,” notes Mark Bodnarczuk. “So consciously creating an organizational culture that effectively interacts within the frenetic changes created by these forces is a key strategy for controlling your organization’s destiny.”

Next Time: The lead article in the November issue of the Pinnacle will feature the second of Four Global Boundary Conditions within which organizations must operate - The Global Redistribution of Knowledge, Power, and Wealth.

HBR Editor’s Blog

Every month, the senior editors of the Harvard Business Review (HBR) invite internationally recognized organizational theorists and practitioners to raise issues and answer questions about leadership and management issues on the HBR Editor’s Blog. This month, we provide Pinnacle readers with links to two important and interesting discussions (see below).

Robert Kaplan and David Norton, Strategy Needs a System
Susan Cramm, IT’s Dirty Little Secret: No Accountability

We encourage you to join the conversation on the HBR Editor’s Blog and voice your opinions, commentary, and insights on these and other important topics.

Update

Breckenridge Institute^®

If you would like information about the Breckenridge Institute’s research activities, portfolio of assessment tools, or consulting services, visit our website at www.breckenridgeinstitute.com.

Copyright © Breckenridge Institute^® 2007. All Rights Reserved
Underwater Photo: © Annie Crawley, www.anniecrawley.com

“Pardon him, Theodotus: he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs [and culture] of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.”

George Bernard Shaw,
Caesar and Cleopatra

Enneagram Assessment Tools

The Breckenridge Institute® has developed two new assessment tools based on an Enneagram model of personality that are the most reliable and valid on-line Enneagram assessment tools available anywhere. These are the Breckenridge Type Indicator™ (BTI™), and the Breckenridge Relationship Indicator™ (BRI™). The BTI™ and BRI™ are the only Enneagram assessment tools that precisely measure both the nine personality types and three instincts (sub-types) in a single instrument, providing new insights into a wide range of cognitive, emotional, sensory, and biological dimensions of personality. Previously, many type professionals have had reservations about using the Enneagram as a personality typology because they have not had a psychometrically validated instrument with reliability and validity equal to (or greater than) the MBTI® tool. The BTI™ and BRI™ are designed to meet these psychometric challenges and will add new dimensionality to more traditional approaches to personality.

Contact Elin Larson at elin@breckenridgeinstitute.com or 970-389-4666 for details about how you can begin using this exciting tool in your organization or with your clients.

Clotaire Rapaille, The Culture Code

The Culture Code is an accessible, yet deeply profound treatment of how culture is formed and plays itself out. Rapaille argues that by the age of seven we acquire an unconscious system of Culture Codes that are distinctly American, German, Japanese, etc. Cultural Codes are emotional imprints that invisibly shape our choices, how we behave, and what things mean to us. The author provides a formula for deconstructing and understanding how these deep, emotionally-charged cultural images and symbols shape how we see ourselves, other people, and the world around us. “The Culture Code is the unconscious meaning we apply to any given thing – a car, a type of food, a relationship, even a country – via the culture in which we were raised,” claims Rapaille. The principles that Rapaille has identified in this thoroughly researched and brilliantly written book can help leaders and managers decipher some of the deepest foundations of their organization’s culture. A must read for those seeking a greater understanding of how organizational culture works day-to-day and why culture matters.