What is this culture pulling for?

The Tipping Point author, Malcolm Gladwell’s newest book, Outliers tells a story about the context in which success takes place: family, culture, friendship, childhood, accidents of birth and history and geography. "It's not enough to ask what successful people are like," Gladwell writes. "It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't."

While he addresses this argument as it pertains to success (he also states 10,000 hours of practice made the masters and maestros – which Seth Godin points out as true…sometimes), what is most interesting is that regardless of success or failure, he repeatedly demonstrates the power of context.

It has been said that ‘context is decisive’. Context influences the content – or simply - The glass shapes the water within it.  This is extremely profound when it comes to you and I as we interface with “family, culture, friendship, childhood, accidents of birth and history and geography”.

For example, I am from Texas but live in Chicago.  When I go home for the holidays, I speak with a thick Texas accent, which is not my northern accent in Chicago.  In addition, I begin to think and act like a 6-10 year old as my five siblings and I banter on about the past.  I am not doing this to 'fit in', it happens naturally as a consequence of the environment I am in at the moment.

Similarly, I remember initially being appalled when Madonna (from Detroit) started to speak ‘faux British’ after living in London for a few years.  But I would be surprised if this didn’t happen to me or anyone.

You do some version of this.  It is why you go crazy when people from different groups in your life show up at the same party.  This is just simply a consequence of the ‘culture’ of the different groups you are interacting with at the moment…and you find yourself changing characters as often as Sally Fields.

If you begin to deal with the real power of this phenomenon – and you are interested in growing, developing, maturing, and thriving - you might find yourself exploring the question “what culture might I build around me if I know it shapes my thoughts, actions and opportunities as a consequence of being immersed in it?”

You may have never considered transforming yourself or your situations by placing yourself in a different context – a different group, a different culture, but what if it was that simple?  I am not arguing against the ingrained rituals of your ancestry, I am just simply proposing that you may have a tool you have never used.

In 2006, never having competed athletically, I created a group of cyclists to train for an international event.  I did not have a bike, I did not ride – and knew little to nothing about the sport yet formed a cycling group.  I not only trained, but, competed, learned as much as I could about the sport and fell in love with it.  I came in last, but was in better shape at 44 than in College.  Misidentifying the source of this result (egotistically, I always think its my own talent or will – what a dink), I stopped training with the group, tried to train by myself and you guessed it…stopped altogether.  

Why? The context determines the result – and in fact it always does.

Take stock of you company, your business or your city for that matter.  What is this culture pulling for?  Is it begging for our top performance or is it okay if you get away with simply showing up?  I am not saying to leave your company because it doesn’t enliven you, what I am saying is that you can build anything around you you’d like (There is much more to this argument in future blogs).

So then, what do you want?

This, for me, is the point of The Convergence and in the book I am writing with Melissa Giovagnoli, author of Networlding, we will explore not only the power of culture and context, but how to build one around you for success.