Another client consultation, another time I hear myself saying, “I always like to start by defining culture, so we’re sure we’re all talking about the same thing.” And the client nods in deep agreement.
It makes sense, right? Academics and lawyers define terms as standard practice. The very nature of intercultural work means I will often address people of diverse backgrounds and stating everything plainly ensures common knowledge and understanding.
And yet… I sometimes struggle to define culture in a way that feels satisfying to me. I know the literature. I know there is no single, agreed-upon definition of culture used by all the smart people and researchers. I know the quotes.
“Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one group or category of people from others.” (Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations)
“Everything man is and does is modified by learning and is therefore malleable. But once learned, these behavior patterns, these habitual responses, these ways of interacting gradually sink below the surface of the mind and, like the admiral of a submerged submarine fleet, control from the depths.” (Hall, Beyond Culture)
“Culture is the way in which a group of people solves problems and reconciles dilemmas.” (Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, Riding the Waves of Culture)
But somehow, these definitions fall short in my opinion. I won’t pretend to be more accomplished, smarter or better than the authors of these quotes. In fact, quite the opposite. I struggle with these definitions precisely because they are so academic and abstract. I’m a pragmatic person. I always want an explanation that I can actually put my hands on. To use some modern language, to me, culture is embodied.
I mean, “collective programming of the mind” makes a kind of logical sense, but machines simply stop functioning until they get updated programming, don’t they? We’re not machines and humans don’t have the luxury of just stopping; neither can we so easily download new code, much less change behavior by snapping our fingers.
I myself read somewhere and have used the analogy of playing pieces from different games all attempting to play their own game on a chess board. That analogy also makes a certain sense. We can imagine the chaos if each player used their own rules to play one common game. But in the end, human agents manipulate playing pieces whereas we are left to figure out the next move without the benefit of a higher power, so to speak.
I haven’t perfected my succinct and practical explanation of culture, but I will share with you the point I feel is so important and maybe you can help me refine it.
Culture is all the things I never think about. That means my mind and body relax when I am in my own culture. In my case, it’s knowing the grocery store shopping carts have front-wheel steering, that we drive on the right side of the road and that “networking” means a full-frontal sales assault. It means there is no pressure to eat ham on any holiday and that a mindless “Fine thank you, how about you?” is the completely appropriate response when asked how I am. It means I already know which standard business phrases to use to give which impression, how involved I’m expected to be in my child’s schooling, how to have a lot of people over without offending any of them, how to get out of a speeding ticket, what other people will think if I don’t play by the unspoken rules.
Culture is all the things I never think about. Some of them are superficial and unimportant; some of them draw their motivation from a place so deep, I’m still learning about it myself and, in my experience, those are the ones that matter most, because they are what I know about how the world works, what to expect from it and how to respond to it.
How do you define culture?
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