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A Mundane Comedy is Dominic Kelleher's new book, which will be published in mid 2024. The introduction is available here and further extracts will appear on this site and on social media in the coming months.

This site addresses what's changing, in our own lives, in our organisations, and in wider society. You'll learn about key changes across more than 150 areas, ranging from ageing and time, through nature and animals, to kindness and love...and very much else inbetween.

Halcyon's aim is to help you reflect on how you can better deal with related change in your own life.

What's Changing? - Culture

Culture

 

Please see below selected recent culture-related change.

 

See also:

 

September 2023

 

August 2023

  • With culture wars  intensifying in countries like the US, requests to remove specific books from library shelves surged in 2022 to the highest level in 21 years, according to the American Library Association. There were more than 1,000 such requests, with books about LGBTQ themes the most targeted.

 

July 2023

  • According to Future Normal. rising political and economic nationalism is not being mirrored in the cultural sphere. In fact cultural globalisation has never been stronger – Netflix reported huge increases in people watching foreign language content such as Squid Game, Money Heist and Lupin, and more than 70% of global viewing in 2022 involved members watching a title from a country other than their own. Similarly in music, global streams increased by over 30% in 2023 with Latin and K-Pop artists driving most of the increase.

 

January 2023

  • Mary Midgley put forth the idea “culture is natural” in her 1978 book Beast and Men and developed this idea over the next 40 years. Philosophers had argued that human beings altered their “animal nature” through cultural influences that were passed on as learned behaviours, and that’s what made humans unique from animals. This view posited that culture has come about in unnatural ways, through human constructs and doctrines. Midgely challenged this idea, and stated that culture develops as part of an organic and evolutionary process in humans and animals. Midgley argued that humans have evolved to be animals adept at the development and practice of cultures, as part of natural selection. 

 

December 2022

 

September 2022

  • Gallup noted that, in recent years, definitions of work culture have changed tremendously. Many aspects (e.g., processes, technology, workflows, training) morphed as leaders adapted to global pressures and new employee expectations. Some shifts are obvious, such as dramatic changes in where employees work. However, most culture change is subtle and slow. For example, culture change might manifest as: differences in onboarding experiences and how new hires form relationships; shifts in team structures and workflows due to external pressures, such as supply chain concerns; new communication norms aimed at keeping hybrid employees connected.

 

June 2022

 

September 2021

  • A great challenge for healthy, growing organisations, especially those moving from startup to scale, is staying true to their founders' vision while adapting to change. Expanding the real estate footprint, tech capacity, sales teams' reach and human resources is daunting, but leaders know the heart of the challenge is organisational culture. Gallup defines culture as "the way we do things around here," and they've found that the more aligned employees are with the organisational culture, the better they perform.

 

July 2021

 

December 2020

  • Despite the often extreme differences between individuals, many elements of our existence are shared by almost everyone. We all shiver in the cold, sweat in the heat, and sometimes dream while sleeping, and have similar facial expressions. Researchers from UC Berkeley and Google Research used machine learning and YouTube videos to compare common facial expressions to the situations that prompt them. These videos were made by people from 144 different countries representing all corners of the Earth and featured various situations and subjects. The algorithm searched the videos for 16 facial expressions commonly associated with amusement, anger, awe, concentration, confusion, contempt, contentment, desire, disappointment, doubt, elation, interest, pain, sadness, surprise, and triumph. All 16 facial expressions popped up in similar circumstances. Everybody tends to cheer, cry, concentrate, and celebrate in similar ways. No group of people smiles when startled, shrugs when surprised, or frowns with joy. The findings suggest that 70 percent of the expressions we use to show emotional reactions are shared across cultures, reported Big Think.

 

September 2020

 

December 2019

 

July 2019

  • The UN cultural agency UNESCO added 29 new sites to its World Heritage List, including iron-age furnaces in Burkina Faso, a wine-growing region of Italy known for Prosecco, the city of Jaipur, India, and eight major buildings designed by the US architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Overall, UNESCO has granted special status to over 1,100 sites of "outstanding universal value."

 

June 2019

 

February 2019

 

December 2018

  • Gallup believes that organisations should start by giving their employees the chance to define the best of your culture as it is, right now. What is currently working? Identifying the reality of the current culture provides a starting point. After that, the organisation can gauge how realistic a future aspirational culture is. Is it a major departure from what's working now? Is it a minor tweak? Is the aspirational already happening in pockets across the organisation and simply needs to be scaled?

 

October 2018

  • Identifying the growing trend of cultural individualisation, TrendWatching noted that global mega-platforms like Netflix and Spotify empower users to pick and choose ever more unique and diverse blends of content than ever before. At almost zero cost! Indeed, when launching this initiative Spotify highlighted how 1 in 4 of its users “actively listens to artists from a culture (or country) different from their own”.
  • TrendWatching added that if you want to jump on this trend, but you’re worried about becoming the target of the next cultural appropriation scandal, one could learn from Spotify, which is celebrating local artists and producers, rather than exploiting them. And don’t think this trend isn’t relevant just because you’re not in the digital media business. IKEA recently partnered with Design Indaba to bring African design to the world. 
  • Data can be a powerful tool, and a risky one. Having the right corporate culture to tackle data responsibly is critical. The latest issue of the McKinsey Quarterly, “Why data culture matters,” explored how companies can cultivate their analytics efforts with culture in mind. 
  • Further reading:

 

September 2018

  • How is your office culture really made, asked Quartz? It believes it starts with little decisions that have a big impact, like replacing email with a new collaboration tool. A new interactive explored different employee perspectives.
  • In an entertaining and persuasive podcast series a few years ago, Melvyn Bragg examined various aspects and definitions of culture.
  • Knoco provided a series of observations around knowledge and national culture, comparing for example the open Australian sharing culture with the more reserved Eastern cultures and the impact that each has on how knowledge is shared.
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