[MUSIC] Did you enjoy watching the video? Now let's get started discussing about culture. In its most simple form, one can say that culture is about the way we do things. The way we do we do things at Rijk Zwaan. The way we do things in our countries, in our organizations, in our teams, and maybe even in our families. So culture by that is something that you are not always even really aware of. That is until you're confronted with people from another culture who do things very differently. And then, all of a sudden you come to see what is specific for your culture. And that it's maybe not so self evident or so clear that you do things always in the way you do it. If you want to put up a more formal definition, one can say a culture is a shared system of meaning, ideas, and thoughts. So this implies that a culture, it guides your perception and your way of understanding what happens around you. And based on that, it also influences your behavior, your action, what you do. Do you remember all the way back to week one, when I was asking the question why do people do what they do? And we started understanding all kind of intrinsic motivations, needs, all kind of intrinsic things. Well, I would say culture or the perspective of culture in a way is another, an additional answer to that question, why do we do things the way we do? Because a culture says something about the social setting around us that shapes our behavior and that shapes how we see the world and how we act. Let's continue with some characteristics of cultures. As you may have guessed already a culture can exist on multiple levels. You've heard me referring already to national cultures. Our countries have cultures, but even within a country there may be different subcultures in different regions, different cities. But then also, organizations can have cultures. And this is what we're going to be discussing much more in the coming segments. Things in one organization are simply not the same as they are in another organization. I bet while watching the video of Rijk Zwaan, that you notice already many things that were very specific and maybe very different from what you have experienced in other organizations? Even teams can have a very specific culture. Even our families can have a culture. So it's all about how do we do things in this specific group of people let's say. A second characteristic that I'd like to highlight is that cultures can also be stronger or weaker. And this says something about the extent to which values of a group, the way that people act based on what is important, are stronger and are more widely shared between people. Let me explain that a bit further. A culture is strong when, in fact, people are very committed to the values of that culture. So people really buy into it, and live according to what the culture is defined by. The second way in which a culture can be strong is that the culture is also widely shared by all members of the same group. So you can imagine already if you're thinking about maybe the country where you are from, that of course not everybody is the same, that's all clear. So the culture and the extent to which the culture is stronger or weaker says something about how similar people are in the values that they hold and how strongly they act upon those values and about other characteristics of their culture. Why do we have cultures? What do cultures do? Why do they exist? This is a very broad question, obviously. So let me just highlight for you some of the functions that a culture has. What a culture does is that is provides a sense of identification, a sense of belonging to a certain group. And do you remember again thinking back to week one, when we were discussing how people have a need to belong? People like it to belong to something. It gives security and it gives stability. In a culture, a clear sense of the things are done, in an organization or in a country, provides exactly that sense of belonging, that sense of identification. Second, it also provides a motivation to act. It provides a direction for your efforts and for the intensity of your actions. Because what a culture also really does is that it connects the individual to something larger, to the organization, to the country, to the team, whatever it is. And through that, it creates a meaning for people to act, and it guides what people want to do, and it sustains that motivation overtime. A third function of culture is that it also provides a stability to a social system. Because the behavior of people at are part of the collective, that are part of the culture, it provides a sense of security, predictability, a common agreement on how things are done. And this is something that in a social system, in a group of people trying to achieve something, in fact has a very important function. With those characteristics of culture that we just discussed, I'd like to invite you to think back about the notes that you've made while watching the company video of Rijk Zwaan. And now try to start describing how you would see the culture of Rijk Zwaan. What specific elements stand out? And we're going to be discussing this in more detail afterwards. [MUSIC]
