| Back in 1969, Kenneth Clarke presented the seminal BBC TV series. “Civilisation”. It was a big deal at the time. It’s probably the most influential arts & culture program of all time. One of the great ideas that came out of the show could be summed up in three words: “Civilisations require confidence.” In other words, a civilisation (notice we’re using the British spelling now) needs confidence, or else it will not survive. And here we mean, confidence in everything.
Confidence in our ability to get things done.
Confidence in our ideas.
Confidence in our ability to defeat the enemy.
Confidence in our virtues. Confidence in our arts.
Confidence in our leaders.
Confidence in our people and our history.
Confidence in our narrative. The thing is, what true with civilisations also applies on a smaller scale, to company cultures. Strong company cultures carry their confidence around as well. And you can tell. Not only do they know they’re awesome, they know why. They know why they’re winning, they know why it matters…Maybe most important of all, they know what the narrative is. So if you want to build a stronger culture, you might start asking yourself these kinds of questions: What’s important?
What do we care about?
What is the story we’re telling other people?
Do we know what winning looks and feels like? Exactly. | 