Change Selection
01
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CHANGE AND CULTURE COMPLEXITY
Richard Seel
Seel presents a collection of theories that can help our understanding of how to support cultural change.
He draws on a variety of approaches, including the complexity sciences, cultural theory,
the culture web and epidemiology.
Self organisation and emergence
Seel argues that change happens through changing organisational culture.
Culture is made up of the voices of its many individuals. Drawing on Cultural
Theory (Douglas), Seel suggest that change emerges through relations
hips, conversations and the ways in which people understand and do.
Epidemiology and The Culture Web
Seel suggests that change is best approached through making people in the organisation
the ‘viral agents’ of change and through making change sticky. This is done through changing
cultural stories and also through changing cultural paradigm. Drawing on Schole’s Cultural Web,
Seel explores how different cultural factors impact on cultural paradigm.
Lead from the middle out
Seel suggests that the most effective change happens from the middle out,
with no particular starting point. Change can’t be imposed. Instead it spreads through connections,
and the best connected agents of change are those in the middle. The middle leaders.
