Spring is emerging bit by bit throughout Nexus Family Healing. While one part of our organization is seeing actual new growth in their garden, another still requires a parka. Yet, it is indisputable: we are rounding the corner of the dark winter of 2020, coming out of isolation, and stepping back into the world again. The kids on my block are joyously riding their bikes while their relieved parents sip a beverage and chat as vaccines lead to plans of normalcy.
As we watch spring emerge this year, the contrast between the changes that happen to us and around us, and ones that we make happen are in clear relief. I have choices about how much I do to my lawn but whether it’s my crab grass or my neighbor’s golf course quality turf, it’s all coming up one way or the other.
Throughout our organization we are taking stock of what we are emerging with this spring – figuring out what to keep and what to weed out. So many changes this past year have felt like they happened to us. Now the question is: what are changes we want to make?
At Nexus Family Healing, we are examining the culture we have and determining the culture we want.
Our discussions surround the impact of the distancing we have done this year and – good or bad – the impact it has had on our culture. We are evaluating the conditions of our relationships after so many months of seeing each other’s faces but never looking directly into one another’s eyes – not to mention far too many hours looking at our own image. I, for one, know myself much better after this year of containment but figuring out how to use that new awareness in the newly emerging world is not so clear.
As Tony Moore*, Culture Architect, reminds us again and again, our current organizational culture perfectly aligns with the results we are getting. As our agencies look at the culture we have and the results we are getting, there are choices to be made. If crabgrass abounds, do we have the resolve to do something about it?
How To Create Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is created by how we act and interact. But if we create it, we can evolve it. If we refuse to turn away from an unflattering image or aspect of our current culture, we can take Tony’s challenge to dream the culture we want and steadily develop the determination and behaviors we need to create it.
This is not work for the meek, and we know that many such change efforts fail. With the disciplined commitment to the behaviors that matter, the forces of what we make happen can overcome the evolution of culture that feels like it is happening to us.
It’s invigorating to see our organization leaning into a different kind of growth this spring. It’s not inevitable. It needs disciplined tending. We will dream the culture we want and commit to the behaviors that matter with the same level of determination and obsession as my neighbor tends to each shoot of grass in his lawn. We can get there. And the lives we impact when we are at our best are counting on us to not falter.
*Check out all of Tony’s fabulous content here.
This blog article was contributed by Margaret Vimont, Vice President of Strategy and Service Development for Nexus Family Healing.
Nexus Family Healing is a national nonprofit mental health organization that restores hope for thousands of children and families who come to us for outpatient/community mental health services, foster care and adoption, and residential treatment. For over 45 years, our network of agencies has used innovative, personalized approaches to heal trauma, break cycles of harm, and reshape futures. We believe every child is worth it — and every family matters. Learn more at nexusfamilyhealing.org.