Workplace Culture
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The Strength of Symbolism

Recent listening to a social anthropologist on the increasing numbers of governments and councils 'rebranding' their country, city or region, reminded me of a session i had with an executive group helping them understand what they were taking on as they set out to rebrand their business. I left them with 2 key messages...

 

Recent listening to a social anthropologist on the increasing numbers of governments and councils 'rebranding' their country, city or region, reminded me of a session i had with an executive group helping them understand what they were taking on as they set out to rebrand their business. I left them with 2 key messages:
  1. Rebranding will be undermined without identifying current cultural symbols and understanding the strength those symbols have, and what the new symbolism will need to combat.
  2. Creating new symbolism is relatively simple when compared with the complexity of understanding the deep structure of existing symbolism.

Right now Kosovo is rebranding itself as 'The Young Europeans' As the worlds newest nation with the youngkosovoyoungest average age of any european country at 25, Kosovo is setting out to establish itself as a vibrant, youthful, new country. New symbolism is already being used in media campaigns with commercials showing young Kosovars creating and bringing giant jigsaw pieces together with 'clouds' lift the pieces, connected in the shape of Kosovo, into place on a map of europe.

For some/many this will be symbolic of imagination, youthfulness, new opportunities and having a 'place' in europe and yet to succeed, the new symbolism needs to gain rapid strength from cultural alignment and frequent repetition of aligned decisions and actions that reflect the 'new' way of thinking and the new symbolism.

Without this, the strength of Kosovo's 'incumbent' symbolism (corruption, weak rule of law, organized crime, drug and fuel smuggling, high unemployment...) held by many citizens, governments, companies, governing agencies like the EU and media may prove too strong

Remember. If you are rebranding, make sure you have identified the strength of your 'incumbent' symbolism by mapping your culture*. Then you can create a Culture Plan to have your new symbolism (rebranding) accepted and adopted throughout your organization.

*If you haven't got people in your organization who are skilled in culture mapping contact me about my Culture Mapping Training

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