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Writer's pictureDaan Noordeloos

Mono-Culture: The Company Culture That Blinds You to Innovation

When everyone in an organization thinks the same way, you develop blind spots to certain opportunities and even threats. This is the biggest problem with developing a so-called mono-culture. A culture in which everything must always be done in a (very) specific way. Because that's how we do things here.


This uniformity can be very attractive, especially as long as it works. But the chances are that it excludes diversity and thus creativity. This creates disastrous blind spots.


A good example is the story of Kodak. The fact that in 1975 there was someone within Kodak with the idea for a digital camera but this was shot down because it would jeopardize the existing business model can be seen as a blind spot of a mono-culture.


How can you recognize a mono-culture? These are three weak signals:

  • You agree with each other very often, very quickly: "Sounds good! Let's do it that way..."

  • You reason mainly from the past: "That's how we did it then, so..."

  • You let yourself be tempted to avoid conflict: "That's a good idea, we'll come back to that later..."


Every organization strives for a form of uniformity to get a bit of a grip on unrest, uncertainty and insecurity. There is nothing wrong with that. But when the striving for uniformity turns out to be a goal in itself rather than a means, then the organizational culture quickly becomes fixated.


Breaking through a fixed mono-culture is difficult and often thankless work at the beginning. Because you are swimming against the tide, it is important to develop a well-thought-out intervention strategy that ensures that you are not left alone.


The first step here, as so often, is to recognize the weak signals of a mono-culture.

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