Have you heard this well-known saying before?
Multiple people have attributed this quotation to the famous 20th century organizational expert Peter Drucker, but no one has ever found a specific citation in his writings.
MIT psychology professor Edgar Schein suggested in his book Organizational Culture & Leadership (1985) that “culture determines and limits strategy“ which appears to articulate the same basic message.
Thomas W. Lloyd penned the phrase “culture beats strategy” in a 2000 monograph, but did not take credit for being original. For him, it was simply an obvious truth from the numerous failed corporate mergers of the 1980’s and 90’s.
So, what is the common thread among these sayings about culture?
From my perspective, they all suggest the same truth: A community’s cultural values and related behavioral norms trumps any well-designed plan of action. As an example, a dishonest culture will consistently undermine and invalidate an honest strategy.
Remember the third soil in Jesus’ Parable of the Soils (Luke 8:4-15)? Jesus seems to have affirmed the same truth 2,000 years ago!
In the Master’s parable, the third soil is the community of people who originally loved and honored God, but subsequently got derailed by the familiar and thorny voices of their surrounding culture. The result? A duplicitous culture – or soil — whose planted seed-strategy produced no harvest.
This is the main reason why I am so passionate about intentionally catalyzing Kingdom culture! ……..Without it, Kingdom strategies fail to produce a measurable harvest!
How would Jesus describe your community’s culture today?
Pressing On,
