Recently, crossing the San Ysidro border, I had a small moment that turned into a “I already knew this… but now I’m paying attention” kind of thought.
It got me thinking about culture, not race or ethnicity, but the sub-cultures that quietly run society:
Law enforcement culture.
Security clearance culture.
Border Culture.
Hospitality culture.
Tech culture.
Office culture.
Blue collar culture.
White collar culture.
Executive culture.
…and a thousand others.
It’s been on my mind because it touches something I keep running into in work and in life: “how things really get done.”
You can design the perfect process. You can map the workflow end-to-end. You can have the right tools, the right checklist, the right “operating model.”
But if you don’t understand: how people in that environment communicate, what they value, what they’re optimizing for (speed, safety, compliance, reputation, autonomy, risk), and their underlying purpose/intention…
…you’ll eventually hit friction. And it’s the kind of friction that feels confusing because, on paper, everything is “correct.”
The more I pay attention, the more I realize a lot of execution isn’t about systems, it’s about systems AND culture. And culture is often the invisible operating system.
Well that...and the strength in your relationships across different areas.
So I’m adding “learning cultures” to my list of subjects I’m intentionally studying, not as an academic thing, but as a practical skill to navigate complexity and get outcomes without unnecessary frustration.
Curious: what “culture” have you had to learn the hard way to be effective in your work?
First published on LinkedIn.