For some time, top management at my company has been pushing a "culture" initiative, to get us to behave less like the big company we really are and more like a small, innovative company working out of somebody's garage -- because you can totally expect to have that level of close collaboration when you are dealing with development teams on three continents and logistics networks that circle the globe.
The latest device for pushing this desired "corporate culture" was rolled out in a management meeting today: we were all given "culture cubes" ... these are boxes about three inches on a side, covered with inspiring slogans. But wait -- it gets better. The cubes are split into eight smaller cubes and there are hinges allowing you to open them up in a couple different directions, revealing on the inside ... even more inspiring slogans! Yayy team! We've been told we're supposed to bring these cubes into meetings with us, and to use them to challenge people in the meetings who aren't behaving in a sufficiently entrepreneurial way. I'm not sure quite how this is supposed to work. Do we jump up suddenly and shout, "No! The cube says you are wrong!"? Or is it more like meditation: "Bring your mind back to the cube ...."? The mind boggles with possibilities.
For myself, I think that if they wanted us to put cubes on our desks that would improve our ways of thinking and acting, they picked the wrong cubes. My proposal would look more like the picture below ....
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