Organizations begin to crumble when they allow their culture to erode. Erosion is very subtle and silent.

Several years ago, I owned a ranch outside of Tulsa in a community called Jenks. Our ranch had a creek on the north side, with my fence line about ten yards away. As time went on, this fence line inched closer and closer to the creek; it was eroding very quietly. Because I hadn’t detected it, I had to take desperate measures and have tons of rock brought in to secure the bank.

So it is in any organization. You begin strong, your culture is set, values are given and vision shared, but soon, without notice, someone enters the culture who has a different set of values and vision. You begin to see the strong unit of folks you once had start to lose their focus, their passion moves down to a five on the 1 to 10 scale, and soon you find yourself in desperate need for rocks to secure your values and vision.

Culture is simply the “spirit” of its people, and once that spirit begins to erode, it can break the momentum of the organization. Often we can wait far too long to take action to remove the person or individuals who are disrupting our culture. But once you take action, and do what is right for the entire culture, trust is restored and the culture significantly becomes better.

Be cautious of those in your culture who create division!!