Insights into Culture through UGRs

Hey, I like that, Steve. I've been a fan of your UGRs as a way of analyzing what's really going on in an organization - the real culture - for some time now. I've quoted you all over. Nice to be reminded of the UGRs and how they work in this clip. I always think the extreme example of prison makes the point. There's the official version of how prison works, its rules, its control structure, with the Warden and the guards in charge etc. Then there's the real version, of self-governing rules, the hierarchy among the prisoners, freely available drugs in many cases, a wholly alternative power structure and way of doing things and living that is not recognized on any structure chart but is widely recognized from fictional TV accounts and movies of life in prison. Which culture is the 'real' culture? The official version or the unofficial version? Both, in a way. But the dominant culture is the unwritten, informal one. That's what shapes the daily experience of people's lives. In many ways, but to a lesser extent, it's the same in school; there's the school day as experienced by teachers, with the illusion of control from their perspective. And there's a wholly different school day lived by the schoolchildren, in which the rules, in many cases, are widely-ignored and everyone's focus is on peers, with the teachers and the official school experience a peripheral thing to them. School just happens to be the backdrop to their peer relationships, almost incidental. UGRs, as you describe them, create two different realities. It's amazing this isn't more widely recognized. Turning a blind eye to what you think you can't control and choosing not to see it is one major reason. Phil