Culture: Deep down we are all the same – Nilesh Makawana

In this absorbing conversation Nilesh Makwana, co-founder and CEO of illuminance Solutions, shares a key truth upon which to create organisational culture: that deep down we are all the same, all part of humanity.

Nilesh talks about how his extensive global travels and the experience of coming to Australia as an international student and the requirement to integrate into a new culture forced a deeper sensitivity and appreciation of allowing culture and diversity to flow, and in doing so allowing creativity to emerge.

For me, one of the most interesting points to emerge in this conversation was the suggestion that the true face of the culture of an organisation, at a point in time, only reveals itself through its behavioural responses when the pressure comes on in challenging times, not necessarily when things are going well.  

This got me thinking about how this could signify a general ‘bluntness’ or blindsightedness in the general capacity and sensitivity to read and manage culture in low pressure situations, if we are dependant on high-pressure events to really read culture.

This suggests two interesting potential solution avenues:

1. develop greater cultural sensitivity in low pressure periods

2. organisational cultural pressure testing

To read my other personal learning nuggets that I took from this episode, please go to: https://open.substack.com/pub/brynedwards/p/culture-deep-down-we-are-all-the?r=k8517&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web