Where This Comes From
The Culture Patterns Project is the product of years of collaboration with and learning from brilliant humans showing organizations that if they want to change the world for the better, they may need to change themselves too. A good mix of rigor and care in how they do that wouldn’t hurt.
Decades of management science and organizational research tell us that strong organizational cultures, engaged people, and effective work go hand-in-hand. But nearly all the tools based on that science were developed for companies making it harder to live in this world. We’re here to change that.
The Culture Patterns Framework is a synthesis of science and values. It’s a way for values-driven organizations to understand who they are, what they need, and where they can go. It’s a way of meeting change, and sometimes even sparking it, with real purpose: All the rigor and care that the world needs right now.
If that sounds like something you want to learn more about, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Our Mission and Vision
Mission
The Culture Patterns Project exists to empower social change organizations with the knowledge and tools to intentionally map their cultures and meet change with purpose.
Vision
The Culture Patterns Projects seeks to give social change movements the tools, knowledge and motivation to understand their own cultures, how they interact, and how to change them for the better. We envision a world where we move intentionally with the knowledge that we co-create the cultures we are a part of. We envision organizations that reflect the values and reality that they struggle to bring about in the world. We envision leaders capable of vulnerability, change, and creativity.
Our Espoused Values
We are curious.
We approach people and ideas with inquiry. We want to learn, we want to understand how things work, how things change, and how we understand how things work, can change. We will loosen our grip on being right or better or cleverer, if it means we can learn.
We combine care with consciousness and rigor.
We use reasonable, evidence-based practices and theories. We do so with the knowledge that this doesn’t work for everyone. We do so, couching what we do in an accessible, approachable format. We do so, knowing that what is “reasonable” and a “best” practice, is simply what works for the ones who defined those terms.
We connect the dots before we spread more.
We make connections between strands of thought and work, all so we can build a cohesive, holistic understanding of culture and change. We do not add to the clutter of thinking just to have something we put our name to. We do not create standalone concepts or offerings that have no thread to what else we do.
We know how power works.
We know that power works to build and maintain power. We know that when too few hold too much power, oppression follows. We know that for too few to hold so much, oppression led. We know that distribution of power is the only path that leads away from oppression. We know that we are not exempt from the way power works.
We make diversity the strategy, equity the vision, inclusion the goal.
We make diversity of people, knowledge, tools and culture the strategy. We understand diversity as adaptive, creative, fun. We understand that diversity is not sufficient. We make inclusion the goal. We aim to create what speaks to, is accessible by, and is needed for diverse groups of people. We make equity our long-term vision. We want a world that meets the needs of all. We want a world where power and wealth are not held by the few, but shared among many. We want a world where power and wealth mean more than what we can hold alone.
We see purity as a problem for change.
We see demanding purity of morals and perfection in outcomes as a problem. We see the standard as crafted by those the standard works for. We see the ones escaping consequences as those with the power to. We believe that humans make mistakes. We also believe that what is a “mistake” is not always clear or permanent. We believe that social change requires constant learning and growth, and demanding purity and perfection is wanting some to have reached its heights. We will make mistakes. We will persist. We can hold ourselves and others accountable, while accepting we are human.
Who We Are
George Chavez, PhD
Principal, The Culture Patterns Project, LLC
George (he, him, his) started The Culture Patterns Project after over a decade of research and analytic experience. Journeys rarely follow straight lines, and following a doctorate in race and gender psychology, teaching eager undergraduates, years of DEI and change work in progressive nonprofits, and even broader consulting in DEI analytics, George decided the next stage of the journey was simply every prior stage in rolled into one. When not working on the Project, George is either writing unpublished science fiction, learning to play the piano at a late age, or dreaming of what life would be like to live with a family of chickens and cats.