Dinosaurs, Swifties, and Organizational Culture

By Ben Opp, SPHR, HR Hotline & Content Advisor
Published October 15, 2024

Do you remember the original Jurassic Park? The good one, before the many dubious sequels?

This now-classic film, which celebrated its 31st birthday this year (making this Elder Millennial feel impossibly decrepit), introduced the ‘90s masses to the idea of chaos theory. Maybe you recall Jeff Goldblum’s monologue and demonstration with a cup of water, delivered while creepily flirting with Laura Dern’s character in a self-driving jeep. (There’s an entirely different article here about workplace sexual harassment, but we’ll save that for another day.) I’ll let Goldblum’s character, Dr. Malcolm, explain it:

“Chaos – it simply deals with predictability in complex systems. The shorthand is the butterfly effect. The butterfly can flap its wings in Peking, and in Central Park, you get rain instead of sunshine.”

The butterfly effect is a popular way of talking about Complex Adaptive Systems theory, which suggests that tiny stimuli, when processed by a group of interconnected but independent individuals, can have surprising and unexpected outcomes.

One doesn’t have to look any further than pop megastar Taylor Swift for a real-life example. Leading up to the Australian leg of Taylor’s Eras tour earlier this year, plastic beads all but disappeared from craft store shelves, snatched up by Swifties eager to make “friendship bracelets.” Why? Because of one line in one song mentioning them ever-so-briefly.

This all brings me to organizational culture. As much as culture is influenced by top-down inputs like posters on the wall and values statements, we can’t ignore tiny inputs that can result in non-linear, emergent outputs.

Let me tell you a story to bring this home.

About a month ago, my colleague Blaise and I were hashing out how to respond to a member request that pushed a little past the normal boundaries of our services. As we mulled it over, Blaise recalled that at some point in the past few years, our incredible CEO, Mary Lynn, had given an offhand instruction to our staff: “Err on the side of generosity.” 

I wasn’t in that room. I didn’t hear Mary Lynn say it. I didn’t even know it had been said until Blaise shared it with me. But the story had taken hold in Blaise’s mind and rose up in that moment. We decided to be generous and say yes to that member’s request.

This phrase has stuck with me. It’s a guiding light for decision-making. It gives me permission to, when in doubt, go just a little further to take great care of our members.

That quote isn’t on the wall in our office or written in our values statement. Yet, that flap of the butterfly’s wings has shaped the culture of our organization, with far-reaching consequences (good ones!) for the members we serve.

There is danger here as well. An offhand remark, or even passive inaction like leaving bad behavior unaddressed, can also bring a thunderstorm instead of sunny weather. As the saying goes, culture is defined (at least in part) by what you tolerate. And we all know how Jurassic Park turned out.

What’s the bottom line? Your team is a complex adaptive system. All the inputs matter, be they large or small, intentional or passive, top-down or bottom-up. Don’t underestimate the power of a few words – lest a T. Rex devour you while you cower in an outhouse!