Coding Culture
I have lived in some of the most intensive cultures in the world. I began with the immersive experience of four years at West Point, followed by three years in the wondrous culture of northern Italy. What I learned over 7 years in these very different cultures changed my life and how I came to live (no, seek!) the deeper gifts of inclusivity.
The current national obsession with identity really misses the point. As a product of three family heritage lines, a resident in a small town, a member of a church, and possessing an overall curious mind, my persona entered the military uniquely as my own. There was not one person at West Point exactly like me. In fact, there were many people with the 32 attributes of the diversity wheel quite opposite me. Sociologically and scientifically, we were all unique. And yet we all became part of a new culture with values and a mission that asked us not to elevate our identities, but to understand how our own uniqueness would flourish and contribute to the diversity multiple of the US Military.
With some very real aspects of external conformity (like drills, uniforms and codes), we had to learn about and adapt to the “culture flow” of West Point like everyone else before us. If we didn’t like it, or if we were obsessive about promoting our own personal uniqueness, then we could leave at any time. Yet many of us chose to stay, not out of the abandonment of our identities but out of the deeper understanding that these identities would come into play throughout the entirety of our lives.
Our individuality markers of race or gender, orientation or religion, were not uniformed patches to be shown in front of someone as a statement of superiority, preference or activism. Our understated identities were woven into a much deeper fabric of our leadership desires and our mutual understanding that everyone deserves dignity and respect, and that learning through differences builds character.
Inclusivity in the West Point culture was not the compliant aspect of the experience, but rather a sustained invitation to see differences in people as the most fascinating aspect of the human condition. Without continuously seeking to learn from our differences, we would miss the point of the West Point culture, and we would set ourselves up for a limited world view and life experience, which would last long beyond the military. When I arrived in Italy, I spent the next three years seeking infinite chances to learn from and interact with a people, and a culture, that shared very little overlap with my life’s previous trajectory.
Inclusivity for me had simply become instinctual, not by mandates nor measurements, but by the inner engine we all possess to want to know the world through as many different eyes as possible.
And on this premise CulturePop was born. We developed AI-enhanced software to help any organization “code culture” not by compliance or complicity, but by the contagions of continual learning and sustained engagement with people exactly not like you. And after all, that’s everyone.
Drew Bartkiewicz, Co-Founder, CulturePop
