What is the Meaning & Goal of Cultural or Social Engineering?
There are 2 main areas of developing a culture.
One is organizational training which includes social training and the other is personal care.
Both could be done as a part of a well developed counsellor system.
All both of these are part of cultural or social engineering.
Social engineering is a concerted effort, a discipline that influences the attitude and behaviors and of a group of people and thus in turn in their collective culture.
It is the role of social engineers to analyze and understand social systems and to specifically design the appropriate methods to achieve the desired results within the target group.
The goal of Joyful Leader’s social engineering is to establish and maintain common values, visions and goals, set mutually accepted morals and ethics, and to develop high level of trust and confidence within the community, organization or team.
Training is essential
– it is the means to transfer knowledge, develop new skills and grow fresh talents.
If training has the right proportion of knowledge and application, alongside students being exposed to living examples of that knowledge in practice, they will gain faith in application and its possible outcome – this in turn has the potential to develop a culture.
It is that culture that has a direct effect on three levels of society, all which are strongly and naturally interconnected.
- The individual level
- The social level
- The environmental level
In a given organization a wide variety of tools could be used to bring about the fertile ground for a culture to spring up and grow.
A counsellor / mentor system providing individual care
Community and group workshops and training exercises
Systematic community education through themed lectures, meetings and discussions.
Common social activities, celebrating community and individual successes.
And informal gatherings and shared recreational activities and functions.
In the development of social engineering the following systems are crucial to establish an organizational culture.
The key word that applies to each and every one of these systems is transparency.
The members of the organization should know clearly what are their rights and obligations are, what is the structure of the organization, what are the boundaries, how to propose change, what are the specific aspects of care, how to communicate, and to who with what issues.
If these are set up properly and are clearly understood and communicated, then there is a solid foundation for the organization to build on.
Individual systems could typically fall under the following headings:
Leadership & management
Financial system
Education system
Care / Counselling and Mentoring
Communication
Rewards & punishments
Growth and development
Cultural or social engineering needs a concerted effort from all levels of the organisation to really become establish or rooted.
By educating and facilitating people in a systematic way for individual and social growth it brings community members closer together with common aims and goals.
How organised is your organisation?
Is training and education offered to bring both the individual and community to the next level?
Would you say you and those around you know your rights and obligations?
– the structure of the organization?
who to turn to, to propose change or solve issues?
Is care / mentoring/ counselling available?
If the answer to any of those is no, then ask your seniors how you can help them bring around an understanding of its importance and how to implement it.
Good luck!
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SOURCES:
- Zoltan Hosszu, Joyful Leadership Manual
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