The river of culture and the passage of time

 When I think of a company's life and time line, whether it be a start-up or 100 years old, I think about a river. The river flows in one direction - as time does - from the inception to wherever it is today. It is always going forward, always moving, though sometimes fast, sometimes slow.

With that, a company's existence intersects with this notion of time. Time also flows in one direction, though sometimes it feels fast, and other times, slow. But there are two ideas of time that we can borrow from the Greeks:

Chronos (Χρόνος) - it is what we normally think of when we think of the passage of time. It is measured in seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc. 

Kairos (καιρός) - it is qualitative, not quantitative. It measures the significance of moments, not the passage of seconds. It is not just any moment, but specifically the perfect moment for something to manifest. 

In other words, the hospital waiting room is chronos. The birth of your child is kairos. 

What does this have to do with culture?

Culture, and specifically company culture, is both chronos and kairos. It is the river of time flowing forward, chronos. It always moves in one direction, both taking the shape of its contextual surroundings while also eroding and shaping barriers and obstructions that block its way. 

But it is also kairos, and that's where people matter. The moment you join a company, you place your feet in the river. And that river is forever changed. It flows around your feet, is diverted, perhaps slowed or even accelerated, but it is permanently changed and will impact everything that is downstream from it.