When Personal Culture Drives Professional Performance

Companies invest heavily in technical training and digital tools, but a less visible yet equally powerful lever remains underutilized: general culture. Far from being a mere accumulation of knowledge, personal culture shapes an individual’s ability to adapt, innovate, and interact effectively in an increasingly complex professional world. This article explores why and how general culture has become an essential factor for workplace performance.
General Culture and Enhanced Intelligence: A Fertile Synergy
The research of Raymond Cattell on fluid and crystallized intelligence, published in the Journal of Educational Psychology in 1963, lays the foundation for understanding the role of culture in solving complex problems. While fluid intelligence relies on an individual’s ability to adapt to new situations, crystallized intelligence draws on accumulated knowledge and experience. In business, the latter becomes crucial when connecting ideas from diverse fields to foster innovation.
This idea is reinforced by Howard Gardner, known for his theory of multiple intelligences (Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, 1983). The ability to combine various forms of intelligence, often fueled by general culture, translates into tangible results in complex professional environments. For instance, an engineer capable of referencing biology or the arts is better positioned to develop innovative solutions.
Soft Skills, Culture, and Professional Growth
In an Echos column (2017), Olivier Babeau and Coline Debayle describe general culture as an “invisible glass ceiling” within companies. This aligns with sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s observations that culture confers a form of social distinction. In practice, “invisible” skills, such as the ability to engage with high-level interlocutors or navigate intercultural contexts, enable professionals to stand out.
Jobs where human interaction is central particularly illustrate this reality. A luxury salesperson, for example, cannot simply master the technical specifications of a product—they must tell the brand’s story, contextualize its values, and captivate the client. This cultural storytelling becomes a decisive asset in building customer loyalty.
Artificial Intelligence: A Mirror of Culture’s Importance
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) highlights the importance of cultural diversity in performance. Systems like DeepMind’s AlphaGo, which revolutionized complex domains, rely on analyzing data from multiple sources. Humans, while possessing different capabilities, benefit from the same logic: by enriching their knowledge across diverse fields, they can establish unexpected and creative connections.
In this spirit, Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, advocates for companies to draw inspiration from distant sectors to reinvent themselves. For instance, adopting agile models in finance or integrating design thinking into logistics exemplifies practices stemming from intellectual cross-pollination.
General Culture and Innovation: Concrete Examples
Numerous sectors demonstrate how general culture fosters creativity and innovation. Marius Berliet, a pioneer of French automobiles, is said to have drawn inspiration from observing alpine wildlife. This ability to “connect the dots” between seemingly unrelated domains, as Angela Duckworth notes in Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (2016), is a key lever for solving complex problems.
In another domain, digital professions like web development show how understanding client context relies on a cultural foundation. Creating a website for an opera house or a sushi business requires not just technical skills but also sensitivity to the unique characteristics of each world.
Strengthening Personal Culture in Companies: A Strategic Investment
While training in general culture remains rare in the professional world, it represents a high-potential investment for companies. Louise Bautista (Harvard Business Review France, 2019) emphasizes that the digital revolution offers unprecedented tools to enrich employees’ cultural capital: MOOCs, mobile apps, and collaborative learning.
Yet these initiatives remain marginal, with companies continuing to prioritize technical training. This asymmetry is regrettable, especially since artificial intelligence could play a key role in facilitating access to diverse content. By combining AI with human curiosity, organizations could propel their employees to a new level of excellence.
Going Further: Nurturing Intelligence and Performance
Individuals seeking to enrich their personal culture to boost professional performance can rely on a selection of must-read books:
- Raymond Cattell – Theory of Fluid and Crystallized Intelligence: A Critical Experiment
- Howard Gardner – Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
- Angela Duckworth – Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
- Pierre Bourdieu – Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste
- Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg – How Google Works
- Erin Meyer – The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
In business or everyday life, broadening your cultural horizon is a winning strategy to adapt, innovate, and thrive in an increasingly interconnected world.
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