In a major 4-year research project, Harvard Business School academics, John Kotter and James Heskett, identified the types of cultures most likely to breed success.

They concluded that leaders of the most successful organisational cultures demonstrated two qualities; they were grounded in "a timeless philosophy or set of values" while at the same time incorporating an effective "engine for change".

Strong cultures only succeed, they claim, when both of these come together.

A similar project by the Stanford researchers, Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, also found that visionary organisations linked an identifiable ideology with an insistent drive for improvement.

The message for our own work in Catholic education is obvious: We are challenged (1) to preserve and continually articulate our Catholic understandings, values and beliefs, and (2) to stimulate progress with ingenuity and optimism.

These are the twin pillars of successfully reculturing.