There’s a lot of cynicism about when it comes to workplace values and understandably so. We have all had shoddy experiences as a customer or an employee, with values on a poster that are clearly not lived in the day-to-day.
That’s one of the tricky things about organisational values – some people really get them, care about them and work passionately to live by them.
Others are at worst sceptical, or at best untouched, unmoved and unaware of the difference they can make.
A lot depends on your personal life experience – if you have experienced the benefits of a value-led culture or team it becomes your benchmark for what good looks and feels like and the fundamental impact it has on brand reputation and performance.
But try explaining it to others and it remains an intangible ‘fluffy’ concept that isn’t worth prioritising – they just don’t quite get it.
When are values a waste of time?
- When leaders don’t really believe in the values and reference them in decision-making, communication and behaviour. AKA ‘Tick box/ Lip service’
- When values are not translated into behaviours and outcomes in a language that people can understand, they haven’t really progressed beyond the branding team. AKA ‘Values on the wall’
- When people see the organisation standing for one set of values but behaving in a way that is different or even contradictory. AKA ‘Say one thing and do another’
In short, it takes leadership belief and commitment, energy and intentional organisation-wide tactics to realise the full benefits of values. Without this, values are a waste of time and, even worse, can breach people’s natural integrity and generate apathy and cynicism.
The ROI of values
It’s notoriously hard to put a value on values but increasingly leaders agree that they are important. There are enough success stories around to demonstrate that if you want exceptional performance, a culture rooted in a meaningful set of values are part of the mix.
Sport is particularly interesting, where culture and values are recognised as a vital component in getting a winning and sustainable edge. Ask the All Blacks or Manchester City how important their values are to their continued success, pride and identity.
We all have personal examples of where organisations bring their values to life in a way that creates great experiences for employees, customers and stakeholders, building a strong foundation for success.
Which values help you move forward in becoming the organisation you want to be?
But these are still mostly the exception. Often, customer and employee experiences are wildly inconsistent, depending on the particular team, individual or leader we interact with. This leaves you wondering whether the organisation has any values at all and why some employees seem to belong to an entirely different organisation than others.
Customers and employees have a lot of choice and know the importance of getting a good value match. Creating a cohesive, distinctive, reliable culture strengthens brand loyalty and employee retention – both of which have a significant impact on the bottom line.
Why is it hard to get values right?
There are three main challenges:
- Choosing the right values
What mix of values best serves your organisation’s purpose and delivery of your strategy? Which values help you move forward in becoming the organisation you want to be?
Values fall into three types:
- Permission to play – you generally need these to be credible and successful, but they don’t necessarily need to be stated values eg. Integrity
- Core – often distinct to the organisation and already in the DNA but not necessarily stated explicitly. These can be overlooked and undervalued so it can be powerful to reassert or reposition these values
- Aspirational – these represent what the organisation wants to become and are therefore more future-focused
Choosing the values is best led by a diverse mix of employees, including representation from leadership, management and the front line. The group creates a strawman for sharing and shaping with the rest of the organisation, codifying them into a simple set of behaviours that will demonstrate the values in action.
The more people are involved, the more they will feel ownership, understanding and buy-in when you come to embed them.
- Engaging people with the values
Depending on how step one has been conducted, engagement can be done at one extreme via roadshow events involving all staff and at the other via managers leading local sessions with their teams. Budget and time allowing, a combination of both is ideal.
there may be a new aspirational value emerging that needs to be claimed.
A common pitfall of this stage is when it is done superficially and without the time and space for dialogue to develop understanding and learning. Everyone needs the opportunity to connect personally with the values and appreciate how to use them in their day-to-day decision-making and way of working with others.
Time invested here will pay off handsomely later on.
- Embedding and refining
Values and behaviours must be designed into ways of working and people practices and processes. In a lot of organisations, they are woven in but not necessarily brought to life in the day-to-day working practices.
Embedding values is not a ‘once and done’ event. The values will become part of your DNA as a shared understanding of what they mean develops. Telling stories of when people have got it right and learning from when they didn’t builds confidence and energy to go further.
Finally, review the values from time to time. Be proactive to check whether the values are still fit for purpose, or whether one is now fully embedded and can be dropped. As an organisation’s context and strategy evolve, there may be a new aspirational value emerging that needs to be claimed.
To learn how Pecan can help your organisation with values design and embedding, find out more about their Culture Change That Works service, and get in touch.
