Every organization has at some stage identified their “Values” – what the company deems as important and the ideals they strive to uphold in their day-to-day business.
Sounds fantastic.
But, how many organizations have you come across that you can say, without a doubt, completely behave in accordance with their values? Is yours?
The problem with one-word values
It is often thought that cultures are described in terms of one-word values.
The problem with using one-word values like “Honesty, Accountability, Responsibility, Teamwork” is that they may mean different things to different people.
To one person, “honesty” might mean telling the truth when asked, to another person it would mean not withholding information, even if you are not asked.
To one person “customer first” means being polite to customers. To another it would mean ensuring that you resolve the customer’s problem and that you put the customer’s needs above your own.
Describing values as behaviors
It is more useful for us to describe values in terms of the behaviors you would like everyone to adopt. For example:
Instead of saying, we value integrity, we can say: We always do what we say we will do.
Instead of saying, we value safety, we can say: We prevent accidents before they happen.
And we will not walk past a potentially dangerous environment or situation without correcting it or raising the alarm.
Instead of saying, Customer Focused, we can say: We will not lie to customers, and we will not withhold information from customers.
And we always do what is right for the customer, especially when it’s hard.
Creating a manifesto
Describing your culture as a set of behaviors will give your employees a manifesto or a handbook according to which they behave and make decisions.
Saying “We always do what we say we will do” is more effective than saying “We value accountability”.
Unless there is a conscious effort to translate and enforce your values into the organization’s behaviours, odds are that your documented values are more of an intent than a reality.
Values and behaviours make up an organization’s culture. If you would like to understand better how cultures are formed or even how to create a great culture, have a look at this article next: What is culture and how to create a great place to work.
