Values. Tearing down the posters on office walls

Values are a relatively new addition to the pantheon of corporate philosophy, supplementing the traditional vision and mission. More than the vision and mission, values are expected to be the experiential aspect of philosophy and so become the link to the brand. However, in truth, this often fails.

There are multiple reasons for this failure, chief among them being that they remain in the abstract realm of statements on posters, communicated but not experienced. Consider this… if the values need to be communicated, they are almost certainly not being experienced. LinkedIn wit Dave Harland took it a step further, saying that the only time values will be mentioned is when there is a major corporate scandal or crisis.

Value formulation has a tendency to produce huge and auspicious concepts like ‘accountability’ and ‘transparency’, which have noble intent but are often avoided due to their inconvenience in real life. The solution must be to work with values that are operationally manageable and can easily be experienced.

There are two types of values.

The first is a set of internal values that govern internal behavior. Teamwork, for instance, has multiple uses. It can be the basis for coordination of activities and cooperation. It can also be an instruction to provide support, for instance, step in and help if a member of the unit is not able to handle the workload or is having a personal crisis. That’s useful.

The second type is more important, the outward looking value, the value that the customer experiences. A positive experience is the absolute prerequisite for the brand and the basis for pull marketing. Consider Virgin’s outward looking value of ‘delightfully surprising’.

What is important to understand is that both the inward and outward looking values have a bottom-line impact, immediately and in the long-term. They are investments and need to be planned and managed. They are not something that can be bottled to be drunk when needed.

The method of planning the values is known as a values audit. It’s time consuming but will produce better results. The first step is to assess which values are desirable for stakeholders, be they internal of external. The second step is to obtain internal buy-in while assessing feasibility. Buy-in must be obtained across the organization and at all levels. Feasibility and exercise of the values may differ from department to department and may also have cross-functional impact. Once values are agreed upon, they need to be trained and retrained.

These values will not only serve as a guideline for behavior, but must also serve as an underpinning of delegation, something that every member of the team can use as a basis for decisions and activities. In effect, well-planned and implemented values will improve efficiency.

The values should be reflected in policy and may also be one of the factors that can be included in decisions concerning recruitment, not just from the point of view of the recruiter, but also by the applicant.

With so much riding on them, values should not be relegated to 15 minutes of board discussion and snap decisions. Failed values come at a cost, not just in wasted expenditure on training but also wasted productivity and brand effects.