Values Clarification
What's Your Story?
When storytellers tell tales, their personal values determine their characters' choices and structure key elements of the plot. If the teller of the tale believes that change is possible, the story’s character might go through a significant growth experience. If the teller believes that life is random and meaningless, the story will reflect that storyteller’s bias.
Similarly, people bring their values to work. In many cases, their place of employment was formed in the crucible of shared values. Recently, organizations are using the power of core values to tell a story to employees and the outside world about who they are. These core values are deeply ingrained ideas that guide a company’s actions; they serve as a kind of shorthand for what the organization stands for.
Identifying core values provides key benefits to an organization. Effectively chosen values:
- Make it easy for an organization to maintain its identity during periods of rapid change. Values are an easy way to remember and communicate what the organization is all about.
- Distinguish an organization from its competitors.
- Provide a focus for decision-making. An organization’s values can be used as criteria for decisions, large and small.
- Guide hiring and retention efforts. Research suggests that turnover during the first year is a result of lack of values alignment. New employees who don’t understand or fit the culture may choose to leave it.
Unfortunately, many organizations do not use a sophisticated approach for identifying core values. For instance, the tale of the famously failed company, Enron, is a cautionary fable for organizations. Yet, it espoused the following corporate values: communication, respect, integrity and excellence.
Too often, one company’s values end up sounding pretty much like another’s. As a result, the power of the values is never experienced. In many cases, employees would have a hard time listing their organization's values if someone asked them.
I have done values clarification work for large and small enterprises and have seen the power of a values identification process which is coupled with a research-based framework and a canny implementation plan. My experience with successfully creating and rolling out values suggests a few key guiding principles.
Begin by identifying current values. Often the values the organization holds in present time are not the same values it will need in the future. A thoughtful analysis of current values helps to set the stage for talk about future or aspirational values.
Use a research-based set of core values to get the conversation started. A great deal of psychological research has been done on values. I use an instrument which contains 54 different research-based values an organization might consider. Others can be added, but starting with such a set of options opens up the discussion. Working with such templates helps prevent organizational myopia in values selection.
Choose values that reflect your business proposition. If your values sound like everyone else’s, you’re in trouble. If there is no realistic alternative to your stated values, maybe you should choose others. "Excellent customer service" sounds great, but is any organization going to stand for "Mediocre customer service"? Choose values that are truly distinctive and reflect the culture of the organization. Strong values help guide employee choices between one option and another.
Use a participative top-down approach in creating the values. Good values reflect the beliefs of organizational leaders. The selection of values is not an activity where consensus of all employees is needed or even helpful.
Use a consensus-building approach in rolling out the values. Once the values have been selected, provide plenty of opportunities for employees to interact with them. Give them opportunities to apply them, ask questions about them, and commit to using them in their work life. Involve employees in communications plans, stakeholder management, presentations and branding efforts. The more the employees interact with the values in these ways, the more they will own them and practice them.
Brand the values. Values need to be branded, like any other corporate product. Develop a theme for the values and then use graphic icons that map to the theme. Create a master storyline that holds the values together. When I have approached values with branding in mind, it has exponentially increased the ability of the organization to integrate them and use them over time.
Make the process fun and engaging. If the values identification process is reduced to checking off an item on a list of things to do, it is of little use. I have worked with groups where participants were asked to create skits in which all the values had to be reflected. We have done values identification exercises and asked people to map their personal values to the organization’s values. The organization can use music, movement, art and reflection to reinforce the values and to create engaging and memorable experiences for employees.
Master story tellers draw on their personal values to bring their themes home to their listeners. Organizations are constantly telling stories too—to their customers, their employees and their business partners. Effective values identification creates a template for those stories, so that both speakers and hearers have a common understanding of the story the organization is telling about itself.
For more information about how Andrew Black consulting can transform your values clarification process, click here.