Do you really need company values?
A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing.
I often meet with founders who believe they should be doing something about values but are not really sure what that something is. Often they’ve had the experience of great cultures who ‘do’ values well, or have read Netflix Culture Deck, and want to create that.
I love their enthusiasm, and this makes them great to work with. But it can also mean that they are jumping ahead without first trying to establish what they want as the outcome.
Do they need company values because they’re being told they need them? Or that they see others have them? Do they want values that are set in stone, or are they looking for some guiding principles to help provide behavioural guidance?
What’s going on under the surface?
The iceberg metaphor encourages us to be conscious of those behavioural influences that are hidden from view. The visible cues are easy – appearance, knowledge, body language, skills, how people generally show up. But what’s going on beneath the surface is more difficult to assess – attitudes, self-image, motives, history, beliefs.
How can we then create a single set of concrete values to which we all adhere 100%? We can’t, but we can create guidelines as an anchor to how we communicate and behave in our work environment.
Some questions to ask before you embark on the ‘new company values journey’:
Why do you want to create company values?
Are they really important to your company?
Are they linked to the business strategy? And the people strategy (if you have one)?
Is the timing right?
Who owns the values? (Hint: not HR!)
How will you be inclusive?
What are the culture differences; will they be interpreted differently?
How well will they reflect your culture? Stodgy corporatey, or dope?
Implementation
Who needs to approve them (founder, CEO, the board)?
How are you going to use them?
Will there be a launch, and what might that tie into?
What merchandise or collateral might be designed?
How will you embed them? And reinforce them?
Ongoing
What happens if they don’t all resonate with everyone? (This will happen)
Who will champion them?
Are all leaders onboard and regularly promoting them?
Where will they be integrated? In 1:1s, performance discussions, career conversations?
Are they ‘live’ and can they be adjusted as appropriate?
What’s changed?
With a shift to hybrid working, it can be more difficult to engage your team in living the values. We don’t have the visual clues to make behaviour easier to observe. We are far more aware now of the distractions of working from home. Can we judge people for not being so present and having their cameras on? The Barrett Values Centre shares that what is important to people has shifted result of COVID-19, to ‘making a difference; adaptability; wellbeing and caring’. How well are you accounting for the shift in company values and culture? What worked before may no longer apply.
If you’re not going to live them…
Finally, Colin D Ellis recently wrote how ‘values should be lived and not laminated!’ I absolutely agree with this. Be honest, if you’re not going to do anything with your values, then don’t bother with them.
If you’d like to establish if it’s time to create your company values, I’d love to chat and see how I can help. I might just save you a whole lot of effort!
