What are your company’s values?

Vision and values are essential for organisational success – but let’s focus on the values. What do people in your business say about your values? Do they even know them? Do they care about them? Do they have any impact day-to-day?

There are three critical things you need to make happen for every business:
1. Develop meaningful values
2. Demonstrate values with actions
3. Build values into the culture

Develop Meaningful Values
A business needs to have clear values that people can understand and that resonate. Too often values are meaningless because too few people are involved.

To develop meaningful values in a business you need to talk to your people and take into account their feelings. Everybody has a different set of values and it’s important to develop values that people can agree on. Some organisations run focus groups to find common core values. Each one of those people brings a different set of values to your business. It might be about how staff communicate with other staff, about service, how they feel about their communities, about the environment, about success, or about quality, or about looking after the people and longevity of the business.

When filming at Brisbane City Council – I was impressed with their values and the way they developed their values – talking to staff, conducting surveys, considering their history, asking their customers. Their core values are:

• Passion for Brisbane
• Responsive customer service
• Respect for people
• Courage to make a difference
• Working together
• Getting things done
• Value for money

Demonstrate Values with Actions
Values must be modelled at a top level. Jude Munro, CEO Brisbane City Council is described by her people as “living and breathing her passion for Brisbane” and this is what makes a big difference – having a fabulous role model. Values must be modelled. If a value is decided – it must be lived and demonstrated in everything the business and its people do.

Many businesses have values around service, and some will have “brave” or “courage” in their values. It may be there are values around fun, innovation, caring, taking responsibility, solving problems, accountable – whatever they are they must be demonstrated throughout the business.

Build Values into the Culture
Values need to be public. They need to be represented with strong examples in induction. They need to be talked about and internally publicised for businesses to truly adopt them as part of the culture.

When I filmed at SEEK – I saw their values (‘passion’, ‘honesty’, ‘ownership’ and ‘teamwork’) built into the artwork and design of their offices – on partitions, and certainly lived and breathed by their staff. In a business where management is committed to the values, they will often form 50% of the performance review.

Even in the selection process behavioural interviewing questions can get an idea of how people might be a cultural fit for the business. SEEK looks for people strongly aligned to their values.

It seems that for most businesses four to six values is the optimal number. Simple words or phrases that not only have meaning but are able to be demonstrated and lived by all staff and managers.

Eve Ash is co-author of Rewrite Your Life! and the newly released Vision & Values DVD (part of the WORKPLACE EXCELLENCE SERIES) filmed in Australia by her company SEVEN DIMENSIONS www.7dimensions.com.au