Much more than a poster on the wall

Welcome to Brand Matters – the next generation of the previously named Cultural Leadership blog. Brand Matters will be exploring the opportunity and value of brands from Australia and around the world. What is brand, how do you build one, what’s hype and what matters? It’s a bigger world than you might think. So let’s get started.

I find myself talking about the value of values a lot. And thankfully, these days, most organisations do view them as more than a bunch of words on a poster on the wall.

However, very few take it to the level discussed in a Harvard article by Rosabeth Moss Kanter that appeared in my inbox this past weekend.

Values as guiding principles for the actions of people within the organisation are the work of many culture and organisation development consultants, and this is the role they are most commonly identified within. Even when I talk about the role of values in brand I most often use this framework. (See some previous blogs about values here, here and here).

Which is why the article made me think a bit more deeply about the underutilised and untapped potential of values that are authentically held and enacted.

In a nutshell the article suggests that organisations “go beyond the lists of values posted on walls and websites by using their codified set of values and principles as a strategic guidance system”.

In effect she is suggesting that values be more deeply integrated, reaching up to guide strategic direction – thereby helping shape what businesses pursue and how they pursue it.

This might seem like a bold idea, but in point of fact any business strategy that is not fully supported by the operating principles (aka values) of the organisation is pretty much doomed to failure.

Ms Ross Kanter suggests a grab bag of advantages to looking at values through this broader lense: competitive differentiation; accountability; long-term rationale; consistency; motivation; and self-control.

That’s a pretty powerful punch. Not bad for a set of ideas and intentions that would otherwise just be treated as wall decoration and trotted out at the annual retreat.

Are your values strategic guidance systems or wall eye-candy?

See you next week when I’ll take a stroll through the close relationship between values and brand.

Michel Hogan is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognise who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.