Mashup: Using My Favorite Thing, 1–2–4-All, Moving Motivators, and My Unsung Hero to Create a Culture Book

Many teams or organizations seldom if ever take the time to talk about what is most important to them. In the absence of such conversations, it’s exceedingly unlikely that there will be a shared understanding about what the organization seeks to achieve, and why it seeks to achieve it. One way to capture those sorts of foundational ideas is to create a “Culture Book.”

Culture Books have been around for quite some time, and there are many notable examples, such as LinkedIn’s Culture of Transformation, and many others that are not as well know (at least outside of the public sector), like the Marine Corp’s Four Hardcore Leadership Lessons.

In this blog post, I describe a method I have designed to facilitate conversations that can produce insights that ultimately might be included in a Culture Book.

Why is it Important to Articulate Core Values?

The Management 3.0 blog post Why should we care about our company core values? provides a helpful summary of the importance of identifying and making visible the core values of the organization. For instance, consider these core value characteristics:

• Reminding: A value can be a reminder of how to act in a given situation.
• Guiding: Values are like a compass and allow us to make decisions more easily within our current activity.
• Focusing: Values help us to keep the focus on what is important right now.
• Inspiring: A value can be an inspiring purpose for our whole company, department or team.
• Influencing: Clear values can influence our behavior at work and can be a force behind our motivation, commitment and productivity.
• Reflecting: Values are part of our identity. In the case of a company they are part of your culture. It’s how our customers recognize you.
• Clarifying: In a team or larger group context, the visualization of core values can invite discussion and reveal different points of view.
• Team building & trust building: Clarification of values for each individual can give us a better sense of and insight into our colleagues and therefore change the way we interact.

Facilitating a Culture Book Conversation

It’s important for conversations about organizational culture to take place at the grass-roots level, that is, not be driven exclusively by top-down decision making.

Facilitator Preparation

• Either print or be prepared to display the Management 3.0 Big Values List
• Review the Discussion Questions below
• Get familiar with the Moving Motivators activity, and either procure or prepare sets of Moving Motivators cards (if facilitating in-person), create an electronic equivalent, or use the “Cards M3.0” app.

Step 1: My Favorite Thing

• Each person silently thinks about what their favorite thing to do is, outside of work (Examples: Reading; listening to music; Listening to podcasts; Gardening; Cooking; Watching movies; Running; Hiking; Bicycling, etc)
• Each person writes their favorite thing down
• Each person stands up, and holds their card in front of them (or if facilitating virtually, shows or says what they wrote on their card)
• Form groups, by finding others who have the same thing (or a similar thing) on their cards
• In groups, talk about these shared interests

Step 2: Silent Observations: Core Values and Wish Values

For the topics below, the goal is for each person to record their thoughts on Core Values and Wish Values:

• Introduce the Big Values List (printed hand-out, digital display, or both)
• Choose six adjectives from the Big Values List that represent Core Values of the group/the organization. (“Core Values” are things that definitively represent what the organization sees as important, and which guide its day-to-day behavior)
• Choose six adjectives from the Big Values List that represent Wish Values of the group/the organization. (“Wish Values” are things that we aspire to demonstrate as an organization in the near future, but do not accurately represent the current state)

Step 3: Group Observations:

Using the Discussion Questions below, employ the following facilitation approach to answer each question:

• As individuals. Think of an answer to the question, and write it down (1 min)
• Form pairs. Discuss your answers. (2 min)
• Merge pairs to form groups of four. Discuss your answers. What patterns become visible? (4 min)
• All. Each groups shares their answers. What themes emerge from this conversation? (5–10 min)

Note: Facilitators who are familiar with Liberating Structures might recognize that the approach described in this section is a manifestation of called 1–2–4-All.

Discussion Questions

For the Group Observations activity, use this baseline set of questions:

1. What I like best about working here
2. What I would like to see improved in the organization
3. What sorts of feedback help me see that the organization values the work that I do

Step 4: Moving Motivators

Using a set of Moving Motivators cards (whether physical, virtual, or on the app):

1. Decide which motivators are most important to you by placing the Moving Motivator cards in order from left (least important) to right (most important.)
2. In pairs or triads, discuss what sorts of changes in your work environment could potentially change the relative importance of the different motivating factors. Try posing one or more hypothetical situations, and moving the cards accordingly if that hypothetical were to occur.
3. Repeat Step Two so that each person in the group has an opportunity to share their perspective on what motivates them.

Note: For reference, below is what is printed on each of the Meeting Motivators cards:

• Curiosity: I have plenty of things to investigate and to think about
• Honor: I feel proud that my personal values are reflected in how I work.
• Acceptance: The people around me approve of what I do and who I am.
• Mastery: My work challenges my competence but it is still within my abilities.
• Power: There’s enough room for me to influence what happens around me.
• Freedom: I am independent of others with my work and my responsibilities.
• Relatedness: I have good social contacts with the people in my work.
• Order: There are enough rules and policies for a stable environment.
• Goal: My purpose in life is reflected in the work that I do.
• Status: My position is good, and recognized by the people who work with me.

Step 5: My Unsung Hero

Silently think about a person you know in the organization who has done/is doing something you find particularly noteworthy or admirable. Write down the following information about that person:

• Name
• Summary of what they have done/are doing that you find noteworthy or admirable, being as descriptive and specific as possible, where: a. It can be something they’re doing at work, or; b. Something they do outside of work (for example, a volunteer activity)
• Description of the impact of what they have done/are doing, for example: a. It has improved business outcomes; b. It has made someone’s life better.

Conclusion

Based on the outcomes from the conversations above, there should be sufficient raw material to create an initial outline for a Culture Book (or for a similar state of purpose, values, and so on).

Additional Considerations

It might be helpful to continue to refine the Culture Work by thinking about it in terms of these seven areas:

1. Company mission and values. Both aspects of value (inward-facing — how the organization sees itself; and outward-facing — how the organization articulates its value proposition to customers) need to be reflected in the company mission and values.
2. Who we are — our people. Including a section about the people who currently are part of the organization — and the desired attributes for anyone who joins in the future — is useful in multiple ways, from recruiting, to level-setting and transparency.
3. How we live our values. This section, along with the next, are the most similar to a conventional Employee Handbook. It’s important to point out that any policies that are laid out here need to align with the values of the organization.
4. What we offer. Many organizations make a lot of things available to their employees that they appreciate, and this is an opportunity to highlight those and how they might help the organization stand out from the crowd.
5. A day in the life. It’s also helpful to summarize the organization from the point of view of where buildings/offices are located, and what life is like for the staff who work in those locations, including examples of fun activities, pro bono activities, and so on that help define how the organization lives its values.
6. Growth opportunities. One of the things that will help the organization stand out is the extent to which employees have opportunities to learn new things, and to extend the skill sets that they already have.
7. What we love about working here. There is nothing more powerful than including quotes form employees about their experiences with working in the organization.