How to Make Values Valuable
There’s A Problem with Values.
For years companies have felt compelled to create values statements.
HR departments have sweated over keyboards as they craft the words they hope will capture the company’s top priorities and core beliefs.
And consultants have presented hefty bills for workshops that have teased out a list of adjectives that could have been written for anyone.
The problem is that Values Statements can often become a bland inventory of platitudes.
They get written and then gather dust on a company website like an orphaned White Paper abandoned on a government bookshelf.
But Values Matter.
Paul Smith in his book ‘Sell With A Story’ says that your values let the world know the ‘integrity they can expect from you and your company.’
A good set of values that are embodied on a daily basis will let your people and clients know exactly how you will behave when the going gets tough.
And let’s be honest, the going has got really tough right now.
Basically, values have never mattered more.
Putting Your Values To The Test
I want to be completely honest with you.
As a company, and a company with two directors who are married to each other, COVID 19 has really put our values to the test.
Like many organisations around the world we have concerns about things like cash flow, pipeline, adaptation to the new ‘normal’ and everything else that this virus has thrown up for society and the economy.
And in a situation like this it’s so easy to drop into a state of fight, flight or freeze.
It’s Maslow 101. It’s survival of the fittest. And it’s a guaranteed way to kill the values that you have tried to live by.
Unless you find a solution.
Redefining Your Values
Something rather wonderful happened last weekend.
A friend of ours set up a WhatsApp group challenging all of us to come up with a Lock Down Karaoke Video.
You can see the result here.
For three hours the two of us were dragged away from the worry and fear of the current crisis and thrown into a task that inspired us and took us to a very happy place.
In the afternoon we went out for our daily walk and I said to Sarah Jane, ‘What have we learned from doing that video?’
Quite quickly we came up with this list.
- We thrive on collaboration.
- We love to have fun.
- We solve problems creatively.
- We dare to be different.
- We’re not scared to challenge.
‘Hang on a second.’ I said. ‘That sounds like a list of values.’
And it was.
It was a list of values that we could get behind every day and live out both as a couple and a company in good times and bad.
We both came back from that walk with more energy.
Make Your Values Valuable — A Challenge
We were lucky.
A task dropped into our lap and it helped us reconnect with our values in a way that will get us through this crisis.
We now know that if we ever get down or start arguing the answer is to Google a decent karaoke track and have some fun as we creatively challenge ourselves to be different.
It feels like a way to embody what we believe in. It feels like a way to stress proof our values on a daily basis.
What I would like you to consider is this.
How can you and your people find ways during the isolation to truly connect with your values? How can you live them? How can you make them more than just a list of corporate clichés?
What are the daily actions that will make your values live?
You never know, the answer to that question might just lead to a newly invigorated corporate culture that will pay dividends both now and in the days when we are all allowed to be in the same room together.
Keep safe. Keep healthy. And keep sane.
