Real Values or Expensive Wallpaper?

Do you have value statements stuck up on the walls of your business?

How many of your team would know what they were?

How often do you refer to your values?

October 2001 saw the release of one of the most influential business books in history - It spawned one of the greatest flurries of management activity ever seen. The book explored what were the common factors among “great companies”; defining "greatness" as a company that achieved financial performance several multiples better than the market average, over a sustained period. These sets of elite companies that had made the transition from good to great - and sustained that performance for at least fifteen years - gave rise to the book title “Good to Great” written by Jim Collins and his researchers. 

The reason for the flurry of activity was the seemingly simple recipe with its ‘gold nuggets’ & “silver bullets” that were easy to copy and, voila, any company could be “great”! One of these was the revelation that consistently “great” companies had clear values that were understood and lived by all. These set the culture of growth and success.

Before long, value statements adorned the walls of every Wall Street company and the trend continued with many SME’s following suit. 

The problem was the magic did not seem to stick. 

The question then became why? Why, after all the time and effort and expense invested in creating values, did they not work? The answers are as numerous as the papers on the walls but a few common themes emerged. Chief of these was that companies were putting words up that were not clear, were not understood by all and were more aspirational values than actual values that the company lived by. Staff zoned in on the hypocrisy of words vs actions and nothing changed for the better - normally things actually got worse.

I, like many, was mystified at how some companies got it right and saw amazing results and others drifted. My lightbulb moment cam in reading the book “The Advantage” by Patrick Lencioni. He identified 3 levels of values:

Core Values - 3-5 values that capture the essence of a companies heart. These do not change. They are held to at all times and - even when it costs the company - choosing to let let key contracts and/or key team members go, who do not align with these core values. 

Aspirational Values - These are values that are important and the company strives to uphold them but occasionally actions do not align with the aspirations 

‘Right to Play’ or Qualifying Values - these are values that are an expected prerequisites e.g. An accounting firm stating “honesty & attention to detail” were core values would not resonate because that is a ‘given’ and ‘expected’ value for this profession.   

Do your values need to be reassessed?

Here’s to your success!