28.5 Ways NOT To Do Values

04 October 2019

Guest Author Guest Author @ Easier Inc.

Today's blog is by (regular) guest author and Easier Inc. fellow, Jackie Le Fèvre.

My first version of this list contained 17.5 ways to fail to make the most of core values in an organisation and had been inspired by “How to be a complete and utter failure in life, work and everything: 44.5 steps to lasting underachievement” by Steve McDermott. My list was published on LinkedIn and generated something of a conversation. Readers said things like:

“It made me chuckle, nod in agreement and feel sad to reflect on some of the negative reality with a lack of consistently meaningful core values across most organisations.”

“This made me smile….”

“Unfortunately very few people know how to work with core values ... I've met a couple of business owners in the last year or so who do and it's transformed their businesses...”

“Genuinely have never seen any of these things happen. Ahem……”

“Thought provoking list”

Andy Brogan (he of Easier Inc. and the Next Stage Radicals) said, “Love it Jackie... although it also makes me a little sad to read, if only because I’ve seen plenty of these on my travels.”

So for Easier Inc. readers I decided to beef it up a bit including suggestions from LinkedIn folk and some of my other personal favourite experiences from 15 years of specialising in values. Here we go, a newly improved, 28.5 ways to undercapitalise on core values ….

In the beginning

Look at the values of an organisation which is doing well and copy them.
Collect the values of all your competitors and adopt the ‘best’ ones.
Use whatever the Chair or CEO wrote down on the back of (delete as applicable) – beer mat/shopping list/till receipt/serviette/other sundry paper product – whilst doing something else at the weekend when they suddenly felt inspired.
Adopt the same values as whatever Richard Branson/Sheryl Sandberg/Barack Obama/insert name of another other “inspirational” figure said were the secret of their success. What worked for their venture will not work in the same way for yours – each is a unique product of people, place and time and the values which drive them will also be unique.
Put 2 or 3 people (possibly including one or more ‘branding experts’…not the ones who ride rodeos and drive cattle) in a room until they come up with something snappy.
Have lots of poorly structured conversations or focus groups with different staff and ask them what values they think the company should have.
Run a survey with your customers and/or stakeholders and ask them what values the company should have.
Use the first set of words that the exec team comes up with – especially if it includes any of the following: Respect (Enron) – Integrity (G4S, Barclays before the Libor scandal, oh and Enron) – Improvement/Excellence (Carillion, Barclays and……you guessed it, Enron) or any other words which quite frankly should be a taken for granted – Honest, Trustworthy, Authentic – you get the picture.
Settle on a short list of words which creates a catchy acronym – you know the kind of thing ….people sometimes think that if the values spell TEAM or WIN or GREAT that makes them better.
Come in the day after the workshop and suggest changes to the values based on what the pub landlord said (I kid you not this has happened….aforementioned pub landlord had allegedly made a fortune in advertising in the ‘City’ back in the day and retired to run his pub…even so he does not know what values your organisation has or should/could at its beating heart)
Publish the values as a simple list of words in no particular order. Hierarchy matters. If you have six values and they are not in a fixed order the number of possible presentation permutations is 5! In other words 5x4x3x2x1 which equals 120….. how would having 120 different possible ways to order the values help with internal coherence?
Publish the values as a simple list with no meanings. Values with no meanings are essentially meaningless. Meanings are different to dictionary definitions. Meanings are about the significance of valuing Connection or Play or Rigour right here right now and need to be articulated in emotionally rich and energy laden language.
Forget to think about how you will be able to observe whether the values are having a positive impact, what ‘good’ could look like and what the organisation would most like ‘good’ to look like.

In the middle

Think that core values only relate to internal and/or external communications – if the values are truly core over time they inform and shape everything……..
Look the other way when leaders do not honour the values adopted
Look the other way when managers do not honour the values.
Look the other way when high performers achieve or exceed targets by dishonouring the values.
Imagine that once the values are on a screen saver, a mouse mat, a mug and a lanyard they are somehow, as if by magic, embedded.
Hold on to old ways of recruiting, selecting and rewarding staff which do not align with the values because it feels easier and is more ‘efficient’ than making changes.
Think that adding one or two interview questions about values is the same thing as values-based recruitment – it is not.
Hold on to old ways of performance management and training/learning/development especially if you have a formal ‘appraisal’ process.
Expect leaders and managers to glide seamlessly into holding insightful values based conversations with their direct reports and wide teams: intuitively aligning their messages, storytelling and uplifting public speeches to all things values with absolutely no support or development to make the shift.
Start with good intentions and quickly lose momentum because it feels like there is not enough time or money or political will to see it through.
Treat the values as solely the responsibility of internal communications or HR or employee engagement or marketing or whichever hapless function was lumbered with the work in the first place.
Lose patience because after one week, one month, one quarter all the things that were supposed to get better because of values are not yet visibly better – moving to consciously values based practice is a long haul job.

In the end

Treat working with values as just another fashionable fad.
Think some form of graphic design make over will breathe life into values which had no roots in lived experience to begin with.
Blame internal communications or HR or employee engagement or marketing or any other hapless function if/when the values do not deliver the impacts you were seeking.

28.5 ...imagine it is all someone else’s fault if it hasn’t worked.

This list is supposed to be tongue in cheek and mildly humorous but the truth is I have met folk who thought that at least one or more of these was a good idea: so I am sharing these mistakes in the hope that it means they are less likely to be repeated in future.

Easier INC