Getting Steadfast on Implementing ‘Core Values’ in Your Organisation
Are ‘Core Values’ dead or alive in your daily business?
As a leader it is critical that you provide light, inspiration and hope to your team. This was emphasised in a book I read recently (and yes, you must read it too! “The Culture Code” by Daniel Coyle). One case study is based on New York restaurateur Danny Meyer who founded the $1.5b Union Square Hospitality Group in the USA.
As a leader, Danny places a massive emphasis on creating a familial vibe and connections with his patrons. He reveals that every business has “priorities” whether you name them or not and if you’re looking at scaling a business, you’d better be able to name them and the behaviours that support these “priorities”. These priorities Danny refers to are what we call our core values, the set of rules that are lived and breathed across our businesses all day, every day!
While you have your business’ core values in place within your strategic plan on a page, the most important question remains... To what extent are these alive in your business today? If they are not alive, you need to take them down and stop referring to them as your core values.
In order to maximise the core values being lived in your business, Coyle also speaks about leaders taking on the role of the “Cultural Broadcaster”. A Cultural Broadcaster is someone who continues to talk about, honour and lives the core values ALL the time.
Cultural Broadcasters are often seen and heard weaving the business’s core values into their discussions, connections and meetings. They are often heard “catching” people living these values, praising them individually or more broadly as well as calling out instances where there are contraventions of these values. In addition to this, Cultural Broadcasters should be using their core values in their staff hiring and firing processes, performance appraisals and succession planning.
In order to multiply your Culture Broadcasting capacity, think about how your team is stepping into this role too. I am finding that awareness of the core values and other elements agreed to at the Leadership Team level often struggles to reach and resonate with the rest of the company. There is often little evidence of the core values being known throughout the business or there is great variability, where one or two departments carry the message really well, but a number of other managers aren’t as successful.
How active are you and your team as Cultural Broadcasters?
Here are 5 practical exercises that I have used and have seen being used to good effect to “broadcast” your business’s core values and bring them to life in your organisation.
1. Core Value Creation
When you launch your core values, make sure there are some clear dot-points (subtext) that explains to people what the behaviours and actions are that would demonstrate living each of these values.
They need to be simple, practical and really need to resonate with your staff. You want to make it crystal clear as to what living the business’s core values actually means for every role across your organisation.
2. Core Value Awards
This can be a monthly or quarterly opportunity to recognise standout examples of staff members who are embodying your core values. Some businesses will roll these awards up into a grand annual award. There are a number of nomination options, but ultimately you always want your key leaders to be looking for opportunities to recognise exceptional examples of when someone is living the business’s core values.
Notable instances of the core values being lived should be coming up in daily huddles and flowing up to the leadership team’s daily huddle “Good News” agenda item. When someone is “called out” for this, it is a prime opportunity for a CEO or any leader to subsequently go and discover a bit more about this person living that core value.
3. Proactive Stop/Start/Continue Discussion
It is always good to proactively connect with a member of your business with a practical questioning framework. We are big fans of the practical “start, stop, continue” discussion and you can apply this concept to your core values via any one of the following 3 approaches...
What could your staff member start, stop or continue doing around the business’s core values? (a positive opportunity for them to do some self-reflection)
What should the business start, stop, continue? (a chance for you to get some feedback about the core values being alive in your business from a staff member’s perspective)
If you’re really game and courageous...
What should I start, stop and continue doing around our core values? (a chance for you to open yourself up to feedback from a staff member)
4. Value of the Month
This is an opportunity to feature one of your core values each month. Use your managers (with their teams/departments) to unpack the behaviours they currently use in their roles that demonstrate that particular core value of the month.
They can also brainstorm areas where they could enhance their living of that core value. They should aim to “catch” people living the values and “call people out” on not living them.
5. Story Telling
People remember stories! Have you and your leaders come up with stories that capture your business’s core values? These may entail where you or they didn’t live them and what was done about it, or it may leverage a great example that brought immense pride into the organisation and fulfilment to customers and/or other stakeholders.
In one of the businesses I have run, we played back some nasty telephone-recording examples of not living our core value of “Customer First, Second and Third”. We then contrasted this with the subsequent actions that were taken to “win over” a devastated customer and in fact turned them into a raving advocate!
While your business core values might be sitting in a file or on a wall somewhere, they are of no use to you, your team, or your customers unless they are constantly put into practice.
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