No exercise provokes more cynicism and eye-rolling than the articulation of company values.
The usual experience goes like this: We do a brainstorming exercise. We do a narrowing exercise. We land on the things we always land on (Integrity! Fun! One team! Customer excellence!). We put them up on the wall. We write a press release about it.
And nothing changes.
There’s an even worse option: The boss writes the values. Hands them down from on high. Puts them up on the wall.
And nothing changes.
Is it any wonder we’re cynical? Any wonder that, while 80% of employers think they're values-aligned with employees, only 53% of employees think they are?
Here's Truth #1: Values are meaningless. What matters is behaviour. And the equation is simple: if your values match your behaviour, you build trust; if they don’t, you lose trust.
Here's Truth #2: The only way to align values with behaviour is to embed them into the systems, processes, and infrastructure of the organisation.
What does that look like? 4 steps:
Articulate the behaviours associated with each value. What does it look like in practice? What are go/no-go behaviours? What’s an example of a time we got this right? When we got it wrong? How can you tell if someone is delivering according to the expectations set by this value?
Build them into your systems. Use them in recruitment, in induction, in performance reviews, in bonus calculations. Set up rituals: reminders at the beginning of meetings, monthly discussions on where adhering to the values gets tricky. Don’t just leave them on the wall; bring them to life every day.
Hold yourself to account, relentlessly. Every time a manager says, “We value transparency!” and then talks behind people’s backs, the message gets reinforced that you’re not serious about this stuff.
Be a hard-ass about it — to the degree that someone’s consistent disregard for the values and their associated behaviours should be cause for dismissal.
"But, Kaila, that’s way too harsh! I can’t require people to behave according to our values!"
OK, then why do you have them?
If people cannot be held to account for behaving according to the values, the values are meaningless.
If you only judge people on output, they learn that their behaviour doesn’t matter — the values are meaningless.
But if you have translated your values into clear behaviours, ensured they are built into the rituals, systems, and infrastructure of the organisation, modelled them relentlessly yourself as a leader, held others to account… There is no ambiguity.
The message becomes clear:
This is a place where we behave in alignment with what we say is important to us.
This is a place where we don’t just care about what we produce; we care about how we show up.
This is a place where we have taken meaningless values and turned them into something meaningful.
And nobody would roll their eyes at that.
Ngā mihi maioha / warm regards,
Kaila
