MaST Business Forum - The Value of Values in Turbulent Times
16 March 2010
MaST Business Forum - The Value of Values in Turbulent Times
25 February 2010
MaST hosted a high class Forum on the very topical subject of Values at our first Forum of 2010. Below we summarise some of the key elements.
Values are valuable
Right from the start delegates highlighted the value of values. CEOs and specialists in the room generally emphasised that the most successful organisations are both vision directed and values guided. Comments included…
- “They are vital to the trusting relationship between employer/employee and lead to motivation; retention; increased productivity; loyalty; employee involvement”
- “They act as a set of business principles that are at the core of the business”
- “If you get them right, they can shape everything you do from culture and behaviour to directing strategy and business direction”
So, how are your corporate values working for you and your organisation?
The ultimate question to ask yourself is “have our corporate values made a difference in any of my decisions in the last couple of days?” ....if not, what are they there for?
Decisions help create the future, values help create the future and when they are in alignment they play a massive role in the creation of successful resilient organisations.
As Kit Thacker, who heads up MaST Theatre & Film explained, "Values have to have a VALUE to the business, impacting culture and the bottom line.”
To explore and test the value of values Kit asks an organisation to test their values against the 5 C’s. Can you see how each of your values impacts on:
- Customer
- Company
- Colleagues
- Competition
- Community
To illustrate how values can impact on the day to day and future success of an organisation, we created a scenario where organisations values were under pressure. Delegates were thrust into their first day at work in a charity organisation that delivered water to the third world. The CEO appeared by video cast from New York, to announce a raft of job cuts, yet they still needed to provide the same volume of water. It was an honest and direct message, but the way it was delivered paid lip service to the values and left ‘employees’ (us, the audience) feeling cynical, fearful and disengaged which in turn resulted in low morale.
How do I know if we have got the right set of values?
Mark Mercer, MaST’s Head of Leadership and Organisational Transformation, explored values from a strategic perspective. We use the seven levels of personal and organisational mastery as a framework to review or create a set of full spectrum values (Developed by Graves, Barrett, Hall and others):
- Shareholder value
- Customer focus
- Robust systems and processes
- Transformation and innovation
- Internal cohesion and alignment of vision and values
- Making a difference and partnering
- Service and social and global responsibility
The most successful and resilient organisations pay attention to all seven levels and their values are aligned with these.
We have got the right values but they are not integrated or embedded into the business
Some of the key problems with embedding corporate values were highlighted by delegates:
- “Values are implicit but not embedded within the organisation”
- “Getting buy in is a real challenge”
- “Managers talk up our values but don’t demonstrate them”
- “Getting the right balance between what is said and what is done is very hard especially when the values aren’t owned by the staff so it is hard to get them to believe in them.”
We believe that embedding values requires focus on two things:
a) Do your leaders and your leadership culture role, model the values? Currently, do they have the capability to be able to live the values?
b) Do your leaders and your people remember your values, understand them, appreciate the benefits and know what they look and sound like in practice in different real world contexts?
The importance of leadership transformation
There was a big ‘light bulb’ moment when we were able to hold a mirror up to ourselves and our organisation through the fictional company. We realised that so often we/people around us operate in the first three levels (of the seven levels above), whereas to create resilient organisations, we need to be operating with a full spectrum, valuing level four and beyond. We could see the challenge of living the values and the need for personal and leadership transformation - in the current times more than ever, leaders need to evolve and master values at higher levels of agility/mastery. Without this transformation, leaders can easily default to the lower level values which have limitations. Mark overviewed key transitions we need to make to move to higher levels of mastery and agility. Through an improvised scenario we illustrated the huge difference it can make when we help leaders to shift their mindset from problem reacting to outcome creating; from fear to desire; for self-interest to the common good.
But what about embedding values in a global context
Brian Mitchell, Head of AV within MaST Theatre & Film, stressed the importance of communication, communication, communication. He highlighted the need for us all to embrace a wide range of media and fully interactive technology. He demonstrated ways this technology has been used by MaST to both embed learning and values in various organisations we had helped.
The Forum provided a ‘nudge’ to help us move forward in our thinking, and gave those who attended some great ideas to take back to their organisations.
Quotes from the day:
“What today showed was the great energy and enthusiasm or your company. “
“Tapping into the energy of anger and turning it to a force for good is a real skill.’
“Values should not be just ‘dressing things up in nice terms’… as they are very important when disengaging someone from the organisation as they have a better feel about it.”
“If the company stuck to its corporate values they wouldn’t be in the predicament they are in now...”
What now?
If you are interested in bringing this Forum to life, we can send you a video of the session. Alternatively, MaST host regular Forums for business leaders responsible for developing their people and transforming their business, and we have several Forums scheduled for 2010.
If you would like to see the film from our February Forum on Values, or come and experience a future Forum, please contact Nikki Knight on 01628 504937, or by email nikki.knight@mast.co.uk
