I once worked for an organisation that seemed to embody the
epitome of the ideal. In fact, everything the management
gurus suggest should be evident in the "excellent"
organisation, was there. Employees who were dedicated,
management who cared about the staff (and who knew the
business!) and customers who were loyal. The organisation
even had a marketing department that involved the staff in
the latest advertising and promotional schemes before going
public! The corporate colours were blue and gold, and it
was said that staff would die for the company if necessary
and their blood would flow in the corporate colours!
Although I thoroughly enjoyed working there (and like all
the others, would have shed blood, too), I thought the
halcyon environment was merely a fluke and it was my good
fortune to strike it lucky. With hindsight, I can now see
the logic of why this organisation worked so well: it was
the solid foundations on which this idyllic structure was
built.
Those foundations were the corporate values. However, they
were not mentioned overtly. Nor were they written up on
any brass plaques. But evident they were. How did this
organisation succeed in having "everyone singing from the
same book"? The answer lies in the nature and extent of
the training that all staff experienced which was
established and supported by the CEO. For example,
everyone joining the company attended two weeks of
induction training before commencing in his or her role.
This even applied to senior managers, who might be
responsible for managing some of their fellow trainees.
It has taken me some years and the study of hundreds of
organisations to realise that cementing organisation values
into the training fabric of an organisation can have a
dramatic impact on collective performance.
Some management writers have coined a phrase that has
become more faddish than realistic - "walking the talk".
It is intended to mean that management (and particularly
top management) must model the behaviour they expect of
others. But how often does it happen and more importantly,
does it work?
As Rob Lebow (1997) points out: "The only thing that really
changes behaviour is when the proclaimed values are
practiced at every level including at the top". The
inference can be drawn that not only must managers "do what
they say", but there also must be a collective
understanding of "what precisely it is that we should all
do".
Management education and development can be the vehicle
that drives the collective understanding and turns the
corporate values into practical, day-to-day behaviour.
My experience suggests that few organisations take the time
and effort to base their management training on such solid
foundations as corporate values.
Has your organisation tried MBO? Quality Circles? TQM?
ISO9000+? Benchmarking? Process Engineering (or
re-engineering)? Core competencies? Six Sigma? While all
these strategies are based on sound theory (and often other
organisation's experience), they do not reflect the very
nature of why your organisation has been successful -
corporate behaviour that is based on shared values. As a
senior manager of a very successful Korean organisation put
it "Corporate values work in mysterious ways - they can
spur performance and satisfaction while instilling a sense
of pride in belonging to a unique organisation".
All organisations have values, whether they be publicly
evident or not. Before deciding to base the organisation's
training on the values, it is important to have some
understanding of what these values are. Lebow suggests
there are two types of values; business values and people
values.
Business values are directed at the outside world, for
example, "high product quality" and "superior customer
service". People values are directed to the inside world,
for example, "trusting people" and "giving credit where it
is due". My experience suggests that when the business
values and the people values are in harmony, the
organisation is healthy. When the two are not in sync,
training and education (whilst being well meaning) will not
be effective over the longer term.
It is the leaders of the organisation, especially the CEO
who must convert the corporate values into day-to-day
behaviour at all levels. Additionally, Evans and Afors
(1996) found that leaders who are committed and stick to
their principles are those who have a personal alignment
between their own welfare, the common good, and the
organisation's values.
To help leaders develop the necessary leadership skills,
training should be planned in four phases.
1. Identify each leader's personal values.
This requires individuals to consider when (in their career
to date) they have been most satisfied, motivated, and
valued at work. What values did this role satisfy? This
enables the leader to enunciate, perhaps for the first
time, the values he or she inherently hold and often use as
their basis for decision making.
2. Using their personal values as a base, leaders then
develop a scenario of their ideal organisation.
Phase two requires managers, first as individuals and then
in teams, to describe their ideal organisation. What does
it look like? How does it function? What does it value?
3. Leader's then assess their own organisation against
their ideal.
In phase three, managers compare their own organisation to
their ideal. What is inhibiting my organisation from being
more like my ideal? What enables my organisation to be
similar to my ideal? Compiling a list of inhibitors and
enablers helps managers see how personal values can relate
to their organisation's values.
4. Leaders then develop strategies for moving both
personally and organisationally towards the ideal.
The final phase involves developing strategies for
translating the shared values into day-to-day actions.
This must also include some personal and regular "walk the
talk" type activities for every leader.
One of the most effective ways of doing this is to repeat
the four-phase leadership training approach mentioned above
with managers and staff throughout the organisation and at
every level. Each manager leads his/her team to assess the
core values and how they can translate them into their
field of operation. Senior managers at the strategic level
of the organisation such as the Heads of Marketing,
Quality, HR, Finance, Production, IT, R&D, etc., should use
this process to develop organisation-wide policies for
their areas. At the local level, managers should use this
process to develop day to day action plans for translating
values into action.
What results can an organisation achieve through this
value-based training approach?
I once assisted an organisation to successfully implement
this approach. Dick, a well respected and experienced CEO
had been appointed to head up the amalgamation of three
government departments into one major organisation. He
knew that he had a challenge on his hands when after 12
months at the helm he asked a question of his top 100
managers at their regular monthly briefing meeting and got
no response. His question: "Who can tell me the seven
corporate values we established some six months ago, and
most importantly, what impact they are having on the
organisation?" Rather than berate his managers for their
lack of dedication, Dick immediately put in place a 12
month Leadership Development Program embodying the four
phased approach mentioned previously. At the very first
day-long briefing session on the new program, Dick
displayed his own personal values together with an overview
of the results of a leadership profile displaying his own
strengths and weaknesses as a leader. He immediately
demonstrated a personal "walk the talk" strategy.
As well as the sometimes hard to measure "team
togetherness" results of this values approach to
leadership, there is also another important and well
defined outcome. Research by Joseph Badaracco (1992) finds
that values affect decision making. When a manager is
faced with a difficult decision, what are the criteria by
which he/she acts? Corporate values can provide a manager
with an effective decision making tool. For example, when
faced with a difficult decision, they can help managers
decide:
* Which course of action will do the most good and the
least harm?
* Which alternative best serves the others' rights,
including shareholders' rights?
* Which plan is consistent with the basic values and
commitments of my company? Can I live with it?
* Which course of action is feasible in the world as it is?
Managers do not always understand how and why they make a
decision. When asked and after perhaps some careful
consideration and reflection, they may say "it just seems
right". Enabling mangers to consciously make decisions
that "seem right" can be actively influenced through
leadership training that is based on corporate values.
Organisations need leaders who can show the way and in whom
people trust. Building leadership training on a solid
foundation of corporate values can change the rhetoric into
action so that leadership at all levels becomes a case of
"do as I do".
----------------------------------------------------
Bob Selden has a passion for management and leadership
development. He's had the good fortune to be able to help
a number of organisations with the development of their
people. Bob's new book "What To Do When You Become The
Boss" can be purchased via
http://www.whenyoubecometheboss.com/
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