Vague one-word values never make sense, it make sense to be specific. FILE PHOTO | nmg
In much of my management consulting I help organisations clarify
their values, and this is often the most interesting and challenging
aspect of my work.
Almost all my clients have an
existing bundle of “core values” (I’ve never seen the need for the
“core”), but few pay much attention to them — even if they can remember
what some or occasionally all of them are.
Visions and
missions also earn limited ongoing attention from most leaders, but
when it comes to values many run out of energy altogether.
A
common challenge with values is that there are too many, making it hard
to keep them in mind. I recommend a maximum of five, fewer if possible,
so they can more readily be recalled and people can easily focus on
them.
Anyway, most values relate to each other, so in talking about
one — assuming, that is, they are indeed talked about — it is easy to
refer to others that didn’t make the cut. (The numbers business is why I
am concerned that our Constitution lists 18 values, hardly any of which
Kenyans can identify.)
Another challenge is that an
organisation’s selected values are likely to appear in random order,
without a flow or a storyline. So I prefer punchy phrases to single
words, and my favourite expressions are those in Centum’s “Golden
Rules”.
Here are some from their list, to give you a
flavour: “We escalate the solution, never the problem”; “A bad decision
is better than indecision”; and “We do not email where a conversation
would do”.
Among values we often see
“professionalism”, “teamwork” and “integrity”, each of which includes
many component values. So, while we understand what being “professional”
means I feel it’s rather lazy to just throw out this word without
identifying which elements within it are of the greatest significance to
one’s environment.
Similarly with teamwork. It’s just
too general, too vague. Which aspects of teamwork does the organisation
already live well, that it must hold on to? Which ones are more
aspirational and must be worked on, hence also qualifying for
consideration?
Is it trust (it often is) — the need to
be trustworthy and hence trusted? Collaboration? Being supportive of
one another? Listening openly? Engaging constructively? Displaying low
but healthy egos? Select whichever of these is the most relevant and
powerful, knowing the others are implied.
These
days, everyone feels they must list integrity as one of their values
—otherwise people will imagine you don’t care about honesty or fairness,
compliance or good governance.
But as one participant
in a values review pointed out to his group recently, surely integrity
should be taken for granted without having to shout about it. And
anyway, because the “I” word is so overused, isn’t it better to pluck
out a specific component and find a more original and hence powerful way
of expressing the concept?
Along with Integrity, other
“I” words find their way into the lists, Innovative, Inclusive and
Impactful among them. “R” words are popular too, including Respectful,
Responsible, Reliable and Responsive — interestingly complementary and
also explanatory of one another.
Speaking of first
letters, wordsmiths like me enjoy arranging values so that their opening
letters themselves form a word — which means finding a good mix of ones
that begin with both vowels and consonants. And another way of
assisting the process is to have all the values start with the same
letter.
The conversations generated around selecting
and expressing values are themselves helpful, providing material to
share with others subsequently.
But the process must
go beyond the selecting and sharing to the living. Which ones should be
celebrated because they are strong?
Which ones are in
less good shape and what attitudes and behaviours must change, so as to
close the gap between the actual and the aspirational?
Finally, are the leaders role models for the values?
Finally, are the leaders role models for the values?
And
how is everyone encouraged to embrace the values by recognising and
rewarding them for so doing, while helping those who do not to change?
These are the conversations we need to have… at all levels and not least at the national one.
Watch this space for more on that.
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