Rolling Out Core Values Into The Organization

1 Values and OrganizationsValues have always been important fororganizations, but it has only been in the lastdecade that they have become importanttopics for organizational leaders to competitive advantage became associatedwith a less controlling management style andorganizations worked to empower more oftheir people, an important question was:What keeps people behaving in a way thatsupports the goals of the enterprise? Anythinking person would ask, Will they acceptresponsibility? Empowering people whoavoid responsibility is a good strategy forfailure. One important answer was: Theirbehavior is significantly controlled by thecode of acceptable behavior which governstheir work lives their code of ethics. Thishas popularly been called organizationalvalues. The relevant definition in TheAmerican Heritage Dictionary is: principle, standard, or quality consideredworthwhile or desirable.

2 They are organi-zational Values because they are shared bylarge numbers of people in the Organization . The fact that Values are a principle orstandard suggests they go beyond currentdesired pleasures, such as having a drink orquarterly profits. Indeed Collins and Porrasin their book Built To Last (1994) found thatvalues contribute not only to success, butlong-term survival. There are many sharedvalues in any group and knowing which arethe most important or fundamental is neces-sary to diminish confusion. A work groupmay value: getting to work on time; beingcheerful; accepting responsibility ( If you seea problem you own it. ); and being nice. Allof those can be part of a more fundamentalvalue, such as dedication to quality clientservice. If you accept that basic value, theothers follow, and you know when to makeexceptions for some. For example, it may notbe useful to be cheerful when you find aserious quality problem.

3 Those few funda-mental Values in organizations have beenlabeled core Values . Rolling OutCore Values Into The OrganizationDavid E. Morrison, Copyright 1996, Morrison Associates, by Taylor C. MorrisonIn their book , Collins and Porras defined corevalues as the Organization s essential andenduring tenets, not to be compromised forfinancial gain or short-term expediency. They called the unusually successful compa-nies that survived longer than 50 years visionary; and for them a visionarycompany almost religiously preserves itscore This study and others havemade core Values an important concern ofleaders addressing requirements for endur-ing success in these complex times. The ChallengeThere is a very understandable belief amongbusiness leaders and professionals that youdeal with Values as you do other organiza-tional initiatives: define them, and then rollthem out into the that isn t the way it workswith Values .

4 First, you find out what the corevalues really are, not what leaders believethey should be. (Collins and Porras: You donot create or set core ideology. Youdiscover core ideology. You get at it bylooking inside. It has to be authentic. Youcan t fake an ideology. Nor can you justintellectualize it. Core Values and purposemust be passionately held on a gut level, elsethey are not core. ) After the leaders identifythe Values , they carefully decide how theyneed to be changed. Finally, core Values arenot rolled out, they are lived and actedupon by the leadership first and mostconsistently. Leaders must wrestle with core Values ,because adequate Values are demanding interms of the complex ways they interact andin terms of the behavior they require. Ifvalues are easy, they aren t good the leaders have wrestled with thecore Values they want and then completelylive them, the subordinates behavior willfollow.

5 What surprises many managers is that valuesare not as difficult to change as they havebeen led to believe, particularly in example, if you take a young man fromthe Bible belt in western Kansas and put himinto an Army unit in France, most of the timehe will take on the Values of the group andbehave in ways he would never behave inwestern Kansas. But, back in Kansas, hereturns to his old Values as if there had been ROLLINGOUT COREVALUESINTOTHEORGANIZATIONPage 2no hiatus. The same thing happens whenanother person leaves home and joins afraternity in college. He most often takes onthe Values of the group in a short time. Onthe other hand, Values change in manyorganizations without anybody sayinganything about it. That is because it is thebehavior that conveys so much meaning. Sothe questions are: Why are Values so hardfor leaders to change in organizations? Whydon t they change quickly, if indeed valuescan be changed?

6 The Hard Work Is With The LeadersWhen Values don t change it is always aproblem of the leaders. The Values in thegroup are not changing in the direction theleaders say they want, because the leadersare conflicted about what the valuesreally mean in action! That is where thedifficulty comes getting the leaders toact consistently according to the valuesthey espouse. One example of how youmust take risk and put yourself out forvalues was told to me by a client. Hecasually told the story of drivingthrough the Rockies in an area wherethe forest had been burned out driver in the car in front of himthrew a lit cigarette out of the client followed the car until itstopped. Then he confronted theperson about throwing the lit cigaretteout in such an area. It is with suchbehavior, where one stands up for his belief,despite feelings of embarrassment, fear, andall the possible rationalizations for not takingaction, that you lead a group to new Values .

7 When leaders don t consistently take actionon Values , it confuses the group membersand they realistically question if the leaderstruly want those Values . When leaders letsmall things slide, Values don t change. That,of course, is the problem with changingprejudice. The leaders may take very aggres-sive stands on the big issues. But it is thesmall issues and informal discussions withfriends where prejudice is reinforced andvalues do not change. God and the devil areboth in the details. The stakes are raised for the leaders behav-ior even more by the magnifying effect asThe Hard Work Is With The LeadersPage 3you move down the organizational hierar-chy. If the leaders have only small gapsbetween their behavior and Values , the levelimmediately below them will have a largergap; two levels below there is an even largergap; This is similar to the problem whenthere is a small conflict between two leadersthat is not adequately managed.

8 In the levelbelow them, the conflict becomes moreintense, and for each level below the problemexpands. Thus the magnifying effect in theorganization means that the leaders mustaddress the small details or the Values willnot become a reality in the are not only concerned with whatyou do, but how you do what you you talk to a subordinate aboutaccomplishing the task communicatesvalues. This raises another challengefor leaders: They will fail when theyare more concerned about form thansubstance. When they are moreconcerned about standing up for thevalues than for appearances, then thevalues will become embedded in theorganization. This is similar to the parentwho is either hollering at or spanking amisbehaving child in a store or parent is torn between whether he or shewants to correct the child s behavior or shopor eat. If s/he mostly wants to shop or eat,s/he will simply scold the child, threaten,and maybe swat him.

9 The child is alreadymaking noise. Once he is spanked, he willmake even more noise. If the parent is more concerned about chang-ing the child s behavior than shopping oreating, the parent simply picks the child up,goes outside, and talks about the child sbehavior until the child is ready to is done in a private setting where thereare no witnesses to observe either the child orparent, so neither gets the pleasure of puttingon a show or embarrassing the other. Thisonly needs to take place a few times beforethe parent can eat or shop enjoyably with thechild. In the meantime, however, the parenthas to be willing to let his or her escargot getcold and the martini get warm, or maybe noteven eat what has been ordered. As with being a parent, a leader in theorganization has to know what his prioritiesare. With Values , the priorities relate to thelong term, not the short term. Thus, theparent is more concerned about his or her ROLLINGOUT COREVALUESINTOTHEORGANIZATIONPage 4child s future than the food he or she iscurrently eating.

10 Most ethical codes have astatement something likes this: And the sinsof the fathers shall be visited upon the sons. When I was a son, I thought that was I understood: it is the point of deal with issues that affect the longterm or the next generation. If we pollute theearth, it does not cause us problems; it causesour children problems. The reason why corevalues are important is because they affectlong-term survival and qualities in organiza-tions. You make a short-term sacrifice foryour core Values because you desire thelonger term And Difficult WorkMaking our Values real can be one of thetoughest and most rewarding things we doin management. It is rewarding because wecan gain a sense of pride, power, andintegrity. But if it is done right, it is alsotough for a leader. It is tough because wediscover ways we are not true to ourespoused ideals. To consistently live ourvalues, we have to see where we haveinadvertently acted in ways inconsistentwith those Values .