Change Implementation Techniques for Forming Transitional Team, Creating Alignment, Maximizing Connectedness and Creativity

Technique 4.2 Values Statement

Introduction

Core values are the few critical values that your organisation must live by. Values are principles, the standards, the actions that the people in an organisation represent, and which they consider inherently worthwhile and of utmost importance, and include:

- how people treat each other

- how people, groups and organisations conduct their business

Behaviours are what demonstrate the values

"...values are like quanta of energy. They make things happen. Our deepest values define us as the human beings that we are and lay the foundations for the kinds of organisations and societies that will bring out the best of human potential..."

Danah Zohar et al, 2004

"...What determines enduring success is that the organisation has core values, knows what those values are and allows their decisions and strategy to be guided by them..."

Michael McQueen, 2013

Remember: as Howard Gardner (2006) states, neither science nor technology has a built-in value system.

"... Technology is evolving much faster than society can; the technology is evolving faster than our ability to confront our cherished beliefs. People understand how fabricated the values they know. They don't realise those values themselves are created, are synthetic and innovative. So we could innovate and create new ones..."
Amy Webb as quoted by Stephen Zeitchik, 2022

You have to determine your own value system

Most organisations talk about values they claim to hold. Furthermore, they are printed on the cards of staff to carry around. It is important to understand both the spirit and the substance of really living by values. Some suggestions for fundamental values include goodness, truth and beauty as starting points; others include life, liberty, pursuit of happiness, fidelity, respect and service

Fundamental values fall into one or more of 3 categories

i. personal (related to your own life, ie friends, family, interests, etc)

ii. interpersonal (things that define your group and relations between members of the group - such as loyalty and trust)

iii. transpersonal values (values that transcend your own personal and group values, ie universal values such as sanctity of life, protecting the world for future generations, justice, etc)

· · The starting point is: what is important to me? These personal values are then linked with the organisational values. An organisation needs to have consensus about what it represents in terms of customer service, community relations and dealings with employees

Human Universals

According to Donald Brown ( University of California) . There are some attributes or traits common to all human civilisations - a certain set of fundamentals that make it human. They revolves around culture, society, language, behaviour and psyche.he provides us with a list of 67 universal elements: 

George Berkowski, 2014

Ideally

"...in the scale of values, the Platonic triad of the true, the good and the beautiful take precedent over the Machiavellian triad of money, fame and power..."

Mortimer Adler as quoted by Linda Kinstler 2019

Useful questions for clarifying organisational values:

1. What do we stand for?

2. What behaviours would mirror these values?

3. How do we treat our employees?

4. How do we treat our customers?

5. What do we mean by ethical behaviour?

6. What are the core values that are more important to us than money?

7. How do we want to treat each other at work?

8. What do we offer our employees for their work effort?

9. How do we want to be seen by the community?

10. What attitudes and behaviours in employees do we want to recognise and reward?

From recent Australian research, the top "do" guidelines re values are

- work as a team

- ask questions if unsure

- help and support others

- put the client first

- be friendly and work hard

- communicate

The top "don't" are

- don't gossip

- don't be negative

On comparing espoused and actually practised values in over 100 Australian organisations, a study found that

"...On average, just over 50% of employees agreed their organisation's values were being put into practice in their work unit. The best result was 85%; the worst, 26%. For organisations trying to change values, the first step is to overcome any values-in-action that are counterproductive. Next, it is necessary to identify the values-in-action that will serve your strategy the best, and reinforce them. Finally, identify and introduce any new values needed......organisations that are serious about putting their values into practice consistently do three things well. They recruit against their values, they performance-manage against their values; they sack against their values..."

Narelle Hooper, 2005

NB The values displayed by start-ups can be very different from those established organisations. The start-ups can be very brash and show no respect for the industry norms, traditions, ways of doing business, governance, etc. The bigger and more economically important an organisation becomes, the more corporate values of clear hierarchy, centralised control, accountability, discipline, respect for rules and procedures, etc  become apparent

Remembering Values

One way to remember values is to use the name or initials in the organisation like

1. TelikomPNG

T = Trust & Teamwork

E = Excellence with Experience

L =Loyalty

I = Integrity

K = Knowledgeable

O = Ownership

M = Motivated

P = Passionate

N = Nationwide/National

G = Greatness

2. Soltuna (first draft)

S = Safety (products & work environment)

O = Organised for efficiency (eliminate waste)

L = Loyalty to customers & staff

T = Teamwork & Trust

U = Understanding customer needs

N = National pride

A = Amazing quality of products

(sources: Cynthia Scott et al, 1993; Howard Gardner, 2006; Narelle Hooper, 2005; Tatio Tabaleka, 2013)