“Culture eats strategy for breakfast”
“People leave Managers not organisations”
“Being a great place to work is the difference between being a good company and a great company”
“People are our greatest asset”
We’ve all seen and heard these quotes at some point, and many more. There are many prominent articles that speak to company culture, and the reasons why people leave organisations – most of these relate in some way to misalignment of values between the person leaving and the organisation.
Is this because the values of the organisation are meaningless, or they are not actively enforced or practiced? Maybe it’s a combination of both?
What if the values of the organisation were clear, and resonated with the type of employee they were seeking to attract?
Do we spend too much time on “fixing” this misalignment, rather than ensuring that it doesn’t happen in the first place?
Our experience across many organisations is not necessarily that people leave their managers – they often leave the organisation because the values of the organisation do not align with that of the employee. And we find that this is fundamentally due to the organisational values not actually being a part of the “organisational DNA”. Instead, the values have become a set of “buzz words” that senior executives, or owners, or Boards have put in place because that is what is expected.
I mean, how often are values set out in the form of an acronym because it makes things “easy”? If I were to see one more set of PRIDE (Professional/Proud/, Respect/Relevant/Resilient, etc…..) “values” again, I think I’ll scream!!!
Instead, organisations that make their values meaningful, succinct, powerful and, importantly, aligned to what they actually want their organisation to be are not only the most successful in attracting the right type of people for them, but also retaining and growing with their employees. As organisations, we spend so much time, effort and cost on marketing and recruitment, without the same amount of resource spent on what we want our organisation to be and what we stand for i.e. our values. “Our most important asset” will not only remember but also enact meaningful values because they are emotional to them, not just transactional.
The values our organisation lives, that work for us and our culture are:
Authentic
Courageous
Humble
Empathic
Curious
We remember them easily because they are our DNA. They work for us, some may work for you but, above all else, decide what values your organisation will truly find “value-able”.
[Stay tuned for our next post, when we unpack the meaning behind our values that make them truly meaningful for us]