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July-August 2008 |
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The Power of Shared Values
When it comes to building a culture of character, integrity, honesty and accountability in an organization, the first step is to understand how people in the organization think. The one main key is to know that people tend to form into specific groups. So say Dave Logan, Halee Fischer-Wright and John King, co-authors of Tribal Leadership. “Birds flock, fish school, people ‘tribe’” they wrote.
The authors break down tribes by their type of culture. They begin at Stage 1, where members show a despairing hostility. They range to Stage 5, leading to exciting results like the Manhattan Project, the 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey Team’s Gold Medal and a drug firm’s miracle cure. There are literally thousands of other examples of positive results — heroism and random acts of kindness — by police officers, firefighters, teachers, parents, doctors, nurses, young adults and, yes, the men and women of our military.
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When you reach the point of a noble cause, people speak about that for the rest of their lives, “Fischer-Wright said. According to the authors, Stage 5 occurs in just 2 percent of work cultures. |
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I believe it happens a lot more than 2 percent, but “exciting results” don’t sell and aren’t published as much as negative results. To get to Stage 5, people must reach Stage 4, where values become the group’s norm and compass and people think in terms of “we’re great” instead of “I'm great.” To have the former, it’s important to have the latter, as well. Perhaps even more important! A negative compass and perception achieves only more negativity.
Leaders need to know in which stage their group or organization operates. At Stage 2, in which people’s motto is “My life sucks,” “My job sucks,” and/or “I suck,” or “What am I doing here?,” it does no good to talk about values.
By Stage 4, the key traits of character, integrity, honesty and accountability take hold. “I’ve never seen any Stage 4 culture with ethical lapses,” Logan said.
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Amgen and its former chief executive Gordon Binder displayed those traits, Logan says. Its human resource boss once fired a manager Binder had just hired. The CEO was initially annoyed the move was made without his knowledge. But the human resource leader told him the new hire had lied on his resume, which was against Amgen’s values. Binder then backed the new hire’s axing. |
By firing the new hire that lied on his resume, Amgen was reflecting the idea that once an organization identifies its values and sticks to them, those values become king. Those values are not just words but become the culture — the attitude, the climate — of the organization and the way the organization does business and treats its employees.
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“It gives the people something to point to when a decision is not clear,” Rob Galford, managing partner of the Center for Leadership Organizations said. “If you don’t have them, there’s no foundation to fall back on,” he said. |
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Here are a few key steps to reach Step 5:
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Identify the organization’s culture. The leader must talk to the employees to find out what’s important to them. Blinder did it by meeting employees a lot for lunch. The process involves continually asking the employees what they are most proud of and why.
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Verbalize what matters. Articulate the values in such a way that they resonate with the employees. Galford related how one top executive writes a heartfelt e-mail to all employees every month. A CEO town meeting can also get the message across.
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Get it into action. Daily behavior, your actions, should live up to those values. Your actions should mirror your words and vice versa. To resonate and be successful, both must be seamless. “People are highly sensitive to organizations that say one thing and do another,” Galford said.
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Reinforce it. Organizations must put a mechanism is place to deal with those employees who don’t value and honor the shared values. A person’s behavior is nothing more than a manifestation of their attitude. They’re acting out what and how they think. Conversely, organizations must also reward the correct behavior and attitude. That’s the best way to keep the values in place.
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Be honest and dependable; take responsibility for your actions and for your life.
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“If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” — Milton Berle, actor/comedian |
“By the time a man realizes that maybe his father was right, he usually has a son who thinks he’s wrong.” — Charles Wadsworth, classical pianist |
Captain George Burk, USAF (Ret), www.georgeburk.com. Phone: 800-769-8568. Mobile phone: 480-212-6321
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