Divas, Liars and Thieves

From our guest blogger, Terry McKenzie, at Sun Microsystems...

In the past two weeks, at two different conferences, I've stuck my foot in it.  Squarely. 

Sigh.  You'd think I'd learn.

Here's what I did.  I stated my opinion that I despise doing values campaigns more than almost any other kind of communication.  And went on to say, in my somewhat irreverent way, that one of the reasons I hate them is that values can be so, well, trite.

Is there an organization our there that does not have collaboration or team work as part of their values construct?  How about integrity?  And would an organization ever declare themselves as based on the values of divas, liars and thieves?  (Yes, I know a more polite way of saying this would be "individual contributors" instead of divas, but hey, values language is always slanted toward the dramatic so i don't see why i can't play that game, too!)

And of course, the instant I relinquished the stage, I was followed by fabulous communicators talking about their great work in communicating values programs, as I shrunk into my seat.

The problem is that, too often, communication of values is, in my opinion, shallow, glitzy and subject to the creation of cynicism.  Spare me the posters, the wallet cards, the Lucite pyramids with "Our Company Values" proudly engraved.  Serious communication of values programs is hard work, not glamorous, requires partnership and total support of the human resources organization, and must have consequences.

Yep, consequences.  So as I listened to Rob Hallam at Pitney Bowes talk about how their company is communicating values in conjunction with rewards, I nodded in enthusiastic agreement.  As I looked over at Sheryl Lewis of ROI Communications, and remembered our days at Quantum communicating their performance management system (in which results were only half the score - how you got the results - that would be values, folks - made up the over half of the equation), I knew that there is a right way to do this.

What are those common values again?  Collaboration and integrity?  So if we want the communication of our values program to work, and be more than words on a wall, we need to team with human resources, collaborate with senior managers, and bake integrity into the rollout of the program.  That means that performance management and reward systems MUST incorporate the values.  And that people who are blatantly out of sync with the values cannot be promoted.  Or bonused.  Or allowed to keep doing what their doing, regardless of their results.

Because it's what our parents told us when we were growing up:  it's not what you say, it's what you do.  As communicators, let's make sure we're setting the right path here and taking the rollout of values very seriously.  Hand out wallet cards and freebies if you must, but make sure that hard measurement and consequences are a part of your program.  Otherwise, my irreverence will be dwarfed by the cynicism of your employees who can sniff out the truth in two seconds flat.

Oops, did I do it again?  I guess I'm a slow learner....

Comments

[Sue Dewhurst]

My dread of values programmes is equalled only by living the brand initiatives. And they invariably are 'programmes' and 'initiatives', accompanied by banners hanging from ceilings, framed declarations in receptions and glitzy conferences in which we all play games, paint pictures describing how wonderful the company is going to be when we're living these values ... and then go back to work and carry on doing exactly what we did yesterday. Then all the razzle dazzle stuff fizzles out and everyone forgets about it until the next time.

I think some of the best work I've done around values programmes of this type is convincing two leaders not to do them at all.

To your point about consequences, I once worked for an organisation where the signals about what was valued came from watching which senior leaders got fired (sorry, moved onto 'special projects'). Every time we had a new MD, we waited for the ritual slaughter of whichever existing director most obviously identified a way of working we now had to leave behind. After which senior leaders practically fell over themselves trying to visibly demonstrate the new behaviours and drop the old ones.

It was quite amusing to watch, and I have to say I didn't have a lot of respect for leaders that miraculously became totally different people every two years just to keep their jobs. But consequences did change behaviours. I haven't yet seen banners from the ceiling get the same results...

[Matt Moore]

There's a broader point here about communication. Remember the old cliche that only 7% of communication is semantic and the rest is body language, tone, etc? Regardless of whether this is true for individuals, it's true of organisations. Where body language = rewards systems (formal & informal) and tone = leadership actions, etc.

All corporate communications - not just those about values although the gap between word & deed can be most evident there - need to ensure that the words being issued match the actions being taken. And if there is a disparity it needs to be addressed or else employees end up cynical & leaders lose respect.

[Kent Peacock]

I remember being involved in an offsite meeting
once, where the brainstorming produced the following list of "core values":

Loyalty
Integrity
Excellence
Service

That was, of course, quickly modified to:

Loyalty
Integrity
Value
Excellence
Service

which formed a (supposedly) more appropriate
acronym.