Four proven ways to get more value from your Values
Here at We Are Unity, our phones have been running hot recently as more executives continue to take culture by design seriously.
Across industry, the request is the same: A real need to develop culture strategies with the teeth to drive sustainable, quantifiable changes to their businesses in 2022.
We first recognised this trend back in 2020, when our research with Macquarie Business School found that three in four executives believe that their company’s culture needs to shift significantly over the next three to five years.
And with COVID-19 shifting workforce expectations, it’s a finding that’s only been accelerated: From frontlines to boardrooms and in-between, working Australians have collectively realised that alignment between personal values and organisational values – matters.
It’s a shift that has seen leaders proactively exploring how they can use culture to drive performance, improve wellbeing and even prevent ‘The Great Resignation.’
One consistent theme that we hear is that most organisations have tried to transform their culture in the past, and failed. This is typically due to two reasons:
Culture strategies were designed in isolation of business strategy, vision and purpose.
Culture change is dressed up as a nice set of values written to appease investors, with no tangible measurements behind the strategy.
What not to do?
“Integrity. Trust. Respect. Collaboration.” - Said every corporate values statement ever.
These words are printed on thousands of boardroom walls around the country, probably framed and meticulously designed in the brand approved font and imagery. Yet they hang silently gathering dust with no signs of adoption in the lived culture of the workplace. Most organisation still make this mistake.
While it’s true that there’s very real value to be found within your Values, not all are created equally... Here’s how to design your Values to actually unlock culture change in your organisation:
Step 1: Make your Values memorable
For your people to live your Values, you need to first make them memorable. This means being easy to recall, and easy to integrate into the everyday language of your organisation. Your people need to be talking about these in their day-to-day work interactions, using them to make decisions, help prioritise and even, to call out bad behaviour. So, remember to be memorable!
Step 2: Make your Values ownable
This is where all those generic Values fall down. To truly mean something, your Values need to be unique to your organisation, your strategy and your purpose. Think about how your Values differentiate you from the competition in your space. When done well, this becomes a strong formula for attraction and retention. So, forget what everyone else is doing and own it!
Step 3: Make your Values action-orientated
It’s not enough to talk the talk. Your values must be action-oriented. This means they provide your people with clarity on what matters, and act as guidelines to deliver on your purpose, vision and strategy. Your people need to be able to observe those values in action.
We recommend thinking about how you can attach a clear set of behaviours to your Values, with an embedding strategy to make them part of your everyday ways of working. So, make a habit out of walking the talk!
Designing your Values across three areas will go a long way to setting a strong foundation for culture change. But stay with us, because now it’s time for the rocket fuel.
Step 4: Measure the success of your culture
At We Are Unity, we’re strong advocates for data-driven creativity because it enables us to explore the intersection between science and intuition. It also drives informed decision-making during the creative process. As Edwards Deming says, “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”
First, leverage data points such as culture diagnostics, employee experience surveys and leadership 360’s. Consolidating this data should then inform the behaviours and mindsets that are driving success, and help to identify those that are standing in your way. From this informed angle you can define the core Values essential to your business aspirations and outcomes.
In 2020, we worked with gifting giant Prezzee to use data-driven creativity to design and embed their new Values. Global CEO, Tony Karp explained the commercial impact this has had:
"Prezzee has only been able to achieve its international expansion, during a pandemic, because of our values and culture. A shout out to the We Are Unity team for helping us land them in such an engaged and fulsome way."
We were able to set Prezzee up for success by understanding the unique strengths and needs of their organisation, and designing to amplify and measure their performance. Critically, Prezzee also worked with us to develop and implement a 12-month embedding strategy, including ambassadors, strategic communications, key moment design and key metrics.
Your culture is an asset. Make it shine.
One last word on data: Our research has found that organisations who get Values right deliver more than 2 x greater total shareholder returns than those who do not. Which is exactly why
Values aren’t just nice to have – they bring commercial value for a culture that shines.
If you’d like to take a deeper dive into how we can specifically help your organisation unlock culture change and performance, email nick.tucker@weareunity.com and book in a cuppa.