Core Values to Valued Culture™
If you are even slightly familiar with Culture Czars®, you know that one of our core practices is to physically bring an organization’s CoreVals™ alive through stunning visuals. When I heard about ink factory and their business that provides visual notetaking, I knew that I had to see how they could take my story, and The Culture Fix®, and animate it to create one beautiful, concise, roadmap to success in corporate culture. I am excited to share with you these animations that bring us from the initial issue, all the way to creating a valued culture in your organization.
We begin with the initial issue that faces many organizations. If a set of values already exists, are they anything more than just words on the wall or in the employee handbook? Sure, many organizations have a set of values, but could any of your stakeholders remember them at any given time? This lack of defined culture in many organizations causes confusion, dissatisfaction and ultimately affects the bottom line.
What’s more, an absence of these values often results in an unhappy, unfulfilled, and disengaged team. This is because your stakeholders are lacking a purpose or why in their day-to-day activities! But what if we told you that the process of fixing this issue was as simple as following 9 Deeds over 90 Days?
One of the most overarching themes of The Culture Fix is creating and giving life to your values, which we refer to as CoreVals™!
It all begins with the creation of CoreVals. We were able to distill this hugely important step into three parts.
1- Use words that are meaningful: A statement that provides purpose and meaning will help everyone feel this way about their work because they will all understand why it matters.
2- Tie your CoreVals to company folklore: by sharing your organization’s philosophies and the stories that make up its history, your team will continue to remember and increasingly relate to your CoreVals.
3- Use descriptive language: Words like proud and passionate are great, but a solid set of CoreVals needs to explain what is meant by those words with actionable, descriptive terms.
Once your organization settles on a concise, action-driven set of CoreVals, it is time to really bring them alive through creative assets! Creating print displays for your core values and their descriptors is a must. Unless CoreVal words are highlighted in some graphic way and hung on the wall, they really don’t exist and aren’t part of the culture. Keeping CoreVals hidden suggests the company is not proud enough or serious enough about them. So get creative! It doesn’t have to stop at images & icons, either. Really think about what will stick with your stakeholders, it may even be in the form of costumes!
Leaders who value culture recognize and reward employees who act in accordance with the CoreVals™. If you show your gratitude for demonstrating a value that defines your group, you are also tapping into their emotions, making them connected and, of course, having fun. And this isn’t just a practice for special occasions- make sure there is also space for recognizing daily occurrences of ‘committing’ a CoreVal such as a Slack Channel or standing team meeting.
Before you know it, you will see an emerging group of your very own Culture Czars®. You will start to notice that your best employees are those who exemplify your CoreVals! Once your journey through the 9 Deeds in 90 Days gets underway, you will learn the tools and tricks of empowering your stakeholders, enabling them to not only believe in your business, but believe that they are making a tangible difference in their daily work.
Establishing a valued culture absolutely correlates to business success. But it goes far beyond the first few deeds. The Culture Fix gives you all of the tools you will need to continue to drive performance through this shift in values.
Some of the tools that we provide to help you measure these changes include:
CoreWorkflow™ : The overarching company workflow or master process that serves to set stakeholders up for success is interwoven with the values
CoreScore™: A numeric measurement that indi- cates the degree to which employees and teams work in concert with CoreVals
Core People Processes™: the hiring, unhiring, and evaluating protocols based on CoreVals
CorePurpose™: the overarching company goal
and reason for being, which in turn helps your stakeholders understand the good they do in their position and in the world
Finally, The CoreChart™ combines your CorePurpose, CoreVals, and CoreWorkflow into a visual representation that illustrates:
-What you do, where, and how
-Who you do it for
-By when and why
This tool allows all of your stakeholders to attach meaning to their work—to know where they fit in the process and how to go about their work in an effective, team-oriented manner. Because it is quantifiable and date- stamped, they know when they will get there.
You will use a variety of tools to measure the quality and quantity of the benefits that flow from your culture quest. From goal achievement reports to employee evaluations, surveys and testing, you will ultimately find that this focus on creating a valued culture holds one of the greatest Return on Investments that you can achieve in your business.
...and you know what? You’ll have fun working on the 9 Deeds in 90 Days. And your stakeholders will have fun embracing the new CoreVals, as well as be energized by their new purpose.
We call this process; Culture Fulfillment. Pick up a copy of The Culture Fix, subscribe to The Culture Fix Academy or ask for the help of an Actuator, a professional that will bring the energy to help you fulfill your culture.