57: Values and Operationalizing Them in Your Workplace
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To listen to more episodes about values, check out episodes 18, 38, 40, 42 and 48!
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This podcast is produced by Sarah Hartley.
Transcript:
Values - if you’ve spent any time with me, you know that values are a huge part of my personal life, as well as my work with clients. We can all easily spout off our mission and vision right? What we are here to do, how we do it, and how we’ll know when we’ve accomplished our goals.
Values is also the number one topic I’m asked to speak on!
Yet, when I ask organizational leaders about their values, I often receive blank looks in response.
We do not practice or operationalize our values, and it’s a massive miss for your organization.
This is a quote from Rita Sever, who will be on a future episode of the Leaving Well podcast. I also cover her book in episode 48. She says:
“Support for organizations forms a three-legged stool: mission, vision, and values. When people don’t pay attention to all three components of this stool, things get out of balance. When an organization lacks a clear focus on its mission and vision, its destination can become vague or transitory. When an organization does not pay active attention to values, the organization can lose their integrity and sense of identity - or even become hypocritical. All three legs are necessary to support the work. What are the values of your organization, and how do they show up? If you can’t answer how an organization’s values are implemented, you need to look at what is implemented, and see what the actual values are.”
So what do you do about this, if your values are murky, vague, or even nonexistent?
Using my values exercise, an individual can navigate through identifying their own personal values, or teams can do this exercise together. The most important action you can take today is perhaps the smallest one, “Make values your own by writing down the last five things you did yesterday before leaving work. Can you connect them to the org’s mission? Can other people see the through line of your work to the mission, even if you can’t?”
Until every individual in your organization has connected with their own personal values, reviewed them against their job description and daily work responsibilities, you will likely continue to experience a disconnect between expectations, policies, and your mission being achieved. Values, once operationalized, can also become woven into the way you conduct your meetings, inform policies, and help elevate hiring and onboarding processes, as well as employee retention practices.
Some questions for you:
How do the org’s values align with my personal values?
How do our values show up during conflict, and how can we use our values to work through that conflict?
Ways to embed your organization’s values into your operations and day-to-day:
Budget. When creating your next annual budget, take some time to review how well your values mesh with line items. Do the things your values say that you prioritize match that level of prioritization in the budget?
Social Media Content and Communications. Use your list of values to focus your social media content and email newsletter for a period of time. This could look like choosing one value each month, or each quarter, and doing a deep-dive into the WHY of its origin in your org, how it can be seen inside the work you do, etc.
Job Descriptions and Hiring. Use your values during hiring! Ensure that you list your org values in your job description and if possible, showcase the areas where you prioritize values in everyday actions. During hiring, at a minimum, choose a value to ask candidates about how it shows up for them in their personal life. Another way to ask would be to ask them to come prepared to share their favorite organizational value, and why (bonus tip: share your interview questions with candidates ahead of time, always!)
Onboarding and Performance Reviews. Use your values during onboarding and performance reviews! Integrate them by measuring how employees embody those values in their work. Encourage feedback loops that reflect value-driven behavior. I also recommend creating a Reading Guide that shares relevant information about your organization, and sending that to your new employee for their first day. List your mission and values, and if you are really up for the task, create a set of statements that let your employees know how they will know that the values are being lived out.
Internal Communications: Include a section in internal meetings (all staff meetings or check-ins with direct reports) dedicated to highlighting how staff and teams are living out the values. This could be a “value of the month” spotlight or sharing stories where values showed up in decision-making.
Decision-Making Processes: Use values as a guide for key organizational decisions. For instance, when facing difficult choices, ensure that the team discusses how the options align with the organization's core values. Clients who work with me examine power sharing and decision making as a matrix, and this is another prime opportunity to inject values into that intention and effort.
Policies and Protocols: Review and adapt HR policies and your employee handbook, including leave policies or work flexibility, to ensure they align with the organization’s values, particularly if equity, inclusion, or employee well-being are central.
Learning and Development: Offer professional development and training sessions that align with the organization’s values. For example, if one value is sustainability, offer workshops on eco-friendly practices. Also consider off-sites or immersive experiences where teams can live out the organization’s values in real-world settings. For example, if community or empathy is a value, employees could volunteer in a relevant community setting together, directly connecting their work to those values.
Partnerships and Collaborations: Select partners, vendors, and funders based on how well they align with the organization's values. Make value-based partnership criteria explicit in memorandum of understanding (MOU), contracts and agreements.
Client or Community Engagement: Incorporate values into how the organization interacts with and serves clients or communities. This could mean tailoring services to reflect inclusivity, transparency, or empowerment.
Workspace Environment: Make values visible in the office or remote workspaces through artwork, digital messaging, or in virtual meetings through posters, virtual backgrounds, or mission statements tied to values.
Cross-Team Projects: Assign cross-departmental teams to work on projects that specifically highlight or advance a particular value. For example, if innovation is a core value, create a task force to explore and implement new technologies or processes.
"Values Challenge" Program: Launch a quarterly challenge where teams or individuals submit projects or ideas that demonstrate how they can advance a specific value within the organization. The best ideas can receive funding or resources to implement.
Digital Values Wall: Create a digital wall (e.g., a shared platform or intranet) where staff can post stories, photos, or videos of values in action. This dynamic space can become beautiful content for annual reports, board of director updates, and as reminders for staff on the power of values.
Values-Driven Workflows and Automation: Automate certain processes (such as approvals or client workflows) to reflect your values. For example, if transparency is a key value, automate regular updates to clients or stakeholders, making it easier to stay open and communicative. For a helpful exercise, ask each team member to identify 1-2 pieces of their workflow and responsibilities that can be matched with the org’s values.
To listen to more episodes about values, check out episodes 18, 38, 40, 42 and 48!
