If you’ve got a statement of your Values (even better principles but that’s another story) fantastic, well done, go to the top of the class.
But how do you ensure that that these values turn into real behaviours?
Because if you want a values led organisation culture, (you may not in case click delete) then people must know these 2 things:
What behaviours are expected?
What to do if people do not behave in line with your values.
How you create that information is vital if you want a create a coherent organisation where everything is aligned?
As usual it ain’t rocket science.
Talk about it with the team and devise a statement of the types of behaviours expected(obvs) which is built from the realities of how you go about your work.
It doesn’t have to be a complicated exercise, simply get talking about the regular situations where you interact with each other and with the outside world and how your stated values determine what sort of behaviours should be exhibited by everybody..
This document will be broken down into INTERNAL & EXTERNAL behaviours you want ALL staff to exhibit.
INTERNAL
How should staff interact with each other and how does leadership role-model desired behaviours?
EXTERNAL
How should the staff/organisation interact with its audiences, members and stakeholders?
This document will not simply be a statement of what behaviours are valued but how they can be developed and inculcated by leadership to develop a truly values-based organisation culture that is owned and understood at every level of the organisation.
This will require understanding of needs of staffing, leadership and management to understand what behaviours are most important and who should exemplify them.
But this will be of no value unless behaviours can be challenged so you need to devise mechanisms where those behaviours can be addressed in a safe environment.
None of this is complicated but it does take a little thoughtful action to put in place.
Once it’s written down then you can do things like make sure its part of your induction process.
You can ask at team meetings if the right behaviours are being exhibited. By bringing the awareness of value based behaviours into the day to day you will end up with a happier more productive team.
Like I said, not rocket science but you do need to put some effort in. I think this is important because it is so easy to slip into bad habits which undermine all you are trying to do simply because one or two team members are not acting in the right ways.
If you need some help thinking this through message me.
