Have you taken your finger off the pulse of your organization, department, and/or team? Companies go through many different phases: Inception, growth, acquisitions, mergers, reinventing themselves, etc. Along with these phases, technology changes, people change, and corporate vibe changes. And, although some companies do a good job at orchestrating the change, the most impactful things that get overlooked are core values. Although there’s a lot going on during transitional times, it is crucial that values, and the alignment of people to those values, are maintained. If not, they become lifeless words plastered on the wall – a glaring reminder of what the company is NOT doing.  

Companies establish core values and think that’s the end of it. Because they’re on the wall everyone knows what to do with them. Yaaay, we have our core values! Let’s launch them to the company and tell everyone what they should mean to them and what they should do with them. Ya, great idea – NOT!

Core values are extremely beneficial and can be used as catalysts for productivity, engagement, and a navigational system to operate within. However, they’re not always used this way. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been in companies, seen core values on the wall and asked senior leadership what values they operate by. Almost always we get responses other than what’s on the wall. Interesting!

So, why the gap?

It starts with how the core values were established and who participated in establishing them. Were the right people involved – those who are deemed the culture drivers or culture champions? Was everyone given an opportunity to learn their way of operating within and executing the values? Or, were they told what they mean and what to do with them? In the latter case, a high number will disregard them completely.

Implementing core values is a balancing act that shouldn’t be taken lightly. If implemented correctly, they can set your culture on the path to the angelic, horn blaring ranks of Linked-In and Google. They need to be relevant and continually support the company’s mission, people, environment, and language.

So, how do you transform the core values off your wall and into the impetus for corporate momentum? Below are some key strategies to help guide you:

• Include senior leadership, culture drivers, and key influencers at every level in the development of the values. (This is not a management decision that gets pushed down.)
• Make the values practical, easy to understand, and clearly actionable.
• Ensure a clear understanding is gained, by each individual, of what it means to operate with these values. (Guiding principles will help with this.)
• Cultivate and evolve the values with the people, environment, and language of the company.

These strategies will help you keep your finger on the pulse of your organization, so five years down the road you’re not looking around and asking, What the heck happened?