Values Driven Culture

What do the MPs expenses row and the Banking Crisis have in common? A set of rules being followed without a framework of values to inform peoples’ behaviour.

It’s striking how similar the two issues were. People saying they’ve done nothing illegal, done nothing wrong, simply following the rules. What is scary about this is how little contrition has been shown. The MPs still feeling hard done by and the Bankers going back to their old ways, paying themselves the huge bonuses as soon as they can.

When you see values informing behaviour it stands out. Three weeks ago Wigan Athletic lost 9-1 to Tottenham. This was a pretty humiliating defeat. The players (not the manager) volunteered to pay all their travelling supporters costs for travelling to the game. They were under no obligation to do so, they didn’t hide behind rules, they simply did the right thing. The following weekend they won, showing huge resilience and team spirit. This bounce back is not unconnected to their values driven behaviour.

Anderson Consulting were the biggest audit firm in the world, they were destroyed by the Enron scandal because they took the money rather than be true to their historic values of probity and integrity.

Organisations without values need lots of rules. And people in that environment without the coalescing force of values then set out to game the system (see MPs again). You will see compliance not commitment to change, box ticking not real engagement around reporting, people doing the minimum (always inside the rules), but always reluctant to mobilise their discretionary effort.

With clearly communicated values, consistently demonstrated by management you create a purpose driven culture, informed by bought into standards that are non-negotiable. This creates something to work and live up to, and reduces the need for extensive and onerous rules. Never forget, for somebody who wants to remain disengaged there is never enough rules, they will always find a way round them.

Predaptive successfully works with organisations to develop values driven cultures. If you would like to talk more about helping your organisation to do the same, please contact us.

People Howlers

Given the end of the year is looming we thought we would capture in one place the 10 worst examples of people management practices we have come across this year:

1. Using the economy as a reason to get rid of people rather than engaging with them around the real reason why they are not suitable.
2. Saying there is no bonus for people whilst giving out huge redundancy payments to people you haven’t the courage to performance manage.
3. When a VR programme is underway saying to some applicants you are too good to ‘let go’; the money is going to be used to sort out the people we want out. See previous point.
4. Interviewing potential recruits and not telling them they have been unsuccessful.
5. Managers who talk about vision and values and then do the opposite.
6. Treating induction as a one day tour of the office and issuing the log on password. It’s no surprise this organisation has a very high first year churn rate.
7. Not setting the annual bonus plans until the first quarter numbers are in.
8. Allowing a salary review date to slip, with no communication around why.
9. Using the difficult economy as a reason to underpay new recruits, or in one circumstance not pay them at all.
10. And latest news just in; cancelling the Christmas party for the wider population and senior managers going away for a secret dinner.

What we find interesting is managers often have a real blind spot around these issues. In the name of realpolitik they believe this way of operating gets the job done. The problem is with this approach is the affect it has on morale and job satisfaction. We have been to several Christmas parties recently where the recently redundant are positive and being as constructive as possible about their new situation and the people who are still working in the organisation are anxious and fearful about their employed position. This idea that you should be just be thankful you have job so put up with everything, including the way the organisation behaves, is the refuge of the deeply mediocre manager.
If you want cheering up after reading this watch our favourite clip of the year. It’s happy, clever, ridiculously addictive and cool to boot!

Proust Questionnaire

With the holidays almost upon us, Christmas parties are in full swing and soon we’ll be looking forward to the year ahead. It’s a great time to explore the ‘Proust Questionnaire’. This structured set of questions have drawn revealing and insightful answers from people from the salons of fin de siècle France through to the celebrity revelations in Vanity Fair today.

You can try the questionnaire for yourself online, or for an interesting conversation starter with colleagues, try the print version. It could make an intriguing conversation booster for tamer Christmas parties, but remember, it’s not a competency based interviewing structure for recruitment.