Most organisations have an impressive list of Values Statements that are framed and adorn the walls of corridors and offices. But how much do they really impact on people? A recent email from one of our readers suggests that they count for nothing if the UGRs contradict them. Here’s a slightly edited version of the email….
My wife (who works for a large organisation) brought home last night a series of values statements that staff and management had been working on to improve the working environment.
The statements released in the morning were:
- “We are committed to the task and each other, we listen to one another”
- “We use initiative and are pro-active in all we do”
- “We are part of the solution, not the problem”
- “We lead by example & respect one another”
However by the afternoon they were already paraphrased and being circulated amongst staff as follows:
- “We are committed to the task and each other, we listen to one another”
- (We are committed to gossip/ers)
- “We use initiative and are pro-active in all we do”
- (We arrive late and leave early and never ask, after all we are proactive & use initiative)
- “We are part of the solution, not the problem”
- (We tell the consultants we are too busy, so don’t ask)
- “We lead by example & respect one another”
- (We always tell each other if we have blocked their car in but leave nasty notes for other departments)
Some how I don’t see much change occurring in this area, do you?
Our Note: Our thanks go to the reader who sent this in – we’ve opted to keep him anonymous for obvious reasons….
This is a classic example of there being a difference between espoused (written or spoken) values and values inferred from behaviours and actions. If there is a difference between the two, then UGRs are created, and they are usually negative.
A mistake that many organisations make is creating impressive Values Statements and believing that these will be somehow picked up by all managers and staff. This simply does not happen if the UGRs are not addressed!