The case for negative values
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Organisation values: broad, vague, and often meaningless.
Prior to this article I made the case that your organisational values aren’t that great. It’s useful to see these articles as interlinked; although this may be pushing the boat out too far.
The Tl;dr is that organisational values, no matter how diligently, earnestly, or expensively developed, are approximately the same for every organisation, and therefore largely meaningless at providing direction for the company. It’s a confronting debunking.
Read the other article here.
Why we have values
The assumption from here on in, is that values are to provide guidance in decisions and behaviour. When:
Unsure what to do,
what is the right thing to do,
what to push back on,
what to refuse to do,
Employees should be guided by the values.
There are many reasons why organisations have values, and not all of them are so functional. Values also can serve the purpose of building culture and inclusivity, although I would make the case this is more of an internal PR approach.
Read here for more on HR as PR.
The problem of the universal positive
If we are looking for to provide meaningful, practical guidance to your employees, positive statements that people already agree with actually provide little guidance. If the employee already agrees with the statement, then they are not learning anything. To take the four generic values:
Teamwork – Collaborate, communicate, and support one another.
Excellence – Strive for high-quality results and continuous improvement.
Respect – Value others and treat people fairly.
Integrity – Do the right thing and act honestly.
To make a very safe bet, these are a) very similar to the values of the organisation you currently work for, AND b) values you already hold. If you already thought respecting others is a good thing, how are these values providing you guidance?
Read here for another matter to rethink- how we approach wellbeing.
The case for the negative
Here’s the core thesis of this article. Looking back up at what we want to achieve with our values, are we more likely to influence decisions by saying broadly what we want people to feel as they do things, or what we don’t want them to do? Negative prohibitions, while feeling judgemental, directive, disengaging (I could go on) at least provide clearer expectations.
Let’s put this into application by translating the positive into the negative:
Teamwork: Collaborate, communicate, and support one another → we don’t fight, avoid, or undermine each other.
Excellence – Strive for high-quality results and continuous improvement → we don’t accept ‘good enough’, ‘no one will notice’ or ‘it’s fine because it’s always been fine’.
Respect – Value others and treat people fairly → we don’t let disrespect go unchallenged.
Integrity – Do the right thing and act honestly → we don’t accept deceptions or dishonesty.
Which of these are more likely to cause employees to think? to act differently? to pay attention, that we have expectations on them of how they should act? You’re very welcome to disagree, but hopefully it’s causing you to rethink.
Doing both
Sure, you may think, good point, but there is absolutely no way I would get the board to sign off on that, and that’s a very good point. Corporate norms are not easily overcome.
See here for why you should know the organisational big picture.
But there is a compromise, a way to do both. Positive followed by negative:
We value everyone; we don’t believe any here deserves less respect.
We do the right thing; we don’t take the easy way out.
I could go on, but perhaps you’d like to try with the other two.
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