Is Your Office an Art Gallery?
Do you have some of those great Successories motivational posters hanging in your office? You know, the ones that talk about EXCELLENCE, INTEGRITY, COLLABORATION, TEAMWORK, LEADERSHIP, etc.? They are beautiful images and are great to look at, but frankly, not much more likely to inspire the values or behaviors they espouse than an interstate speed limit sign inspires driving the speed limit.
But maybe you’re thinking, “Hold on a minute, we’re ahead of the game, we actual put our Vision, Mission, and Values up on the wall.”
That’s great and you certainly are to be commended for taking the time to develop A Vision Statement (describes the organization as it aspires to appear in a future successful state), and a Mission Statement (describe the what, how, and why of an organization), and the organizations Core Values (or value statements).
But again, putting it on the walls, just makes it art. Values and value statements describe what an organization believes in and how it will behave. The values serve as a moral compass or guiding principles for the people to follow during decision making and establishes standards by which actions can be measured.
These values and value statements must reflect the core ideology, the deeply held beliefs of the people in the culture and be supported and promoted by leadership on a daily basis.
So let me ask you,
Does your organization have VMV’s?
Does everyone know and understand them?
Does everyone embrace the core values?
Are your organization’s actions and decisions in alignment with its values?
Does leadership encourage open and honest feedback when they are not?
What impact do decisions and actions have on productivity and morale when they are thought to conflict with stated values?
If your organization has developed VMV’s, communicated them to all levels of the organization, embodied them in management practices, and defined objectives that are compatible with the long-range vision, then you have provided a long-term direction and course for your organization to steer. If your organization doesn’t have vision, mission, and values, how do you know when you are off course?
