Warning: LONG POSTING
I'm astounded at the number of folks who want to receive the list of
responses to my Values query. Since there are well over 50, I'm taking a
short cut and just posting the lists to the groups. Please just delete if
you're not interested. Additionally, I can't fit it all on one e-mail so
will send out part one and part two. I'm sure there's a better way to do
this but I'm much more comfortable around values than I am computers so to
those computer experts out there...forgive me.
Nancy
Beginning of posting...
Developing Organizational Values
April, l997
apologize for multiple postings but I'm in need of help - bigtime! I've
spent the better part of a year convincing our organization that values need
to be 1)real; 2)specific to the organization they are written for and 3)
focus on employees as heavily as customers. After being a nudge for a year,
I've been told to do whatever I think makes the most sense to develop values
that meet these criteria. Oh, and of course it has to be done quickly now
that they've wasted a year trying to steal values from other organizations.
I am the OD Director for a large, 4hospital healthcare district in So. Fl.
that has approx. 6000 employees. We have been moving rapidly toward a
centralized, matrixed (boy are we matrixed) org. structure. I want to be
able to get some employee involvement in this process also.
I would greatly appreciate any advice or guidance any of you can provide. I
believe very deeply in organizational values and also believe they SHOULD
drive everything we do - decision-making, strategic planning, customer
service, HR practices, etc. Therefore, I want to use this opportunity to do
it right. Thanks a million
Nancy Y. Probst
Director, OD
North Broward Hospital District
Fort Lauderdale, Fl.
You might check out my co-authored piece: Ledford, Wendenhof, and
Strahley, Realizing a corporate philosophy, Organizational Dynamics,
1995, 23(3), 5-19.
Good luck.
GEL
Gerald E. Ledford, Jr.
Research Professor
Center for Effective Organizations
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-1421
I think a book that addresses your questions is a book by Tom
Chappell, President of Tom's of Maine. It is called, "The Soul of a
Business: Managing for Profit and the Common Good." In it Chappell
discusses his process for Tom's of Maine to acknowledge AND ENACT their
corporate values, beliefs, and practices. Sounds much like what you
are asking. Unfortunately, since he was president of his company, he
allowed his company's process to take the necessary time for this
kind of work. Sounds like you don't have that luxury. However, you
might want to let your execs read the book. Could help them envision
the work that needs to be done. You probably already know that
forcing this process is impossible. So, good luck. You have quite a
task in front of you, but one worth working for.
Leslie Stager
leslie stager
u of otago
dunedin, new zealand
san francisco down under
It's not my experience I am offering you (because I have none on the
matter of org values), just some feedback on how it strikes me. Take it
for what its worth to you, and sorry if I bothered you for nothing.
It seems to me there's a paradox in how you present what you want to do
in your message, and maybe noting that can help you reframe or rephrase
(to yourself or to others) what you want to do, or understand the
antagonism which your idea raised.
Aren't values something that "happens" whenever culture "happens",
which in turn "happens" whenever society "happens"? Or otherwise aren't
values directly derived from an organization's most basic strategy?
How then is it possible to go the other way around and try to effect
culture, or even strategy, by writing or inventing values, even if they
stand up to the 3 criteria you mention? It would seem to me that if any
values exist which are worth writing, it is probably because they are
already so real and specific to the organization to start with, that
they need no writing.
Ittay.
Hi Nancy,
Sounds like you have a great challenge but also a wonderful opportunity.
First and foremost, Leadership is THE foundation for a successful
organization transformation. As you know, without fully dedicated
commitments by the Senior Management Team, it just won't happen. It sounds
as if you have developed your Vision (your Guiding Star), and Mission (your
Unique Purpose) and maybe even your Core values (what you believe in), so
now you need to develop key strategies that will foster the organization
embracing these core values. They need to appear and be reinforced all
through the organization. These include within the explicit corporate
philosophy and strategy, organizational tasks, leadership,
resources/technology/communications, structure, processes, and teams. Your
feedback systems need to be also reflect and reinforce your core values.
Have you done a gap analysis? That is a very useful exercise to do with
your Senior Leadership Team. I wish you had signed up for a seat at the HR
Roundtable this Thursday as it is on this subject and believe you would
have found it to be very timely and of assistance to you. Hope some of
these thoughts are helpful, but as you know it is difficult to be very
specific with such limited input. The best to you in this effort. If I can
assist further, let me know.
Warmly,
Winston
Under similar circumstances I found the following book to be very helpful
in guiding my decision making process. Although the book focuses quite a
bit on justifying a shift toward values-based leadership, it still
provides a nice framework for considering organizational (and therefore
personal) values. There is also a focus on the employee which I believe
will suit your situation.
The book is James O'Toole's LEADING CHANGE - THE ARGUMENT FOR VALUES BASED
LEADERSHIP, published by Ballantine Books.
I hope this helps. Good luck to you. If you care to keep me posted I'd
be interested to hear how the process flows and what the eventual outcome
is!
Marty Kaufman
President
Lyceum Knowledge Consulting, Inc.
Are you searching for actual values now reflected in organizational behavior
or the values that "should" be expressed in organizational and individual
behavior, if your org. is going to accomplish it's mission? It might be
interesting to identify both sets of values--they might differ.
I believe that most, though not all values, derive from the long term
business strategy that the organization is using. Most such strategies can
be boiled down to one of three:
1. Low cost
2. Close to customers
3. Cutting edge products and services
Values associated with strategy #1 might include efficiency, speed, saving
money/time, empowering people to find shortcuts, careful planning,
conservative decision making, etc.
Values associated with being close to customers might include returning calls
the same day, putting customers first, empathy for customer needs, open lines
of communication, treating customers ethically, etc.
Values associated with the third strategy might include creativity, tolerance
for idiosyncracies, spending money on R&D, training, and OD, if it ain't
broke, break it!, risk taking, spying on competitors, etc.
What is interesting to me is whether: 1. the actual values are consistent
with the purported values (do senior people walk the talk?); and 2. the
actual or purported values are consistent with and supportive of the
organization's main business strategy.
Good Luck
Jeff Jones
Industrial/Organizational Psychologist
Tampa, Fl
(813) 835-6072
In response to your posting below, you could consider a process which
starts by doing exactly what you are interested in, developing
organizational values collectively. It's called "Appreciative Inquiry" and
it was developed here at Case Western Reserve University, originally by
David Cooperrider. It is an incredible way for developing not only clarity
and specificity about collective values, but also the trust and commitment
which are commensurate with knowing them together.
There are many people who could help you with this. I have experience with
the process and would be interested in pursuing the process further with
you. If you would like, you can reach Prof. Cooperrider via FAX at CWRU at
216-368-4785.
Let me know if I can help.
I would take one of two approaches depending on time.
1. Have a series of workshops (2-4 hours) at which employees learn
about values and identify their own values, the values for their
immediate organization, and the overall values for the total
organization.
2. If you can't get the people together in a workshop, do this as a
paper assignment (give them an article ot two on values or prepare a
video or audio tape).
Take the inputs from either 1 or 2 and have a steering group compile
the data. At the same time, have the top executive/management team
work together to identify the values they feel are critical. When
this is done, compare the two sets. The values which are consistent
give you a starting point of full acceptance. It is the values which
differ at the various levels which will need to be worked - both for
understanding, and then agreement as being the values which should be
held by the organization.
Mike Krause
krausem@dsmc.dsm.mil (703) 805-4642
You may want to look into doing a future search conference. The future
search conference focuses on identifying the values shared by the
organization (i.e. the members) and creating a "direction statement" or
picture of where the organization will be in the future. It is a
participatory method and takes approximately 20 hours. If you want to
create action teams that will work on implementing some suggestions, a
search conference using the Emery style would work. I can send you a
description of the different search conferences if you are interested
in further pursuing this avenue.
Christy Strbiak
Nancy, 1.You sent me the change mgmt quickie assessment a while back and
I thank you. 2. /Reading some of the responses to your values dilemma
made me think of something that might be built into some "focus" style
or inquiry groups to build a preferred values base. Have there been any
major or minor events that illustrate org values in the recent or distant
past? This is reminiscent of Schein's ideas about cultural norms. That
they translate from abstract ideas into artifacts like attire, hours
worked, style of meetings, etc. An example here at the U of W is a
report I jsut did on how we handled layoffs last yr. According to 7 best
practices we could rate ourselves highly. To me this might illustrate a
value of compassion and professional competence in at least this one area
of HR mgmt. (maybe a bad example). Anyway, the idea was to get values
out of the ionosphere of abstraction and make it practical. The same
dilemma exists in making ethics real. Good luck! Pls report back on
what you decide to do.
PS: Does org have a vision and strategic plan. These might be the kind
of thing you could get people to do a values anaylysis of .
Hope you are well. Read your request on ODNET. I think an excellent contact
for you is someone I met three weeks ago at a conference. Her name is
Christine Oster, Program Manager-Corporate Values, for Intel. Phone
(408)765-5607, email
Christine_J_Oster@ccm.sc.intel.com
She's a very nice person and has done interesting things with values there.
All the best,
David Coleman
You posted:"...develop values
that meet these criteria. Oh, and of course it has to be done quickly..."
Quickly be damned, but...
I recommend that you START with interviewing the CEO and his/her closest
managers.
Without that starting point, you risk being reviewed- to- death by the
managers of the matrix and your selling of the idea may risk being ground
down.
So perhaps your largest hurdle is getting the approval of your management
chain to do the interviews with the top level executives.
If they won't talk, they won't listen later. If they can't talk now, it
isn't important enough to them to spend time on.
OR :
YOU are not viewed as important, or wise-enough, in which case the message
needs to be carried by someone else above you in the chain of power, and/or
perhaps the interviewing done by someone that carries higher level
credentials, or has better contacts within the circle of power.
If they do talk to YOU, then you're on track! (power, credentials, etc) or
they think it's important too.
You have my best wishes for Good Luck!
BTW, I think Peter Drucker's writings do alot to put this issue in
perspective, and recommend you use them in your preparation for your
challenging opportunity.
Corey Cate
Corey G. Cate
Training Project Manager
Chemistry and Materials Science Directorate
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
P.O. Box 808 L-353
Livermore, CA 94550
email:
cate1@llnl.gov
Visit the C&MS Web pages at:
http://cms.llnl.gov
If you plans include taking on a consultant, I would be happy to submit
a proposal. I have been working with one of Pennsylvania's largest
healthcare providers -- Allegheny Health, Education and Research
Foundation -- over the last few years in the implementation of corporate
values, ethics code of conduct and training for all employees.
Good luck on your exciting venture.
Peter Madsen
Executive Director
Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics
154 Baker Hall
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
pm2n+@andrew.cmu.edu
We have a product and service that may be of value to you. We have done
several "Culture Assessments" for hospital's. We have a system where we
train internal experts to work with external experts to assess the current
"Values and Assumptions" at risk (we can help you identify the GAP between
existing values and the espoused values. I have an article that explains
the process.
This is the step you should do before moving forward with new values.
We have a book based on what "I think" is the direction you are headed. 'The
Balancing Act" I have copies in stock if you'd like one.
Perhaps we could talk by phone.
Mike Thomas
Vitality Alliance
Pathway Learning
904-435-1000
I've been contemplating your request and I wonder if it wouldn't be best
to start with a different question. If patient centered care is part of
the vision, then perhaps each team would explore: (1) what that means
to us as a team; and then (2) in light of patient centered care, what is
most important?
Now, if the matrix model means that everyone is always shifting teams,
then find the focal point of the Mix of people ... i.e. if you are using
a Star Model (with reps from various disciplines) then you might want to
ask the questions (!) From the perspective of X (i.e. nutrition) what is
important in the continuum of care provided to the patient and so forth.
(2) From the perspective of the administrative tasks, one might ask,
what is most important in terms of gathering data, tracking progress,
sharing information, in order to enhance the quality of care received by
the patient.
Take the focus off of "values" persay and realign according to "what's
important" and What behaviors support the vision of the organization.
That's all I can think of without knowing more about your situation.
Let me know how that fits.
Lynda Rogerson, Ed.D.
hxbg65a@prodigy.com
www.lynco.com
I'd think I'd try the large scale or search conference technology in this
case...events can be designed using either methodology to develop the values,
communicate the values and operationalize those values. PLUS, they are great
ways to get broad involvement!!
Best of luck, and let me know if you have any questions or would like to
discuss further...
E. Craig McGee, Ph.D.
Meritus Consulting Services, LLC
cmcgee@aol.com
970-223-3124
Saw your post on the net. Thought you'd like to see how I do the values
piece as the first step in strategic (or even operational) planning.
It's best to start with the top management group. But this process works
with any group that has a common purpose, clear down to a small unit. I
think values clarification counts most within the group one works with.
Organizational values handed down from the top don't have a lot of currency
unless the leadership is demonstrating values in their behavior and
decisions. If they do, it's okay for them to talk about the organization's
core values. But, while I "publish" organizational values in mission
statements, I rely mostly on helping work groups identify on a very personal
level, what brings them to work each day.
I simply ask members of the team to take turns sharing their personal story
of :a) how and why they came to the organization b) what they hoped it would
be like and c) what their work needs to "be like" in order to keep investing
their life energy.
I go first and tell my story about getting into OD and what kind of
relationship I seek with clients. I tell my story in a non-threatening way
without piety "I needed a way to escape from the bureaucracy, and I need a
paycheck..."
Each member takes 3 to 5 minutes to respond to these queries. I don't allow
interruptions, not even questions. Each simply takes a turn. I sit quitely
and take notes (not on the flip chart) on the values that I hear being
expressed in the stories. In a group of 10 or 13 people the list may include
a dozen or more key values, e.g., interest in the work, itself,
effectiveness, success, challenge, security, harmony, trust, integrity, and
so on.
The group will find these stories very moving and members learn new things
about each other, even tho they may have worked together for years. I call a
break so that members can immediately converse privately about what they have
just heard.
During the break I list the values that I heard being expressed in the
stories. And I invite the group to add others important to them. This
sensitizes the group as to what values are and how they drive our decisions.
I ask people what they think of the list and they often remark on the
similarity or the wide variance among the values...and implications for why
things are the way they are in the team.
I explain that every one brings their own, unique values to work and that
values are very hard to change. Then I talk about core values, those that
everyone can share at least a part of.
Then I use a multi-voting method to have members select their top three
values from the list. We look at the voting and I ask the group to narrow it
to three or four core values that the group is willing to live by.
I ask each member to say in a word or phrase to what exent they share these
values.Finally, I ask what would be happening in the group if it tried hard
to nurture these values in their daily work and decision making.
I find this conversational approach often sets an entirely new tone with the
group, whether it's the top executive team, or a small group on the night
shift. They know they are into a new kind of planning.
Once values are agreed upon we move to the environmental scan, seeking to
match our values (who we are) with what's going on around us.
I'd be interested in how you approach values in your practice.
Good luck.
Dwight Fee, Annapolis, MD
Nancy Y. Probst's search for help on values reminded me of the joke going
around a few years back about the CEO who heard about Corporate Culture and
sent the OD Director out to get one for them.
All organizations have values and cultures. They may not be explicitly
stated and hanging on the wall in every office, but they are there. We as OD
practitioners don't create them, they are a part of the system and have a
significant impact on the way the organization functions. We can, however,
help people look at implicit values by linking observed behavior to the
value messages that behavior sends to employees and customers. If the
messages are inconsistent with those the organization seeks to send, we can
then help them define the values and the behaviors needed to send messages
consistent with the image they hope to project. On the other hand, if the
messages meet their needs (even "caveat emptor" is valid for some
organizations), there is probably little we can, or should, do to bring about
change.
IMHO, the starting place is employee and customer data. Their perceptions of
"what the organization believes", based on their own experience, represents
much more meaningful information than an OD consultant's urging them to
development some value statements. Those perceptions, backed up by specific
behavior examples, are the basic input to a discussion of culture and values.
Action research is a basic model for organization development. The three
processes involved are: data collection, feedback of the data to the clients,
and action planning based on the data. This model is dated (Richard
Beckhard, Organization Development: Strategies and Models, 1969), but
effective. It provides the clients with data to help them understand their
current situation, lets them decide whether change is needed, and then helps
them plan and implement the change.
It is important that we keep ownership of the organization's culture and
values with the client (even if we are internal consultants). When we try to
push the client to attain our personal agenda, we effectively are trying to
preempt ownership. And they, properly, ignore us!
Hal Arney, OD and Training Consultant
620-B Rose Hollow Drive, Yardley, PA 19067
Perhaps you might consider the following "simple" approach to identifying
your organization's core values. (1) Develop a good vision statement. (2)
Start by doing a SWOT analysis-scan the organizational environment for its
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Don't forget to take a
broad view of environment-customers, regulators, neighbors, competition,
etc.. (3) Next ask your organizational self what are the core values we need
to cherish and practice to:
-maximize strengths
-minimze weaknesses
-take maximum advantage of our opportunities, and
-vanish the threats.
How to do this? I suggest you form focus groups consisting of "diagonal
slices of your organization ( don't be afraid to mix levels, include
customers, union reps, etc.). Just make sure that your focus groups include
all stakeholders.
Hope this is of some help.
Be well,
Gene Swilkey
E. S. Associates
2102 Grove Road
Northfield, NJ 08225
(609) 646-2678
eubass@aol.com
Nancy, here's something I kept from the Learning-Org listserv that might
be useful for you.
Cherry
>----------
>From: Bob Williams[SMTP:
bobwill@actrix.gen.nz]
>Sent: Monday, 16 December 1996 10:56
>To:
learning-org@world.std.com
>Subject: Values Identification process
>
>Replying to LO11419 --
>
>>From:
ingram_b@ix.netcom.com
>>Date: Fri, 13 Dec 1996 10:52:52 -0800
>
>I have developed a values identification process which borrows heavily
>from the Emery's Search process and some ideas from Glen Watkins. It
>seems to overcome some (but by no means all) of the problems of people
>espousing values which they think they ought to display rather than values
>which lie closer to their hearts.
>
>I won't go into the group dynamics (which are very important), but
>essentially I get people (at least 16 is the best size, but I have done it
>with groups of 50 or so) to undertake collectively the following tasks :-
>
>1. Identify the factors over the next 10 years which will affect them,
>and/or their area of work. It is important that people specify things
>which can be easily judged (ie not generic phrases like "technology"), or
>indicate a direction (eg "increased international communications, and not
>"communications"). I don't get too hung up about this since in the end it
>is a device, not an attempt to predict the future.
>
>2. I then get people to agree which are the most desirable, and the most
>undesirable factors (usually no more than 5 of each). Depending on what
>you are doing, you can make the criteria for selection highly restrictive
>(ie no compromises allowed), or pretty relaxed. Also depending on what
>you are doing, you can do this according to individuals' own interests or
>the interests of their organisation, team or community.
>
>3. I then get people to compare the desirable and undesirable lists. I ask
>them to define what it is about what they value most in life (or in their
>business environment or whatever) which explains the difference between
>the desirable and undesirable lists. After five minutes or so of
>confusion and a couple of false starts, what pops out is usually riveting
>stuff, and quite unlike most similar exercises.
>
>The results can be taken in all kinds of directions, depending on what the
>task is. It can form the basis of a vision (eg if your organisation was
>behaving along these lines and was wildly successful what could it achieve
>in 10 years ?). It can form the basis of organisational evaluation (eg if
>your organisation was applying these values what would it be doing in
>practice; where is that happening now and why do you think it happens there
>and not elsewhere). Sometimes I use the futures list, and the values to
help
>develop strategy or be part of an environmental scan.
>
>I won't make any claims whether this process works better than other
>methods. It works for me, and many people who have gone through the
>process tell me that it works for them too. If handled well the process
>can be a lot of fun, but it needs to be treated seriously; there is a real
>danger that people and relationships can be hurt by the some of the
>discussions it generates. But I guess that is true of any process which
>gets close to the core of what we are as individuals, teams, organisations
>and communities.
>
>Hope this is helpful.
>
>Cheers
>
>Bob
>
>BOB WILLIAMS
>
bobwill@actrix.gen.nz
Attached is an assignment I did aat Uni recently. It is actually 2 case
studies about visioning and values and I thought it might be useful if
only because I did a fair amount of research for it.
Cheers
Nicky
--
Nicky Kain & Ron Adlam
Western Australia
nic.ron@vianet.net.au
I'm not sure *I* can set *your* values. I suspect an organization is a
social entity -- a community. And I suspect neither you nor I can set
the values for a community: Imagine the silliness of your states
attorney general deciding he(she) should set the values of you and the
neighbors in your community. (Maybe it's not silliness; maybe it's a
mindboggling level of arrogance. Or madness.) So yes, you're dead
right about an organization's *not* being able to steal values from
other organizations.
I do suspect that we might be able to *discover* the values held by the
community's members. And seek out commonalities broadly held. (Though
I think it likely most of those will be banalities.) Then you could
search for the best, most admirable of those to emphasize in a values
statement. And get more clarity / consistency (and admirableness) into
that values statement by more and more abandoning the views of fringe
members of the organization. (That is, the concensus statement will
never incorporate *100%* of the values of *100%* of the organization's
members. So the question is, do we go for 99% of the 99%, or 95% of the
95%, or 80% of 80%, or ...?) (But obviously, too, there is some
political risk in abandoning the views of "fringe" -- i.e., non-typical
-- organizational members who happen to have power.)
This has gotten too long (and abstract), but if it were me, I'd start
with some sort of values survey instrument. Good Luck.
Fred Anderson
Eberly College of Business
Indiana Univ. of Pa.
Indiana, Pa. 15237
anderson@grove.iup.edu
One of the best interventions I ever did was to have the senior leadership
teams identify what they thought their values were & then to have them look
at their behviors/policy/decisions & what values those reflected & then, of
course, to deal with the clear discrepancies between the avowed & real
values...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
M. Johnna Shamp, Ph.D.
Licensed Organizational Psychologist
Independent Consultant in TQM/OD
4001 N. Meridian St.
Indianapolis, IN 46208
Phone: 317-926-4631
Fax: 317-926-3850
Email:
mjshamp@aol.com