 If a company’s values are supposed to be more than just cheerful posters around the office, then how exactly are they meant to be used? And to what end?
This is the thought going through every executive’s mind when we talk about a ‘values-led’ organization or a ‘purpose-driven’ company. HR colleagues know that purpose and values are critical to understanding their company’s ‘why,’ but sometimes struggle with how to connect employees to values as a ‘how.’ Certainly, purpose and values can be woven into many aspects of the Talent and Organizational Design functions including performance management, rewards and recognition and job design. But there’s still a critical component missing – how to unlock and unleash ‘values as behaviors’ within a company. How do we help employees to use these core elements of our organization’s ‘social contract’ to guide the way they perform their roles and relate to each other every day? How do we use purpose and values to connect employees to the big picture and then empower them to effectively contribute to achieving the businesses’ goals? Making values 'real' requires consistent communication. Often I hear leaders say that they need to ‘communicate better,’ when what they mean is ‘broadcast more’ information to employees. Unless one of your values is ‘Command and Control,’ this kind of behavior modeling is unlikely to yield the desired results. Companies powered by ‘knowledge workers’ require a more sophisticated and nuanced approach to connecting employees to purpose and values so that they can apply those principles to their roles and relationships in a meaningful way. And the truth is, every company is powered by ‘knowledge workers.’ Not everyone is an engineer, programmer, or analyst, but employees in every business require context to make good decisions every day at work. Anyone working in construction or forestry knows that an employee’s ability to understand a situation and make very smart decisions quickly can mean the difference between life and death. Purpose and values provide an excellent framework for creating this understanding, but how do we communicate effectively with so many different kinds of employees, in different industries, geographies, generations, tenures, capabilities and performing different functions and roles? The power of strategic storytelling Fortunately, there is a ‘silver bullet’ that comes in as many different shapes, sizes, colors and formats as there are contexts in need of a communication solution. It’s not an app or a new technology, in fact it’s been tried and tested since the dawn of civilization. Storytelling is deeply ingrained in our human psyche as a means of understanding the world and then making decisions about how to navigate it – we’ve only fairly recently begun to understand the neuroscience that explains how organizations can truly harness this tool to translate values into behaviors that enable employees to powerfully contribute to achieving business goals. When people listen to well-crafted stories scientists have discovered that their brains ‘light up’ as they follow the narrative. In fact, all subjects brains ‘light up’ in very consistent patterns. As they listen, hormones and neurotransmitters like dopamine, cortisol and oxytocin are produced – each has a specific role to play in connecting the listener to the story’s dramatic arc. The story’s ability to stimulate the connection between empathy and oxytocin in the listener produces a particularly notable effect –at the end of hearing a story people with higher levels of oxytocin in the body are consistently more likely to take ‘pro-social’ actions, like donating money to charity. The building blocks of behavior change Think of these pro-social actions as the building blocks of behavior change. When our storytelling weaves in our company’s purpose and values, we can extrapolate that our employees will, over time, learn to demonstrate those values as behaviors. The age-old leadership and management mystery of ‘how to get our employees to do what we want them to do’ has, in large part, been solved. And, the answer is the exact opposite of the top-heavy, hierarchical, command-and-control approach that has long been the norm. The research on creating a culture of purpose and psychological safety where leaders are vulnerable and human has been well documented. Strategic storytelling actually changes brain chemistry – this is a powerful system of eliciting consistent desired behaviors from employees that is also respectful, empowering and gives your people an opportunity to innovate and co-create more effective solutions for your business. Values IRL Developing and implementing this strategic storytelling system – what I call Values IRL – creates a consistent, immersive, dynamic experience for employees that can help crack the code of core people challenges like recruitment, retention, productivity, performance, engagement and safety. Values IRL is not a one-and-done exercise; it has to become like brushing your teeth. Fortunately, it’s an ideal complement to all the regular people processes, programs and campaigns that already exist within your company, including rewards and recognition, performance management, change programs, learning and development, and leadership communication. This makes the opportunities for strategic storytelling nearly universal. No matter the size of your business, industry, or country, if you’re depending on your people to profit and grow then bringing your purpose and values to life – real life, every day, will be critical to your success. Have questions about how you can bring Values IRL and strategic storytelling to your organization? Get in touch.
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It was amazing to offer the closing keynote speech at the IABC Minnesota Convergence Summit last month. So, I wanted to share some of the ideas I discussed in a series of blog posts. Here’s the first! Hope you find them helpful.  Every company battles the talent war to hire employees who are smart, innovative, strategic, driven, curious, creative, resourceful, and build context quickly. And so, I’m left wondering why so often in corporate America, we then go on to treat those employees like robots? Companies act is if these people don’t have personal lives, hobbies, babies, dreams of their own, or parents who need care. It's as though employees aren't supposed to have fears and vulnerabilities, friendships and relationships, bodies that get sick or need exercise, trauma and grief, or brains that just need to unplug and recharge for a while. These are well, just really human experiences; the cost of doing business while inhabiting a human form. And yet, we act as though they have nothing to do with business. However, one day, in the not too distant future, any job that can be done better, faster, cheaper by a robot/machine/algorithm will be. And then what will we need all these pesky humans for? As it turns out, some pretty cool stuff. Plenty has been written on the subject, and a recent Forbes article outlines some of the very human qualities that will be most in demand in the workplace of the future, including:
And since we’ve got some pretty big opportunities and challenges ahead of us in the business world of planet Earth, it looks like we’ll be needing all those smart, driven, curious, resourceful, passionate, creative, strategic and critical thinking, innovative knowledge workers to be firing on all cylinders. The jobs we’ll need humans to do will require employees who are 100% Human. We will need to draw on the very best within our people in order to grow our businesses. That means that our workplaces will also have to, not just adapt, but transform into human-friendly ecosystems. We won’t be working harder or smarter, we’ll be working in a way that enables humans to thrive, and do their very best work. Communications professionals have a critical role to play in this transformation.
We can be the change we want to see in business. What change do you want to see?  In the last post, we talked about asking ‘why’ what you’re communicating is important, and how whatever it is you’re communicating will help your colleagues contribute to your company’s phenomenal growth and success. Now we’re going to learn an amazingly simple trick for making your communications less spammy and annoying, and more interesting to your colleagues. Remember: Know, Feel, Do Every time you are communicating something, ask yourself what you want the intended recipient to Know, Feel and Do as a result of your message. Here’s an easy example: it’s time to let people know about the upcoming company barbeque. Obviously, as we’ve learned, you’re asking yourself why it’s important for people to know about the upcoming BBQ and that they should attend. The answer is that there are a lot of new people who’ve joined the company recently, and there hasn’t really been a good opportunity for them to get to know their colleagues. If people know each other, they can work together more effectively, and therefore really hit the ground running in their new roles. Great. Good reason. So, you’re going to send an email to everyone to tell them about the event. Thinking just about the veteran employees for a moment, ask yourself, what do you want them to: Know: We are having a BBQ on July 23rd at the park to welcome our newer colleagues, and you should come. Feel: A BBQ, cool! That sounds like fun, and it will be a great opportunity to get to know some of the new people who work here. Do: Excitedly attend the BBQ and spend time getting to know their new colleagues, share their experience, and build relationships that will help those new people hit the ground running. Once you know what you want people to Know, Feel and Do, you will craft your message differently than if you hadn’t asked Why, and you hadn’t thought about what the desired outcome of the message was for you and your company. Make sense? Who cares what people Feel? At the time of this article’s publication, let’s assume that most of your colleagues are humans, and not robots. Taking a human employee’s emotional world into account when you communicate is helpful because you are likely to get a better result for Do. Some companies haven’t quite figured this out yet, but in the 21st century, the smart, talented colleagues you’re trying to communicate with probably don’t respond super well to a ‘Command and Control’ approach, and don’t really like being ordered around for no good reason. Accounting for, and appealing to, their feelings is going to be a far more effective strategy. It also goes back to ‘Why.’ You want them to go to the BBQ to spend time getting to know their colleagues. If they show up at the park ‘feeling’ excited to be there, you’re going to get a better result on your ‘Why’ (know each other, collaborate better, be more productive quickly, make us more money) than if you tried something like ‘Thou shalt go to the park, eat hot dogs, and talk to your colleagues for a specified duration on Saturday.’ But wait, there’s more... Know, Feel, Do also works on boring stuff too, which is handy. For example, IT changes: Know: There’s going to be a system outage on Thursday while we upgrade some important applications Feel: That’s cool that they’re upgrading those applications, I’m glad we’re getting that done this week. Do: Make a plan to arrange work around announced system outage times to stay busy and productive, even when I can’t be working in those applications. See? It almost makes it sound exciting! Almost... Want to catch up on previous posts in this series? Check out why employee communications matters to your business, and why it's important to ask Why you're communicating at all. Still need help communicating with your employees? Relax, we're here to help. BONUS! On April 24, join us for a LIVE Q&A Call and get all your employee communications questions answered.  It’s easy to understand why business leaders get excited about creating a great culture – the benefits are huge! Strong culture leads to great employee engagement. It's well documented that companies with better employee engagement enjoy oh-so-many dividends, including better productivity, innovation, customer experience, employee retention, profitability, safety and work quality. Not to mention that it’s a lot easier to recruit top talent in a tight labor market when your team is shouting from the rooftops about how amazing it is to work for you. However, culture isn’t a ‘once in a while’ thing, and it’s not like an adorable puppy you get for Christmas. Culture isn’t ‘cute when it’s new,’ and then just kind of a pain in the neck the rest of the year. Why not? Ummmm, please see above list of upsides – those are 365-days-a-year kinds of benefits! And, like that cute puppy, if your feed and water it properly, your culture will grow big and strong over time. Give it some love, and your culture will become your very best friend as a leader. Fortunately, there are lots of not-so-hard ways to nurture your culture. An easy place to start is with your Mission, Vision and Values statements – they’re kind of like your road map. Tell the truth: Do your Mission, Vision and Values statements live in a drawer somewhere, and yet your wonder why they’re not ‘working?’ It’s ok. These things happen. It’s easy to get back on track. Here are three top, easy and painless tips for using your Mission, Vision and Values to help you build and maintain an amazing culture. Spoiler alert! None of them include ping pong tables and beer:
Over time, your people will understand that ‘this is the way we do things around here,’ which is a strong starting point for building the culture you want – and need – to grow. There’s another big plus to consistently communicating your values; it actually makes your job as a leader easier. Just like the decision-making criteria described for employees, the same is true for you.
Just like your puppy doesn’t turn into a giant dog overnight, your values-driven culture also takes time to mature. The good news is, just like those daily trips to the dog park, the journey can be a whole lot of fun. Interested in diving deeper into your company's Mission, Vision and Values with someone who knows the ropes? Drop us a line! Want to get started right away? Click here to receive a free Kick Start Guide to creating your own Mission, Vision and Values statements!  Hmmm… You actually already have a job that keeps you pretty busy, and now, as your company has grown, someone (who shall remain nameless) has asked you to also pick up employee communication. They may also have called it employee engagement, or internal communications, or something that sort of sounds like that. The only problem is...you’re not quite sure where to start, and you’re not entirely sure you’ll know if you’ve been successful, and sometimes it all seems a little overwhelming, if you’re being honest… Employee Communications is a thing Fear not. The truth is that in larger companies, employee communications is actually a whole job unto itself. In fact, there are whole teams that do nothing but oversee employee communications. This is because how employees understand their role in a company — how what they do every day affects the bottom line — has a big impact on that bottom line itself. Think about when you’ve been new in a job, and haven’t really been entirely clear on what’s going on, how things work, or even what it is exactly that you’re supposed to be doing. When you don’t have that bigger picture, that broader context, you can’t perform at your best — it’s a frustrating feeling! Once you understand how all the pieces fit together, you can, to use a technical term, crush it. You do your job better, faster, smarter and with more energy and enthusiasm than you did when you were, well, kind of clueless. Employee Communication plays a big role in helping people crush it at work So, now you can start to see that employee communication is kind of a big deal. And that means that you have a big opportunity to be a total rock star at work. But wait, there’s more. Want to know specifically how employee communications affects your company’s bottom line? It has to do with the connection between employee communication and, what is often called employee engagement. Employee engagement is a much larger topic that we’ll address is future articles, but basically, it’s a way of measuring how much better and harder someone is willing to work. That may sound kind of transactional at first, but here’s the thing -- employee engagement is linked to some big ways that companies either make or lose money when it comes to their people, including:
So you can see why companies take employee communication (and engagement) seriously as they grow. However, for smaller businesses, it’s not usually feasible to have a dedicated person doing this role, which is where you come in. See? Total rock star opportunity. There’s something else though — it’s not just about the productivity and the profit. We spend a lot of our lives at work, and employee communication and engagement just makes that time better. Helping people thrive at work, and contributing to a great company culture is a very important role, and one that hopefully, by now seems more like fun, and less like just. More. work. In this series of articles, we’ll demystify the basics of employee communication, and share some ‘tricks of the trade’ so that you can feel confident and enthusiastic in helping your company to be a better, stronger, happier place to work. Have questions? Concerns? A persistent, prickly feeling of panic that keeps you up at night? Fear not; this is a safe space. You can either ask them in the comments, or just email us directly. We’re here to help. |
AuthorVictoria Dew is the Founder and CEO of Dewpoint Communications. Archives
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