Activating corporate values – Communication requires corresponding behavior
Accelerated by the events in 2020, many companies are increasingly undergoing fundamental change. This includes rethinking corporate culture and its underlying values. Topics such as sustainability, digitalization, diversity, and new work have been important drivers of such value reassessment for some time now. In this context, the communication of corporate values plays an important role, but it is often overestimated.
Please leave us alone with values
Even though values are very suitable for attracting new employees on the external side, they often make people roll their eyes internally. We all know the reason why: the firm’s values aren’t lived and behavior that goes against these values has no consequences. Companies first start communicating their values externally. Only in a second step they start to think about what behaviors these values are based on company-wide. Often, people and leaders are not involved in the discussion of values until it’s far too late. In the end, glossy brochures with catchy slogans are distributed and the topic is considered “communicated”. This leads to corporate values that aren’t anchored in corporate culture.
Crises shake up our value system
In the last 12 months, economic, social and political crises such as COVID19, #blacklivesmatter or the storming of the Capitol in Washington challenged our personal value system enormously. Is an old human life worth less than economic success? Should we accept an increase in the suicide rate if it means a lower COVID death rate? Where does racism begin? What does true solidarity mean? How does it feel when someone’s (or an entire nation’s) values are run down? What do we care about and why? What do we stand for?
Values determine our decisions
The decisions we make and the way we behave will always be shaped by our personal value system. Ultimately, personal values are always authentic. If we go against them, sooner or later we will realize that the decision we made does not suit us. If we don’t want to compromise ourselves, we have no choice but to accept the consequences and stand up for our values.
Next generation puts values at the center
The road to value transformation is rocky and leads to many dead ends. Only a few companies actually manage to sustainably change their culture, in which leadership rigorously exemplifies the values and takes a zero-tolerance approach to non-compliance. And yet, the “war for talent” is greater than ever. In particular, the next generation is increasingly focused on personal values, and they are extremely self-confident and courageous in this regard. If an employer doesn’t fit into their value system, they won’t consider them as an option.
No time to twiddle one’s thumbs
In a world of disorientation, in which we can evaluate everything at any time and share our opinions with everyone globally, values are a lighthouse on stormy seas. However, twiddling one’s thumbs and waiting until everyone in a company has understood that rethinking values is necessary cannot be the alternative. Rather, a change in values – knowing the limits of how effective value communication is – must be approached from multiple sides, continuously and persistently.
