Dealing In Values

It seems that over the past couple of weeks I have been involved in a number of discussions that have been focused on values and principles. These discussions are not foreign to my regular experiences as they are a part of most discussions today regarding leadership. We talk about corporate values, principles, vision and mission. I doubt you could find many people working in corporate America today that are not familiar with these statements. In fact, in many organizations mission and vision statements are laminated onto cards that are carried by the employees. I know this to be true as there was a time when I worked for just such a company.

I recognize the importance of establishing values. Every organization, group, community, and even gangs have value systems. These are not always articulated in lofty language, or printed on laminated cards. Yet, observe any group for a period of time and the values become clear. Of course, the values of an organization do not necessarily make them a “good” organization. I am certain that most criminal organizations have values. Even terrorist have values. The point is while every organization has values, the values of that group may not be agreeable to those outside of the organization.

I have had the opportunity of helping organizations establish their vision and value statements. We sit with groups and work through a discovery process that helps them to “discover” their values. This process is effective for organizations as it brings to the surface the norms by which the group operates. As we go through the exercise, our end goal is to develop a succinct value statement that represents the so called “non-negotiable” principles of the organization. I have participated in the roll out of such statements. These can represent a company’s finest hour. The presentations can be powerful. The speeches are heartfelt and are met with cheering and applause from the audience. Of course, after the meetings end, we are left with the value statement on a laminated card. From that day forward everyone that comes in contact with the organization uses these cards as a basis for judging the company. Many times, these judgments will reflect that the organization has failed to live up to their values.

The problem with value statements is that they really become just public pronouncements. We actually believe that having discovered the values, and given the speech, that people are now going to act in accordance with the values we have established. The problem with this perception is that it is based on a flawed assumption of why people do what people do. People do what they do because of their sense that in doing so they will get what they want. What people want of course is to have their own values satisfied. Their own values may be similar to those of the organization, but it is just as likely that they are very different.

The fact is that we don’t really know what people value until we actually ask them. Pronouncements, laminated cards, and value statements don’t create organizational values, people do. The people in your organization, your company, and even your church really do have their own set of values. These values are likely not formalized, but they exist none the less. As your people live their values, others see them as reflective of the organization.

Several years ago I attended a workshop that was conducted by John Maxwell. He handed out a deck of cards to each participant. The deck included approximately 40 cards. Each card had a statement printed on the card. These statements included words like Balance, Simplicity, Recognition, or Integrity. Using the cards in the deck each participant was asked to “deal” the cards selecting out those statements that resonated most with them. The overall objective of the exercise was to ultimately select out about 5 or 10 of the value cards. These cards represented those value statements that you most closely identified with as values that you personally held. The exercise was powerful in that it caused you to choose those values that mattered most to you. The choices required you to eliminate those statements that while they sounded good, did not represent your own honest opinion of what you valued.

I was thinking of this recently while reading the story about the life of Benjamin Franklin. I read that as a young man he went through a similar process. As a young man he decided that he needed to develop for himself a set of governing values. After much contemplation he selected 12 statements that reflected his values. He asked someone to review the statements and give him feedback on the values he had established. The person doing the review suggested that while the statements seemed to be appropriate, they thought that he should adopt a 13th value. The 13th value that Franklin adopted was the value of humility. He described that value by saying that he would “imitate Jesus and Socrates.” Franklin’s plan for practicing his virtues was that he would focus on one of his virtues each week, working through his list over a 13 week period. At the end of the period he would once again repeat the process.

Many years after Franklin established his 13 values he wrote in his memoirs that he had done a fairly good job at living his 12 values. We note from this writing that by the time that he was older, Franklin had reduced his list of 13 values back down to 12. It seems that over time, Franklin had dropped one of his values. The value that he dropped was his value of humility. I find it interesting that Franklin, a man of so many talents would drop the value of humility. However, I realized something in all of this. Franklin did not live his 13th value because it was not a value he had established for himself. The value of humility was a value that was suggested to him by someone else that believed that Franklin should be more humble. Too often in our organizations, we are suggesting the adoption of that 13th value.

I certainly believe in the establishment of values. When I created Finding Your V.O.I.C.E., the “V” stood for “values.” However, we must remember that the values of any organization are not really the values that are placed on a document. The values of an organization are the values that truly matter to its people. If we are to really know what our people value then we need to ask them. Perhaps we need to help them discover their own values to choose what really matters most to them. I don’t know, but my thought is that we must deal our people in to a process of self discovery that will identify what they value. Then and only then can we know what our organization truly values.