0:00  
And welcome to the achieve workplace culture podcast, where we help you our listeners find actionable ways to improve, strengthen, reinforce your workplace culture. Whatever you need to do today, I'm here with my two co hosts, my regular co host, Wendy Loewen and Chris Downey. It's good to be here with you again today, recording this episode on values. How do you name them, how do you claim them, and how do you orient your culture around those values? That's what we want to tackle today. We have talked about values before on this pod, but today, we want to spend a very action packed 10 to 15 minutes really thinking about, what is the what are the value of values in the workplace, and how do we just anchor to them as as a workplace and as a leader, and why that matters for our culture. So I want to start by asking you a personal question. I hope it's okay, yes. Could you name one of your personal values?

0:58  
One would be collaboration. I was going to say community, actually, community, collaboration, yeah,

1:04  
for me, it's relationship.

1:06  
For me, it's kindness. Okay, so three values. Now, if I ask you, could you name one of our articulated values here at Achieve,

1:17  
togetherness, joy,

1:20  
authenticity, improvement. Those are the four. Those we got the four. We got them down. Have you noticed in the past, when you're working in workplaces, that if you ask people to name the values, describe the looks you get when you do a values workshop with a workplace and you say, Can you name your workplace values? What do you see?

1:42  
A whole mix of things. But go ahead,

1:43  
yeah, a whole mix of things. But I will set it up very carefully in that if you don't know them, don't feel bad, because what people invariably do is take out their phones and go to their website to figure out what our what are our values?

1:57  
Well, you're right. That's probably the if we're gonna like, the most common searching yeah, sometimes we see eye rolls yeah around those and sometimes people do know them. But that, I would say, is, is pretty rare when we ask that, that that question, and then

2:21  
the second part of that question is, if you know what the values are, how are they expressed in your workplace? That really then often becomes, oh, I need to think, well, that

2:30  
well, not only that, is when you when you say that, what's even worse is when they know what they are, and they say, how do you see them express the workplace? And you don't. They don't. That's where it shifts from an eye roll to actually anger. That's where you can absolutely see it. So just not knowing them, it almost becomes light, right? Knowing them, but not seeing them, that's where people have a visceral reaction, thoughts as to why that might be but that that is definitely what we see most.

2:58  
And I think we should go there, yeah, just before we go there. How did you come to learn your workplace values? Why did you remember them so easily, like ours? Yeah, right here, right here at a cheap Well, we talk about them, okay,

3:15  
they were part of, you know, my coming into the organization, even before starting, we talked about the values and what they were and what that meant to really, how does that overlap with my own personal values? That, to me, was a physical there was conversations that happened before being brought in, and probably even more so during, you know, I've been kind of within the organization now for a few years. We haven't stopped talking about them. I don't mean that in an irritated way. I hope it's not. It's been in an ongoing journey. So it's they're unforgettable because we're talking about them and we're seeing them, and then we're calling it out when we see them. Yeah, yeah.

4:00  
And for me, Eric, you as well. This was before you joined the team, Chris, but they're co created like we created them. They represent the conversations, the perspectives of us as a community, as a collective group of people, about how we do the best work together, and that's articulated in our values. Yeah?

4:24  
So, you know, we could spend a whole workshop, a multi workshop, and we do defining values with teams. Yeah, we're not going to do that here today. Instead, we want our listeners to walk away with a couple of key thoughts or actionable ideas to begin with. What's the problem when people can't really call to mind their values or don't know if they're in operation within the organization? What can go amiss in a workplace culture if they aren't just clear to people?

5:00  
I think people are a little untethered. They're unsure of how to respond and what's important for their work and for their interactions. And so there's no way to orient yourself, to your team, to your work. And so, yeah, you do your tasks, but you feel very you know, we talk about the loneliness epidemic, we can feel very lonely at work, or we can feel connected to our work and to each other, and hopefully our values do

5:27  
both, yeah, yeah. Well, I Yeah. I think it can be confusing for people like just to simply put it, if your values aren't identified and demonstrated, it's confusing you don't know how you're really supposed to operate for one keep,

5:43  
yeah, because we sometimes talked about values being the internal compass that guides how we behave together, what's on and what's not on, right? And so in our previous episode of this podcast, we talked about respect, sure, part of being able to have a workplace culture that's respectful is understanding what behavior is acceptable and on, and that is about our values. Absolutely right? Yeah, it's about our values. So if people are listening to this podcast right now and they're saying we'd like to be a bit more clear or a bit more tethered to our values and utilize them as our compass. What are a couple of ideas that you might have for them as ways that they can dig into those values and actually make them come alive with their staff?

6:32  
Well, I think part of it starts, my bet is we have a few I know a number of the our listener base here. Some come from large corporations. Some come from smaller operations. So whether you're part of a larger organization, maybe you're part of an organization that's across the country and those values aren't clear. Maybe you don't have the authority to change those. You can do it at a team level. And if you're responsible organizationally, then the same thing applies. You do have values, and they are influencing how people behave, whether you call them or not, call them out or not. So a key way to do it is starting with asking ourselves, when we're at our best, what's going on? What do we see? What are we doing? Yeah, and that's just do some reflection on what are what are we seeing to begin with, because there will be some things that you're doing that are really good. Now you might also hear, what are we missing? Yeah, that's okay, too. What do we aspire to be in order to complete that package? So what are we doing when we're at our best? That's probably core to who you are. We refer to Lencioni refers those DNA values. And there's nothing wrong with realizing, while this is true, we also want to be more this way. That's aspirational. That's okay. Yeah, right. So I would start with conversations. When we're at our best, what are we seeing? Yeah, and are there any gaps?

7:57  
Yeah, and sometimes, actually, it's helpful to say, what are characteristics of people who haven't fit in well here in the past? And so that can be tricky. We don't want to talk about people in a disrespectful way, but what we want to say is, well, this organization really values x, and that person seemed to value y, right? And so there was a rub sometimes, and so we're not again, this isn't about calling people out, but it's rather saying, what are the characteristics of people who seem to really work well in this environment?

8:31  
Yeah, so I agree with that, Eric, so let's, let's, let's articulate those values. But here's the thing, values, you aren't actions. No, you don't do like we used to. We talked about respect. You don't do respect. Respect is the result of behaviors. So the next thing we need to do is go, what does this value of collaboration? Wendy, as you said, what does that look like as we carry out the work? How could we catch someone collaborating, and one of the things that's important we do this work lots with clients, and every client, what we take it through, we call it critical moments exercise, because there's lots of moments in a day, but for your organization or for your team, what are those moments that are most critical, the ones that, if you get right, demonstrate your culture more than anything else, right? That could be an employee's made a mistake. That could be first time someone contacts your organization. Okay, let's take that moment what I'll stick with collaboration. What does collaboration look like in that moment? And let's identify those behaviors, because we want to be able they want. Knowing the value is one thing, understanding it is a whole other thing, and that's a behavior based thing. So we want to get behavioral with our values.

9:45  
Yeah, and those behaviors may look different between different teams, different departments, and they need to explore and be able to articulate, what does if one of your values as one of ours is, is improvement? What does improvement look like on the marketing team? That might be very different. And then what it looks like in client services and their team needs to orient themselves to expressing the value in a way that's meaningful,

10:07  
meaningful for them. Yeah, meaningful. That's the way. That's exactly right, yeah, yeah.

10:11  
What's meaningful about our value? So Chris, you pointed to our history. You talked about how or Wendy, you actually did. You talked about how we articulated a set of values as a group. Now, over the last several months, each staff meeting, we've tackled a value, and we've just asked some questions about it. Where are people seeing it? What does it mean? Where might we be missing something? And on Thursday of this week, we're getting together with our entire staff, and guess what we're going to do? We're going to look at values again. Now I don't know. Is there a point where you're doing it too much, or is this something that you have to keep revisiting?

10:54  
You need to keep revisiting. And the reason for the lead off, Eric, you said the value of values, the reason this is so important is we, last I checked, our organization is filled with human beings, right? And all of us, that's what we have in common. We're values LED. We're values driven. It's what motivates us more than anything else. So the reason we keep talking about it, it's kind of interesting to say we all share that, yeah, but yet we aren't taught to talk about it. Yeah, right? And the challenge is, so when values, maybe, maybe, like you said, maybe someone calls out a value, corporate value of collaboration, but no one's asked them their opinion in six months, that's creates a values in congruence, and that is demotivating, right? And so most issues that we're seeing in the workplace, those cultural challenges we go and work with, there's usually it's value incongruence, it's leadership, say one thing and do something else, right? That's not motivating, or leadership says this, and they experience that, ooh, that's motivating. So I don't think we can do it too much, but it shouldn't be done as if it's something side of the desk. Make it part of the work. How do we how do we use it to solve problems? How do we use it to make decisions? That's how we can incorporate our values into our routine business. I'm pretty passionate about this

12:18  
well, and I think what you said, Chris, we need to be talking about it. We need to keep circling back and reorienting to it. And Eric, you use the word kindness was one of is your one of a personal value for you. You know, do you stop talking about that with your family? No, you don't, because it's important. And you want to keep call. We want to keep calling each other to those values,

12:39  
yes, and we have to also define what kindness means. Sometimes, yeah, kindness sometimes means clarity. Sometimes kindness means truthfulness, right? Sometimes kindness means kindness. We can't just say, you know, we'll just use that word, yeah. So we need to continue to articulate what it looks like, what is, what is? How are we demonstrating this to each other in the workplace?

13:04  
So I wouldn't say, No way that we're gonna put time here just using the value of kindness. I know that links into our value, our values of togetherness and authenticity. It links Matthew to you. Have you worked in an organization where kindness really was not a driving factor in your work history?

13:20  
Yeah, for sure, back, especially back when I was in high school and university. In a word, how would you describe your work experience? I didn't like it. I didn't like being there, right? Didn't like it, right? No, I didn't like it, yeah, I was happy to leave at the end of the summer. Yeah, happy

13:33  
to leave. You are leading an organization where this is an underpinning of organization. What difference does that make for you as a person?

13:39  
I look forward to work every day, I just, I feel great, and when I'm not seeing that demonstrated that my stomach just gets tight. We've got to get back there, because this is not, yeah, this doesn't feel good, right? If I'm if I'm experienced as unkind, my personal value here, oh, man, it's devastating, because I really sure that's something that's important to me.

14:01  
See, I think in that moment you articulate the value of values, it's everything. It's wanting to be there versus not wanting to be there. And it acts as your compass. When it's not present, it pushes you back to where you need to be. That's that's the value of values to me.

14:13  
Yeah, it's the foundation

14:15  
values for our listeners. Now, as we wrap up, values are actually the beating heart of your workplace culture, and if you're not clear about them, and if you're not clear about how to act on the values, and if your team isn't clear on them and clear how to act on them, it's time to have another conversation. Don't be afraid to talk about values often and in many ways, bring them into your performance conversations. Bring them into your workplace, team meetings, bring them into what you talk about with the public. Values matter. They orient you, they attract the right people, they attract the right clients and customers, and they send the people who don't resonate with them, looking for something else. And that's okay. You need to be who you are, and that's all about your value. Values with that. We're going to wrap up this episode and we'll see you next time.