Values: Where Good Intentions Go to Die
The work isn’t crafting values; it’s living them.
Values show up in calendars, promotions, and confrontations.
What’s your system for aligning behaviors with commitments? When did your last meeting compare convictions with actions?
Leaders huddle in conference rooms debating definitions, grammar, and punctuation. Daily practice is all that counts.
The power of the work is in the living, not the writing.
Schedule Quarterly Alignment Meetings
- What stories prove our ideals are real?
- What daily behaviors show how we treat each other?
- What recurring problems reveal drift from our principles?
- Who best models our standards?
- How do promotions reinforce what we believe?
- What behaviors must we confront?
- What are we willing to lose to honor our convictions?
Bonus: How do we answer, “We don’t do that here?”
Leaders organize people around shared beliefs. Write at the top of every performance review: Words without behavior are drivel.
Values Action Item
Create a rotating role: Chief Values Officer (CVO). Assign them on a quarterly basis for every team. Leaders bring organizational values to life.
- The CVO plugs into existing structures. They don’t create committees or meetings.
- CVOs don’t report on “Culture.” They report on behaviors and decisions.
- Give the CVO immunity to call out drift without fear of retribution.
What can leaders do to protect against organizational drift?
How to Experience the Vitality of Being True to Yourself
Strategy Execution | HBS Online
Dan, I would observe that we actually live our true values, regardless of what we may say we value. The challenge is living out the right values. Integrity is the proper alignment.
Compromise is but the sacrifice of one right or good in the hope of retaining another – too often ending in the loss of both. – Tryon Edwards