The strength of values

You will agree with me that this phrase is very powerful: “The essential is invisible to the eyes.” The heart is the one that can see what is essential.

It is the feelings, passions, motivations, purpose, and values that move us in life and guide our decisions. But many times, being invisible, we do not give them the importance they deserve.

This also happens in organizations, they define a purpose and values, they put them on walls so that they are visible, however, they rarely remember them. Generally, they are defined by the shareholders and directors of the organization.

One of the biggest problems teams often have is that organizations do not communicate their purpose and values with the force necessary to motivate teams and strengthen a sense of belonging. Executives know that it is very important but few comply with it.

Mercer, in the Global Talent Trends 2020 study, states that “85% of executives agree that the purpose of the organization must go beyond the interests of shareholders, while 35% of companies comply with this. One in three employees says they would rather work for an employer that reveals responsibility to all stakeholders. “ https://www.latam.mercer.com/newsroom/tendencia-globales-de-talento-2020.html

And what happens when an inspiring leader arrives, who has a long-term vision, who involves and commits to the team? The magic appears that makes it possible to work with purpose, increase the sense of belonging and align our values.

This was what a team I was working with as a coach was going through a couple of months ago. A new Director had arrived and he insisted on spending a lot of time building a team. In turn, the three Managers who depended on him were highly motivated by what was happening. We had previously implemented the Personal Maps and Moving Motivator practices, both from Management 3.0.

This team belonged to a company in the food industry that was growing strongly. They had advanced in getting to know each other, creating bonds of trust, in communicating and now a next level was coming; build purpose as a team and align your values.

Jurgen Appelo, invites us to introspection on values. He argues that there are two types of values, which both groups and individuals can recognize:

· Core values: These are the ones that come to you naturally. Without them, you wouldn’t be yourself. They’re wired into your mindset or your culture and lead to your natural behavior.

· Wish values: These are the ones you aspire to have but unfortunately they don’t come naturally to you…at least not yet. It takes effort on your part to remind yourself that these values are important for your success and that you want to give them special attention. After all more interesting than discovering “who you are” is learning who you could become.

For this reason, I chose Value Stories from my tool bag. This is a Management 3.0 practice. That would allow them to know what they consider valuable as a team and what are the values that move them, to co-build the purpose as a team. If you want to know more about this practice, I invite you to visit the Management 3.0 site https://management30.com/practice/value-stories/

The goal of this practice is to turn your team values and organizational purpose into action. Through sharing stories of value we can define the organizational culture.

When it comes to Value Stories, we start by looking at personal, team, and organizational values. Therefore the key question is, what is considered valuable? Does the team know what its values are?

We got down to work and prepared the session.

How did we do the practice?

The invitation was to reflect on the values that build their behaviors and how they align with the team. As it was a virtual meeting, we worked on the Miró platform.

Step 1:

• I request them to individually review the list of great values, in order to choose the ones that represented them the most, without putting limits on the number of values to choose from. Eight minutes were given for this part of the practice.

Step 2:

• Then they had to think of a story for each chosen value that would account for this value. On a post-it, they had to put the title of the story on the side of the list of values. The time given for this was five minutes.

Step 3:

• Afterwards, the instruction was for them to share the chosen values with the team and to tell and choose a story to share. Ten minutes were given for this.

Step 4:

• The next step was to choose the five values as a team. They had ten minutes to complete the step. They began by reviewing their common values and generated valuable conversations leading up to an agreement on the five-team values.

Step 5:

• Finally, they had to organize to review their core and wish values. Here I explain the difference between the two. Making sure they got it right. And the question that guided this part was: what values do you have today and which ones do you need to develop for the challenges you have as a team?

They needed to align the values to achieve the purpose.

The values chosen to achieve their purpose were: Open mind, agility, collaboration, adaptability, and gratitude.

A great reflection was opened, they were immersed in organizational culture with particular values that impacted the way of doing things. Holding the values that you need to develop as a team would require effort and attention. And this was the invitation they stayed with. Take the time to reinforce these values, the behaviors that reflect them.

As a Facilitator I learned that:

• That identifying individual values and as a team generates reflections on what we want and need to “be” to transcend.

• Building a vision as a team strengthens relationships and inspires us to move forward with a common purpose.

• This dynamic helps to recognize ourselves as individuals, what moves us and what is important to us. The stories told were a great resource to make the values tangible.

The team learned to:

• Take care of these values as part of the essence of the team.

• For their behaviors to be consistent with these values.

• To respect each individual on the team, knowing their values and understanding that this drives their actions and the decisions they make every day.

At the next meeting with the team, they commented that in each decision the team made, they evaluated whether their choice contributed to achieving their purpose; and if it deviated from its values. Each member of the team was responsible for paying attention to this.

In a future experiment, when I finish identifying the current and desired values ​​of the team, I would like to add a reflection, incorporating questions such as: What have we done well as a team? What have we learned? And what is the future challenge? These are powerful questions that are based on the practice of Yay Question! And that could enhance the desired values ​​that will accompany us in achieving goals as a team.

This team has been adding learnings, strengthening their confidence and sense of belonging. This makes me feel motivated to continue using Management 3.0 practices, it is worth seeing the results with the teams.

I invite you to look in your heart because what is important is invisible to the eyes! Dare to be an agent of change that mobilizes teams and organizations.