Issue No. 258 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting asks you to re-think your core values with a short HBS article by Patrick Lencioni on four kinds of values statements. Plus, this reminder: check out my Management Buckets website with dozens of resources and downloadable worksheets for your staff meetings.
Core Values for Dummies
Core values on the wall are routine. Core values lived out—in the boardroom, lunchroom, restroom and choir room—are radical. What’s on the wall is often a stunning indicator of what you value most. Let me explain.
Values Statement #1: One quarter in seminary, I took three courses from one of my favorite profs, Elmer Towns. Every weekend he traveled to a megachurch—and after 10 weekends wrote his 1970 classic, The Ten Largest Sunday Schools and What Makes Them Grow.
I don’t remember the three courses, but I do remember the riveting Monday morning debriefs he shared about his latest ecclesiastical reconnaissance mission. One in particular. Towns told us that one megachurch had an over-sized picture of their pastor on the sanctuary back wall. Huge! The picture next to the founding pastor was Jesus. Much, much smaller.
Values Statement #2: A couple years ago, I visited a mid-size church in Southern California—once known for its choral ministries—and observed that the choir rehearsal room walls were decorated with autographed photos of celebrities, famous musicians and B-list VIPs.
Contrast that signage with the small plaque in the pulpit at the Church of the Open Door in Los Angeles, visible only to the speaker, which read, “Sir, we would see Jesus” (John 12:21).
Values Statement #3: When Lowell Bakke was pastor at Bethany Baptist Church in Puyallup, Wash., the traditional lobby missionary map got a new twist. Under the banner “Our Missionaries,” the map inspired attenders with dozens and dozens of church member snapshots—picturing people in their nine-to-five jobs.
Patrick Lencioni writes, “Most values statements are bland, toothless, or just plain dishonest. And far from being harmless, as some executives assume, they’re often highly destructive. Empty values statements create cynical and dispirited employees, alienate customers, and undermine managerial credibility.”
Lencioni says there are four categories of values:
CORE VALUES. “They are the source of a company’s distinctiveness and must be maintained at all costs.”
ASPIRATIONAL VALUES. These values “are those that a company needs to succeed in the future but currently lacks.”
PERMISSION-TO-PLAY VALUES. Lencioni says these values, like honesty, integrity and respect for others, are the “minimum behavioral and social standards required of any employee.” They don’t define or differentiate an organization from others—and should not be considered core values.
For example, one company CEO insisted that integrity was one of their core values. Lencioni cautioned them. “Unless his company was willing to adopt unusually tough measures to demonstrate that it held a higher standard of integrity than most companies, integrity should be classified as a permission-to-play value, not a core value.”
ACCIDENTAL VALUES. These values “arise spontaneously without being cultivated by leadership and take hold over time.” They can be helpful or harmful, such as the accidental value Lencioni discovered at a fashion apparel company where the young, hip employees “owned a disproportionate amount of black clothing.”
Yikes! Now what to do with the $3,000 custom-designed graphic of your too-numerous-to-remember values in your office lobby?
Two choices:
Option 1: Read or re-read the “How Do We Behave?” section (pages 91 to 104) in Lencioni’s latest best-seller, The Advantage. (See order info below.)
Option 2: If you’d prefer the “core values for dummies” version, download Lencioni’s 2002 Harvard Business Review article, “Make Your Values Mean Something.” In just four-and-a-half pages, you’ll see why cookie-cutter values are boring and inspire no one. You’ll also read why Intel “takes pride in the pricklier aspects of its culture” by holding high the values of “engagement confrontation” and “verbal jousting.”
Values Statement #4: According to Lencioni, a core value at Siebel is customer satisfaction. “All the artwork on the walls comes from customers’ annual reports, and all the conference rooms are named after customers. Even bonuses and compensation packages are awarded on the basis of customer satisfaction surveys conducted by an outside auditor.”
What values statements do your walls shout out? Last year I had the privilege of guiding the leadership at Whittier Area Community Church through a core values process. They landed on three: Narration, Exploration, and Celebration. Lencioni would like them!
To purchase and download the Harvard Business Review article, “Make Your Values Mean Something,” by Patrick Lencioni (Reprint R0207J), visit the HBR website.
To order and/or read my review of Lencioni’s latest book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business, click here.
Your Weekly Staff Meeting Questions:
1) Pop Quiz! Here’s a blank sheet of paper. Write down our core values—word for word. How did you do? Now segment our current values into Lencioni’s four categories: Core Values, Aspirational Values, Permission-to-Play Values, and Accidental Values. Any thoughts?
2) When is the last time we affirmed or celebrated a staff member, board member or volunteer who intentionally lived our values? Lencioni says “that employees will not believe a message until they’ve heard it repeated by executives seven times.” What’s the next step for us—as a result of having this values statements discussion?
Eliminate Pejorative People Labels - Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Nonprofit
One of the big ideas in Chapter 17 (The Operations Bucket) in my book, Mastering the Management Buckets, is to ensure that your core values are lived out at all levels of your organization—including around the water cooler.
Paint a picture for your people of a workplace that honors—and doesn’t denigrate—the administratively gifted people on your team. Eliminate pejorative labels like “number-crunchers,” “geeks,” and “paper-pushers.” Call your people “people” and use business card titles that enhance team members and your entire organization. What would Jesus do?
For more help, visit the Operations Bucket webpage and download the article by Olan Hendrix, "Management That Leads." He writes, "Leaders must learn to manage, and managers must learn to lead.”
ECFA GOVERNANCE BLOG. While you're thinking core values, think about your mission statement too. Read my blog posting, "Mission Statement Pop Quiz!"
WEBCAST: And join Dan Bolin and me for "7 Deadly Sins of Boards" for the Oct. 25, 2012 webcast hosted by Christian Leadership Alliance. More info.
In the early 1980's I was a member of COD (Church of the Open Door). One afternoon while helping with something, I noticed the pulpit had a small plague. Curious, I went over to read it. It so impressed me that I imagine every "pulpit" having it.
Posted by: Bill Hall (JoF elder) | June 1, 2015 at 11:54 PM