How to embed values without

telling people to

“live the values”

Top of most company’s People Agenda

1.  We want every employee to…

a)  proactively take responsibility for achieving the company strategy

b)  live out the values

c)  drive their own performance and career

d)  collaborate, innovate, create…

And they’re busting a gut to try and make it happen

Culture change Purpose-led leadership

Values programme

EVP project Top talent engagement

Values-led competencies

Employer brand

Behaviours

Values programme

At the heart of culture change are the values. The problem – as you know – is that it doesn’t work to TELL people to live the values J

““Did you know… The way most companies are communicating values is probably undermining their very message?

THE WORDS SAY ONE THING

Everything else about the way values are communicated says…

…the company is telling me how I should behave.

They’re basically the parent, I’m the child.

(let’s assume for now that the values are the right ones – or they can’t be changed

right now and so…)

The message is technically correct, but how do you make sure the vehicle isn’t parent/child?

•  Louder, brighter to capture attention

•  Play up the positive, ignore the reality

•  Sanitised message and imagery

•  Shared later rather than sooner

•  Communicated top down or in controlled bottom up spaces

We can start by recognising what the parent/child vehicle looks like

And remember that though this is the easy way to tell people what the values are….

This is actually what tells us what the values are

What leaders say and do.

How and what information is shared and how it’s framed.

How we interact with customers.

How our manager interacts with us.

How we treat people in our team. And other teams.

What promises / expectations are met and which are not

What we challenge, what we walk past.

What decisions are made and how.

What happens when we are under pressure.

The level of risk the company takes to live a value

We all basically ‘get’ this… so HOW can we change it?

First… let’s understand the science bit

child

adult

parent

What’s going on under the bonnet?

There are 3 ‘roles’ from which we can communicate (in life, not just at work)

1.

2.

3.

child

adult

parent 1.

2.

3.

Sharing what people ‘should’ know, restricting information, telling, carrot/stick, spinning difficult info, protecting, rescuing, jargon, retaining control

Transparency, sharing facts neutrally, opening up the detail, allowing, accepting, sharing the responsibility.

Complying, rebelling, gossiping, that’s-not-my-job, blaming, not taking responsibility.

parent

child

THE PROBLEM IS

…employees will almost always respond in ‘child’

If the company communicates in ‘parent’…

1. Compliance ..basically doing what they are told and looking for someone higher up to give them the ‘right answer’. Implication – no accountability.

child which means either

2. Rebellion …finding a way to get around the rules or not wanting to participate in something because it’s a directive that has come from ’above’

child or

it serves to magnify the divide and undermine

the very culture they’re trying to create.

child

either way

parent

The new you communicate can instead be adult-to-adult.

way

And invite an

self-responsible response…

adult

That’s what Onefish Twofish is so

flippin’ passionate about.

We are ‘not-the-employee-

comms-agency’

We have spent the last

years delivering -to-adult comms ‘campaigns’ for business.

ten

adult

Think in the widest sense of the word. Think evolving the dynamic not delivering the assets for a clever campaign.

comms

What does -to-adult look like in practice?

adult

First, expose the right values. Values can’t be taught, only expressed and clarified. Modern ‘tribal’ leadership involves letting go of the reins. What matters is fit. “If your values match ours, you’ll be happy, if they don’t, you will always struggle.”

Then lead authentically. Most leaders and companies are not in the right headspace (yet) for the level of scrutiny and transparency required for Adult-To-Adult to be an option.

And communicate real not projected culture Don’t gloss over failure or challenges. Hold them up, then ask people to play a role in fixing them. And good people want to fix problems.

“Everything is awesome!”

We’d love to help you evolve the way you communicate to ‘adult’: 1.  Working with you right NOW on what needs to be launched

immediately (that includes discovering, thinking, articulating, exploring, planning, writing, designing, creating, filming)

2.  Then, taking your values into a completely different dynamic with employees – co-owned.

3.  Working with your leaders to evolve how they communicate and operate to shift to an A2A dynamic

4.  Moving on from ‘consultative’ culture to truly collaborative

Here is an example of what we do

A European division of Kraft Foods… •  Needed to reinvent itself, reinvigorate tired products and transform its P&L •  Came to Onefish Twofish out of energy for more ‘EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!’, keen to tell a more real story that acknowledged where it was right now and needed to be. •  Not sure how – and how to take its traditional leaders along

What we did •  Worked with them to create a brand new ‘conference’ – based on Open Space – totally empowered and outside their comfort zone •  Wrote and shared an actual storybook about their journey so far, acknowledging successes and failures •  Allowed 300 managers to build their confidence in returning to innovation and sales in a deep experience offsite

Who are we again? We’re 12 business comms game changers including TEDx speakers and ex-heads of comms from companies like PizzaExpress. We’re fresh. We say and do things differently. We’re not on a sales mission and we sometimes have a waiting list.

We’ve run the most piercing employee engagement conferences in the UK: Brand Talent 2012 Values with texture and teeth 2013 Spark Action 2014

“I am BUZZING with ideas – I

know exactly what I’m going to do

next”

Our people have skills in •  Marketing strategy and campaign execution

•  Business psychology

•  Agile and lean start up

•  Storytelling

•  Organisational design

•  Entrepreneurship

•  Leadership development

Kraft Foods said:

‘you are a guiding light to an organisation trying to find its way in a changing world’

Thanks for reading What do you think? Onefish Twofish www.onefishtwofish.co.uk |www.cleancomms.co.uk | hello@onefishtwofish.co.uk