Values are probably the least understood and the worst managed part of an organizational architecture, and it shows. Many organizations complain that their people do not work well together, but then do nothing about supporting and emphasizing their values. All groups need to have two things in common, in order to be called a team: values and goals. Groups with values but no goals are fraternities. Groups with goals but no values are packs. We need both.
More so, value based organizations operate much, much better in situations of unpredictability of the environment. They also provide much better customer service, adapt easier to change and deliver superior performance. The reason for this is that values can substitute rules in decision making, allowing decisions to move down in the organization to the point where the problems arise, speeding up the process, bringing flexibility and simplicity in the way the organization adapts to changing needs of customers, motivating people to put discretionary effort into the common goal.
Very often people think that the organization will collapse if the rules are relaxed, and very often they are right, as taking rules out is not the same as putting values in. This is why, sometimes, refreshing and reinforcing your values is critically important.
Virtually all the customers that we work with have official values declarations. And almost none of them work. The reason is that there is a long, hard way from declarations to everyday reality and a short slippery slope that runs from it.
We can help you understand how a value set should be built, what its role in the management of the company is, decide to which extent you want a rules-based organization and to which a values-based organization and build a value set with the supporting institutions behind it that will deliver its promises.