I recently published an article titled "Company Values Need to Be Talked About" and I was asked to provide a follow up to that article. So here it is!
Organisational values are too often left to gather dust on office walls.
If you are a leader and your organisation has values, how regularly do
you bring those values alive in conversations with your team members?
The usual response is, "Not very often." Yet when we ask leaders if they
believe in their organisation's values they reply with a resounding,
"Yes!".
So what is the problem? Why is it that so many leaders struggle to host
conversations with their team members about their organisation's values?
The answer often lies in two issues. Firstly leaders simply forget to
take responsibility for keeping their organisational values alive by
talking about them with their team members. Such behaviour is simply not
on their radar.
Secondly, many leaders aren't taught how to tell effective stories. It
is assumed that leaders know how to tell stories. In part this is true.
People DO know how to tell stories. However, telling effective stories
is different. Telling effective stories requires some structure.
Thankfully most storytelling structures are quite simple. Here's one
that most of you will remember from your childhood. The structure was
effective then, and it is still effective now.
Step 1 - Start the story.
This usually involves setting the scene and context of the story. For
stories regarding the organisations values you would explain a situation
and set the scene that you are going to explain how the organisation’s
values can be used in real situations.
Step 2 - Explain the middle section of the story
This usually involves the details about what happened and who did what.
It is where the rationale behind how the values were used would be
explained.
Step 3 - Finish the story
This section provide the "So what!" part of the story. What was the
result? In this case, what was the impact of using the organisation's
values to guide decision making and actions.
These three steps effectively catalyse Conversations That Matter®.
An example
Start
When I was on the executive team of a medium sized business some
legislation was passed that affected $14million of our revenue. In 12
months time it would be gone. This revenue directly paid the salaries of
over 200 people.
Middle
Having already performed some scenario planning on this outcome, the
executive team met to confirm what would be done for the staff to ensure
that the values of integrity, teamwork, service and community were
upheld throughout a difficult period. A decision was made to use the
organisation’s training and development budget to up skill the staff in
resume writing, interview skills and outplacement programs to ensure
that as many staff as possible could find new jobs.
End
All staff who wished to access the support were provided with the
training and outplacement support that they required. While it was a
difficult period for everyone involved staff consistently reported that
while they wished that the situation had not occurred, they were
delighted with the support that the organisation had provided them
throughout their transition. The vast majority of staff found new jobs
and opportunities that fitted with their career aspirations.
A significant benefit of storytelling is that it helps people to makes
sense of situations. After you have told a story it is worth asking
people if the story has triggered any similar examples that also might
show the organisation’s values in use. When listening to their stories
listen for the start, middle and end. Not everyone tells stories
correctly so they might miss out some important parts of the story. If
you are listening you can help them out. For example, if someone shares a
story but leaves out the end, ask, "What happened? What difference did
your actions make?". You'll be amazed at the difference asking such
questions can make to the quality of your team members storytelling.
Using this technique can create highly engaged and flowing workplace
conversations. Without even knowing it your team members will start to
deepen their understanding of what your organisation's values really
mean in action. So, set aside 15 minutes once a month in your team
meetings and see if you can bring your organisation’s values alive
through storytelling. Follow the simple start, middle and end structure
and you'll be surprised just how effective it can be. Please leave a
comment or let me know how you go using the three steps for
organisational storytelling.
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