When values shape culture and when they become words on a wall
Written by Laurence Clarke
After our recent Let’s Talk session on values and culture, I have been reflecting on a question that comes up often: why do values make such a difference in some organisations, while in others they seem to have little effect?
Most organisations can name their values. The harder question is whether those values shape the decisions, conversations and behaviours people experience every day.
A set of words on a wall, a workshop to choose them or a launch campaign will not, by itself, change how an organisation works. Values begin to matter when people understand what they mean, see leaders live them and can use them to guide real choices. This is central to how we think about culture development.
Culture change starts with leaders
The first test is whether the organisation’s leaders are prepared to live the values themselves.
I have come to see the behaviour of the chief executive or senior leader as part of the environment experienced by everyone further down the organisation. If leaders ask people to behave one way but act differently themselves, that inconsistency can undo the message. People notice what leaders do, especially when their actions conflict with the values they promote.
This is why values work cannot begin and end with a launch. Before asking employees to adopt a set of values, leaders need to be clear about what they are committed to and how
that commitment will show up in their own decisions and behaviour.
Reverse the pyramid
One idea I wanted to bring out in the session was the value of turning the familiar organisational pyramid around. This can mean two related things: putting the people an organisation serves ahead of shareholders in its stated priorities, and arranging the organisation so that central functions support the people closest to customers.
Johnson & Johnson’s Credo illustrates the first idea. As I described it, the Credo sets out responsibilities to patients, doctors, nurses and families first, followed by employees and communities, with shareholders after those groups. The point is not that financial returns do not matter; it is that they are considered in the context of responsibilities to the people and communities the organisation serves. I once heard a North Sea Oil exploration colleague say that increasing shareholder value alone did not give him much reason to feel enthusiastic about going to work. That comment has stayed with me.
Timpson illustrates the second idea. Its head office is there to support branch colleagues, rather than simply command them. When people in the branches are trusted to use their judgement with customers, within clear guidelines, the structure helps put service close to the point where it happens.
The John Lewis Partnership offers another perspective on how values shape a distinctive culture. The values I discussed were partnership, respect, responsibility and shared ownership. The example also raises a practical point: people connect with organisational values to different degrees, so the work is not finished when the values have been written down.
At the Swagelok distributorship in Aberdeen, which I have worked with over many years, I have seen values become part of the organisation’s everyday language. They come up in conversations about quality, customer focus and integrity, and in hiring, coaching and performance discussions. That repeated use is what makes the values relevant to the way people work.
Four levers can support change
The Taylor Clarke TurnAround model we use, grew from exploring what supports change. It brings together four levers:
Cognitive: understanding why the values matter and what they mean for the organisation.
Behavioural: making the expected behaviours clear, so people know what living the values looks like.
Emotional: connecting the values to a purpose people care about and want to contribute to.
Context: shaping the working environment so it supports the intended behaviours.
The levers need to work together. Explaining values without changing everyday practices may leave people unsure how to act. Asking for new behaviours without a meaningful reason may not motivate people to sustain them. A leader’s example can also be undermined if the organisation’s systems and working conditions reward something else.
Say what the values ask people to do and not do
Values are often written as positive statements: show respect, act with integrity, put customers first. I think organisations should also make clear the boundaries: what behaviours are unacceptable, even when pressure or convenience might make them tempting. This connects with a question explored in an earlier Taylor Clarke article: Are your values working hard enough for you?
That does not mean replacing positive aspirations with a list of prohibitions. It means spelling out both sides: the behaviours the organisation wants to encourage and the lines it expects people not to cross. Without that clarity, the same value can mean different things to different people.
Make the values matter to the people doing the work
Values are more likely to guide behaviour when people can see why they matter in their own work. If the explanation is only about increasing shareholder returns, it may not give employees a purpose they feel connected to. A clearer link to customers, colleagues and the quality of the work can make the values more relevant to the decisions people face every day.
The practical question for leaders is therefore not simply, “What are our values?” It is: “How will these values change what we do?”
This will mean using them to shape strategy, inform challenging decisions, guiding hiring decisions, giving colleagues more room to serve a customer, shaping a performance conversation or being explicit about unacceptable conduct. When leaders model the values and the organisation builds them into its everyday choices, people have a better chance of seeing that they are real and make a difference to all stakeholders.
If you are considering how to make that shift in your organisation, you can read more about Taylor Clarke’s approach to culture development.
Written by Laurence Clarke Laurence Clarke is the Chair of Taylor Clarke and has been working with organisations for over 30 years helping them change their culture. He is an avid supporter of values at the heart of culture change and is the creator of the TurnAround model for change. He has experience running various businesses and being an academic before setting up Taylor Clarke some 38 years ago. He is an accredited executive coach, a CPSI trained facilitator and has run over 250 leadership development programmes. He works with organisations to help them with their organisational effectiveness.
