8 Responses

1. Starter
   As a starter I am thinking of attaching well known company’s to each value…and then discuss why they are known for this value.

   ie Apple…innovative, John Lewis, going the extra mile etc etc

   By having a well known brand to emulate it will make the message clearer…

   End with…we innovate like Apple, our customer service is as good as John Lewis,

   You have probably guessed this is not my field but it might get you started!

2. sorry to be cynical but…….

   …….only being prepared to allocate 15 minutes to this matter kinda sounds to me like one value is

   • "Don’t really take this "values" stuff seriously, let’s get back to some "real" work!"

   Rus

   PS IF you want to try to get interaction rather than lecture (and you really should!), try the "wish and promise"

   eg what wish do you have and what promise do you make in order to live the value;

   Empowerment~ 

   I wish my boss would just set the parameters and then leave me to get on and be empowered

   I promise that then I will use my intelligence and initiative to prove that this was a good idea

   Rus

3. Anacronym
   Has anyone else noticed the anacronym SHINE?

   I’m sure you could creat a poster that could be put all around the offices of your company…also good idea to give everyone a screensaver with it on…

   A nice glowing polished thing as your new logo and you have yourself a strategy!

4. Misrepresented

   Thanks for the suggestions so far. I’ve been impressed so far, both with the speed of response and the ideas.

   I feel I should clarify a little as I have misrepresented things a little.

   The section I have to complete is 15 minutes for each letter, but this is part of a whole day of activity based around this subject (my section is preceded by a presentation of the thought process nd how this links to our strategic plan, and followed with more exercises based on the theme).

   The launch is based on the SHINE acronym and there is rewards package to back this up. The buy in is from the top level and the board have been living the values for a while.  I agree with the thinking that if it’s going to be done it has to be done properly and the efforts have been made to do this.

   Thanks for the help so far, I hope I will get a little more.

5. SHINE
   There was me thinking I had spotted an anacronym you hadn’t thought about!

   Ok…how about a story…

   Meet John…he wants to buy xyz service…he calls our team and gets a no nonsense, helpfull person on the phone…he is told about our latest innovations and ecides to buy the product…realising it’s not what he wants he takes it back the next day and is offered an immediate refund in line with our no nonsense guarantee…Mary in our returns team explains that since she has been given the power to make decisions she has noticed a real difference in customer retention…etc etc

   A bit like the Gavin story in the Autoglass advert! Just unfold the SHINE letters as you get to each part of the story…

6. Vaues Workshop Ideas

   Here’s a suggestion:

   1. Make 4 video segments (one for each value) in which you interview leaders and employees (4-5 one sentence responses from each person per each of the 4 values) asking them what each value is and what it means to them;

   2. Workshop agenda:

   a. introduce the value subject with it’s video;
   b. ask participants to explain what they heard (be prepared to listen for key words); usually they say everything you want to hear – if not, facilitator/leader can fill in anything missing you want them to hear;
   c. Make a list of all the key words you want to have for each value (attributes, actions, etc.) and use the list in an activity – small groups of 2-3 people think on and prepare a description of how the key words relate to each part of the company or department;
   d. End with a clear statement of the value and why it is improtant to your people, your customers

   Harold.Cypress@gmail.com

7. take a customer perspective

   As well as the useful comments already here, can I emphasise the need to see through the customer’s eyes?

   The little stories already mentioned are a good example.

   Even more telling is getting people to give examples from their own customer experience – "Describe a time when a company treated you as a customer in a Innovative way"  "Give an example of a straightforward communication you’re received, and another that wasn’t straightforward." and so on.

   Then ask for real examples from within the company – "tell us of a colleague that went the extra mile for you" for example.

   As long as we thihnk of customers as Other People rather than Us, it’ll be hard to really embed the values into on the spot behaviour in everyday working life.

8. you all ‘do’ the values anyway…

   The best exercise I use to embed the values and vision in my organisation is to split out the value statements and use a small group exercise to get people to think about these in the following ways

    

   1.  If you’re brand new – what have you done in a previous role / job / life to demonstrat x value

   2.  If you’re an established employee – what have you done here  —"—

   3.  Detail the behaviours, etc, linked to the values you’ve seen demonstrated by other employees

    

   If you are using this method for cultural change – flip it – ask for the values we don’t want and then challenge them to do something about it!

    

   This exercise takes about fifteen minutes plus five for feedback (can be extended / extracted by asking additional questions how / why / when / where / why not… that kind of thing).