The absent culture and the role of visible values.

The absence of a clearly defined and actively promoted organizational values can land your organization in an "absent culture," which gets established unintentionally, causing negative impact on employee engagement, decision-making, and overall organizational success.

A culture will organically evolve (it cant be stopped), even without conscious effort to define and promote organizational values, ?often leading to unintended consequences, challenging alignment with organizational goals and values. When culture is organically evolved, it ends up difficult to reconfigure / mend.

Values without visibility are meaningless

If values are not actively communicated and role-modeled, they become mere words on a page, creating a disconnect between stated values and actual culture, leading to confusion and frustration.

How visible organizational values help in re-aligning culture and employee engagement

• Values Provide a Roadmap for Decision-Making and Behavior

Well-defined values act as a compass, guiding employees toward shared goals and objectives. They offer a framework for decision-making, ensuring actions align with the organization's core principles.

• ?Values Foster Alignment and Engagement

Understanding and embracing the company's values create a sense of belonging and purpose, leading to increased engagement, motivation, and a collaborative work environment.

• ?Values Attract and Retain Top Talent

Individuals resonating with a company's values are more likely to be attracted and engaged, resulting in a more cohesive and committed workforce that drives innovation and performance.

?Putting Values to work

If you have values but haven’t put focus or efforts in making your values working for you yet, you can kick-start it by

• Extracting Behavioral Traits: ?Translate each value into specific behaviors, providing clear guidelines for employees and celebrate the value champions and R&R.
• Promoting Values Through Various Channels: ?Integrate values into communication, training, and day-to-day operations for continuous reinforcement.
• Role Modeling by Leaders: ?Leaders can set the tone by consistently demonstrating company values, inspiring employees to follow.
• Recognition and Rewards: ?Acknowledge and reward employees demonstrating values to reinforce their importance.
• Establishing a Feedback Loop: ?Regularly gather employee feedback (SGD’s) to adapt the approach and identify areas for improvement.

First and foremost, The Values:

If you do not have a formal set of values in your organization or have not yet published and promoted your company values to your stakeholders, perhaps that's where you can start the process for better culture and employee engagement.

While the focus of this article is on Visible Espoused Values, working on Artifacts and Underlying Assumptions is equally important for a balanced, collaborative, enabling culturr.

P.s: The reverse structuring of this article is by design.

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