Values, yes really...

Values, Mission Statements, Vision documents…Bet you have all seen a few.

It comes up doesn’t it? You see it on annual reports and on dusty prints gathering even more dust on the wall. Designed using well-worn words and phrases, you can in fact play buzz word bingo with most of them. The thing is, how many times are they just, well, meaningless? No one really believes them, nor do they do what the statements claim. In short, no one walks the talk.

When it comes down to it, people say to one another: “The company doesn’t really believe it …”. You know it doesn’t believe it, because it allows and encourages everyone to do the exact opposite. In 20 years in recruitment I’ve seen this more times than I can count. In fact a company with a big mismatch between what was said they stood for and what they actually did, was a rich candidate market.

People recognise hypocrisy when they see it. An organisation might talk about valuing diversity, but the reality is they promote the identical guys. They might talk about being respectful, but then do nothing about the manager of a profitable Business Unit and his sexism. They might talk about being innovative, but no one dares suggest anything as the last time that poor guy over there coped it…

If you have been in the workforce a while all of this is no doubt familiar to varying degrees!

Which is why most people to (quote a great CEO)… sink 3 inches in their chair and groan when the word Vision pops up.

Now I’ll paint you a picture. I recently spent two days in a Vision & Values workshop. 60 people in a room from the diverse companies and positions that are part of Fletcher Building in Australia.

I’m not going overboard to say it was the most incredible time. 60 people who spent two days learning, sharing, laughing and really talking (with actions) around what Vision and Values means.

These people are boots and all in dedicated to embedding these in the company. It’s not a program, it’s not an initiative...it’s honest to goodness commitment and drive to say; This, this is how we do and will do things round here.

I was blown away.

This is core work. Personally I’ve always been highly driven by a values based culture, in the past I’ve tried to do similar without support meaning I could only influence a small part…but I did it anyway, it’s just how I’m put together.

You know how you can really tell whether a company means all this? Try driven from the top…So our CEO flew over and spoke, our CIO was there, GM’s, CE’s, Group GM’s. The serious investment is there and it was made quite clear we are doing this.

And no we aren’t doing it for what some people think are fluffy reasons, but stone cold solid commercial reasons. This will directly impact the bottom line.

Want to know what they are?

Be Bold – Courageous Leaders/Problem Solvers/Backing Ourselves/Have a go without being rash

Play Fair – Transparent/Honest/Fair minded/Respectful and inclusive

Better Every Day – Progressive/Continuous Improvement/A passion for excellence/Champion of safety

Customer Leading – Expert Partner/Creative Insightful/Building for a greater good.

These resonate with me… It’s interesting that I’m writing this on the 22nd Feb….Have a look again at the last point; Building for a greater good.

On this day 4 years ago the big quake hit the beautiful city of Christchurch in NZ, devastating the buildings and taking forever 185 lives. I remember that day very vividly as my husband’s family are all from Christchurch and we spent a frantic day trying to locate everyone. We were lucky, houses were broken but we didn’t lose anyone – others were not so lucky. They will never be forgotten.

Building for a greater good…I’m very proud to be part of a company that’s doing just that. Fletcher Building are working to re build the city. Thousands of hours have gone in already and thousands more no doubt will be needed before it’s done. Everyone who is part of that should take great pride in the achievement. It won’t be the same, but the city will be beautiful and they will have been part of that greater good. Now that’s a company to be working in.

I’m excited about the road ahead and if all this calls to you, come and join us. We intend on walking the talk.