Defining corporate values is a useful exercise. It is part of the communication process where you invest in alignment of teams. Even though different teams or departments will each have their own tasks and responsibilities, you want them to share some same principles. For example;

"We are ...to please our customers...without them nothing else matters.”

Corporate values should be balanced yet communicate a certain direction, so they should be selective. You should select four to six of such corporate values. Three would be a minimum to be able to balance attention; more than six would mean that your company doesn't make real choices.

"We commit to personal excellence & self-improvement…we draw strength from performance evaluations…striving to excel and improve in all aspects of business."

Corporate values communicate both to the external world as to the internal organization. Because of their communicative power, they should be credible. Each value should be clear; the description of the value should match the heading;

"Professionalism We respect our members, vendors, competition, and each other."

Is professionalism the same as respect and does the description cover the value to communicate?

Before you use the corporate values for external communication, you should check them i

nternally. You should use them as an additional management tools in the area of taking decisions and setting priorities. They should be helpful to your internal organization, because they express the "how” in addition to "What”.

This takes time. So before getting them out in the open, select a single corporate value to start with, elaborate the description and use it. Then, add more values until your organization is confident to communicate them externally.

To support the discipline of using the corporate values and to increase credibility, you should not only concentrate on periods of change. Use them also in team-building sessions or when dealing with complex decisions.

© 2006 Hans Bool

Tell Your Friend