Are values worth it?

Many executive hours are spent distilling and agreeing 'Values' as if they are the last word in corporate identity. Unfortunately 90% of values are vague, unbelievable and often obvious.

Values are usually words that companies select as the fundamental basis for the work they do, their attitude, and qualities. Usually they are things – such as 'honesty', 'passion', or 'innovation'.

Without your values your company would not be the same.

Values are pretty fixed - not 100%... but you would not be able to change them without becoming a different kind of company.

Values are important. Businesses that do not know what their values are can get lost and drift, fracture and miss opportunities.

Of course, lots of companies share the same values. Which is handy because, often businesses say they like to work with companies that 'share their values'.

A (relatively) recent survey of 500 top companies asked the following:

What are the stated values of your organisation?

These are the answers and the percentage of companies who shared the value

Customer satisfaction 77%

Ethics/integrity 76%

Accountability 61%

Respect for others 59%

Open communication 51%

Profitability 49%

Teamwork 47%

Innovation/change 47%

Diversity 41%

Trust 37%

Have fun 24%

[AMA Corporate Values Survey 2002]

So, does this mean that all these companies are the same, or do the same things, or say things in the same way?

No.

But they may want to do business with each other.

And, although they have shared values they have distinctive visions, personalities, tones of voice, styles, objectives etc. Sure they all value the same things, but they do different things, express themselves in different ways – dependent on their sector, audience etc.

Get the words right, but then show don't tell

In order to communicate your values it is not effective to simply state them – they are usually neither particularly interesting, surprising or informative, and can be ambiguous. They are certainly not distinctive enough in a competitive, busy marketplace.

For example, let's say one of your values was ‘honesty’. Simply going around telling people that you are honest is neither believable nor compelling. But, if you cut the jargon from your marketing materials, share information and foster a straight-forward relationship with them, they will come to see you as honest.

So, it is not what we say, so much as how we do it.

Find out more at www.verbal-id.co.uk