The company's core values are found throughout the "Who We Are" section on the website, are featured in annual reports, and appear in all marketing and training materials. However, employees are unable to remember them.
In fact, according to one estimate, only about 38% of people leaders believe that the majority of their employees are able to recite the core values they are expected to follow. Other surveys paint a bleak picture of similar employee awareness and core values practices.
This is a serious problem. If no one remembers core values, they won't be able to define the company culture and guide employee decisions as expected. To address this, companies are often advised to double down on communication. The usual advice is to publish the core values in more places and mention them more frequently in reports and meetings, hopefully with enough repetition that it will eventually be instilled in everyone's mind.
But for most companies, the battle is lost before it even begins. We can't expect employees to memorize a long list of universal, taken for granted assumptions such as honesty, integrity, responsibility, and responsibility – the hard-to-remember phrases that make up most core values statements.
In this article, we propose a more radical solution:If you want people to remember your core values, you have to remember them. In other words, in order for core values to be "deeply rooted in the hearts of the people", they must first "jump out". To that end, we've detailed five tips.
What does the company stand for?
Be creative. First, break the mindset of having to have one or a set of phrases called "core values." Instead, think about what other terms and formats you might use to highlight the idea you want to emphasize. In fact, many companies have taken different routes – Johnson & Johnson's Creed, Ford's Truth, Toyota's Totoya Way, Google's Beliefs, AbbVie's Principles and theNorthface's Manifesto.
Although there are many options – creeds, precepts, aphorisms, and axioms – we encourage companies to pursue something more creative and tailor-made. For example, a sports team can design the "rules of the game", a tech company can design a "source", and a restaurant can design a "recipe for success". It can also be mottos, aphorisms, or mantras (we think of them as the three M's, motto, maxim, mantra) that provide simplicity and communicability. These formats will leave a more lasting impression by striking a better balance between familiarity (expectations of things like "core values") and novelty (and therefore stimulation of the brain).
Keep it short. Second, limit core values to four words, which is the maximum length of a group of words that people can usually remember. However, more than half of the Fortune 100 companies have five or more core values, which explains the problem of low recall rates well.
To keep the length in check, stick to the values that are essential to your business. H&M, for example, has come up with "cost-consciousness" because it is key to the company's competitive positioning. There is also the "freshness" of the American supermarket Meijer. For these businesses, core values are designed to keep employees focused.
On the contrary, the values that all upright men and gentlemen should have should be omitted. In addition to the obvious, "honesty" (Delta) and "integrity" (Microsoft) are almost superfluous. Core values will almost certainly overlap with the content of the Code of Ethics, as the Code of Ethics has ample space and legal motivation to address all issues related to the Code of Conduct for Employees, from the definition of sexual harassment to how whistleblowers are treated. Rather than being an ethical reminder, a core value is a statement of what is exciting, crucial, or inspiring to the company.
Easy to remember. Third, according to the series positional effect, the first and last words in the list are most likely to be remembered. Companies with more than two values should put the most critical content in these two positions.
Alternatively, the order of values can be used to help with memorization through initials. Here the first letter of the values can be spelled out into a word, which serves as a memory symbol. For example, the chemical company BASF (BASF) codified its core values under the term CORE (Creative, Open, Responsible, Entrepreneurial). Companies can also write acronyms based on their own name or other words that are contagious or related to the industry.
The language is unique. Fourth, bring your core values to life. Kraft Heinz, for example, replaced the dull word "accountability" with "we own it." Similarly, Toyota replaced "service" with the more colloquial "we go the extra mile." Quality is Job One (Ford), Fun Family Entertainment (Disney) and Move Fast and Break Things (Facebook) are good examples of unconventional.
Words go beyond words, but a really good core values statement tends to use grammar that resonates with your audience. Make bold declarations ("We delight our customers, whole foods"), commands ("Get out there, warby parker") or ask questions ("What can we improve today?").Or, "What do our customers really want?"can replace a lifeless list of nouns.
Visualization. Finally, design your values based on memory and visual appeal. The dominance effect refers to our tendency to remember images rather than words. Using this insight, your values can be communicated through company-related logos. For example, a car manufacturer can have a "value wheel" where spokes are words of core values projected from a common core. Construction companies can have a "value ladder" where the ladder is the value that rises in importance. When choosing an image, it is important to measure not only relevance, but also the clarity of the outline (symbolism is better than realism), linguistic fluency (monosyllabic), and, if necessary, the ability to depict complex relationships (such as the "pyramid" of values).
It's no surprise that most employees read a list of common clichés in a company with a dull eye and forget them quickly. Rather than relying on repetitive information, companies can solve this problem by choosing a memorable format, number, sequence, sound, and graphics for core values at the design stage. At the heart of the solution is imagination, not repetition.
Shawn Pope Arield W Raas|text
Sean Pope is an associate professor of strategy at IEESG School of Management in Paris, France. Arild Weylas is a professor of public policy and management at the Oslo Business School in Norway.
Feishu, deepl |Translated by Sun Yan |Edit.
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