It’s springtime in New England. The trees are beginning to bud and soon it will be time for my teenage son to start mowing the lawn again.
I need to find a new tree service company. I fired my old one last summer.
My son mows our lawn every week. The tree service company comes only a few times to spray the trees. Last summer they unexpectedly showed up one day while my son was mowing.
Returning from work I noticed them as I drove up my driveway. The sprayer was aimed at the dogwood tree, but the wind carried the spray directly toward my son who was working his way across the other side of the lawn.
I jumped out of my car and ran to the man who was spraying.
“Watch out!” I yelled as I ran toward him. “Your spray is blowing on that boy!”
He stopped spraying as I approached him and smiled at me patiently. “I know,” he replied in a reassuring voice. “I asked him and he said he didn’t mind.”
The boy didn’t mind. But his mother sure did!
Who did I hold responsible? The tree service company.
What was the problem? Lack of clear organizational values.
What are values?
Values are guiding principles that provide broad guidelines on how to behave on a day-to-day basis as you fulfill your purpose and pursue your picture of the future.
Why is it important to articulate clear values?
When organizations don’t articulate clear values, individuals are left to their own devices to determine which values should guide them. In the case of my tree service, the nice gentleman spraying my son with chemicals was guided by a value of courtesy. He had quite nicely asked my son whether he minded, and he was as nice as could be when he explained to me that there was no problem.
Tips to identify your top values
A business imperative
I wish my tree service company had articulated a value around environmental safety. If they had, the sprayer might have knocked on my door when he arrived and suggested that I shut my windows. He might have noticed there were children’s toys in the yard and move them before he sprayed. And he certainly wouldn’t have sprayed while the wind carried the mist onto a young man who was mowing the lawn.
If they had identified and clearly communicated their values, I wouldn’t be looking for a new tree service.
A good example of what happens to your brand if you do not have values that are understood and lived by your people. I am always perplexed by why people want to have a long list that nobody remembers and agree with you that three to five will capture the essence of what you stand for. This makes them easy to remember, simple to buy into and therefore manageable to live by.
Hi Thabo, That was the issue – it’s not enough to have identified values, they need to be understood and lived. In this case, because the values were not understood or lived by just one of the company’s employees, they lost not only my business, but possibly more because I shared the story with my neighbors. As always, appreciate your comments and adding to the conversation!
Great article, values govern so much of our experiences in life and our attitudes. Creating values at home and with kids are golden. I especially enjoyed the part of the article that discussed writing down the behaviors and actions of LIVING the values, its one thing to say you value love and yet have no clear behaviors or expression of the value. Nice work! Coach Carl
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts, Coach Carl, and for emphasizing the importance of defining values in terms of observable behaviors. Also appreciate your pointing out that these same issues apply to our personal lives and with our children as well.
Hi Jesse, this is a great reminder. It also paints a clear picture of why we are sometimes so disappointed in service providers or vendors. It’s not as if when you hired them you would have thought to ask, ‘oh by the way, you’re not going to spray on my kids or in my windows, are you?’ Highlighting your values for your customers and clients in terms of behavior, as you said, is clear way to differentiate yourself. Thanks for taking the time to write this!
Hi Stacey, Absolutely! I wouldn’t ask if they were going to spray my kids, nor could they have created an employee manual thick enough to describe every action employees should avoid. That’s where values come in because they provide broad guidelines for behavior, as long as they are illuminated with examples of behaviors. I appreciate your point that highlighting values for your customers and clients help differentiate yourself.
Jesse,
Thanks for writing about deep issues that have profound impact. Values are so much better than a laundry list of rules. Give people values and they can make decisions that enhance success.
Once in awhile I ask someone how to describe the values of the organization I lead in behavior terms. It’s not unusual for them to find it difficult. Thats my fault not theirs.
Clear post that challenges me.
Best to you,
Dan
Thanks, Dan, for sharing your thoughts and personal reflections. The willingness to look in the mirror is a sign of strength and wisdom because the place we always must start is with ourselves. Much appreciation for adding an important dimension to the discussion.
Without having values or without thinking about values, people tend to take everything they do for granted. When no one thinks about what they are doing and why, the connection between what you offer as a service and the name you (a company as well as a person) want to establish is gone. In the end, there is no joy, no pride and no trust in the relationship between people and organizations and that is a pity.
Well said, Caroline. When we know we share the same goal and the same values are guiding us in achieving it, there is greater trust and more room for creativity and diversity. And as you point out so well, conversely, without shared values there is no joy, pride and trust. It is a pity indeed because it is not necessary.
Hi Jesse!
Thanks for this important reminder – presented in a wonderful little article! For us, our values are always in our mind, since they are part of the name of the charity. But these values, harmony and joy, can easily be forgotten, for example, when members of the team reach for money AND forget about persons we are working for (we work and live with people with disabilities).
Values a team have to be always reminded to all the team, including the leaders!
Thanks again and all the best,
Lucie
Lucie, The Home of Harmony and Joy has an admirable mission and is obviously values-based. You describe the tension that can be generated by values conflicts – you need to raise money to support your organization AND you need to remember who you serve. It can be difficult to keep your focus on both. At times the conflict can occur between staff whose responsibility it is to represent the different perspectives, and then can turn into what looks like interpersonal conflict. I’ve found that one of the most helpful things to do is to start talking about what those values look like in daily behavior – how do I contribute to creating joy or what do I do that inhibits it? and to give each other feedback on what you need from each other in order to experience harmony. True harmony is reached through resolving conflict, not by ignoring it. Best wishes to you and your team in your admirable and important work.
Jesse
Hey, thank you so much, Jesse!
Actually, the persons who are concerned for the money are those who take care of the residents with disabilities. The truth is that we are now in a process of transmission – we, the two Québécois, should leave in a year or so (I plan to leave next year, and my colleague, who will turn 70 this year, should leave not long after…); those who are willing to take the responsibility of the Home are wonderful people, hoping to reduce the expenses to give more to the residents. In fact, they are so concerned about money that they wish to stop most of the expenses, including the salaries, claiming that everybody should work at the Home as full-time volunteers! I personally do not believe we could give the best to the residents if we only count on volunteers, which would imply a higher turnover of the personal. Beside, you can imagine how the workers feel, and how this message, given in many ways, create conflicts!
Of course, we are short of staff; we are foreigners working in a different culture, struggling with the language; in the countryside (where the resources are fewer) of a very special country. Our work is especially to let the joy grow, to face our conflicts in order to build harmony. I guess we will have a lot to do during the next months! And what I meant when I wrote that the leaders can take advantage of you reminder, I was mostly talking of myself: I do know all that, but in the current situation, I just have to have a bad night to become more fragile, and to let conflicts raise in my own heart… Thanks God, it doesn’t happen too often; yet, you good words help! So, thank you – send you Peace from North-east China!
Best regards,
Lucie
Thanks for the clarification Lucie. As you describe it, I am impressed with the enormity of what you have already accomplished and what you want to do to ensure it can be sustained. Glad I was able to be helpful in reminding you of what you already know. We all need that sometimes.
Hi Jesse, Thanks for awesome article!
I’m agree with you. The values must be practiced and must be clear for all people. Not enough the nice picture on the wall.
Congrats for the brilliant explanation.
Best for you from Brazil.
Rodrigo
Hi Rodrigo, Thank you for your thoughts and your kind comments. Good wishes to you in Brazil!
Jesse