Why Do So Many Miss the Mark on Values?

I’ve never seen any organization’s executive team intentionally neglect living out their values, especially if they had a clear understanding of how much doing so could cost them! Whether it’s intentional or not, it happens more often than any of us likely realize. But how can that be when companies have routines in place for communicating their core values?

During the last two years I worked in a large manufacturing facility, I led the new hire orientation process for more than three hundred people. At that point, my responsibility was to issue policy manuals and cover the most critical details they’d be expected to understand from then on. In addition to attendance expectations and work rules, I covered the company mission statement - which doubled as the corporate quality policy. (That just so happened to also be printed on the back of the ID badge they’d be using to clock in and out each day.) Even after being drastically condensed by whoever handled such stuff out of an office just north of Chicago, the mission statement was still pretty wordy. I knew no one would actually memorize it - I certainly hadn’t in fifteen years I had worked for the company leading up to that - so I focused on the key points I felt were most critical to what those new employees would be dealing with in their roles daily. While this was the closest thing I can remember to covering the company’s core values during those orientation sessions, I can’t tell you what I explained actually lined up with what you would have found on the organization’s website. To that end, I don’t know that I ever knew exactly what the core values listed on that website were!

The rest of that half-day orientation included some basics from the safety manager and quality manager. The final half of their first day would be in the departments they’d be assigned to moving forward, albeit not always at the same equipment or even on the same shift. From the time those new team members hit the manufacturing floor, they were inundated with how-to’s that tied specifically to their new positions. I’ll let you guess how often any of that ever tied back to the company’s core values…

In the decade before moving into human resources full time, I had a different role in the new hire orientation process. I shared a brief overview of the behavior-based safety concept during the initial half-day session then provided four full hours of training on hazard recognition at the end of their first week. Since the new team members had been exposed to at least some of what they'd be doing in their regular roles by that time, I could go into quite a bit of detail about how they could ensure their behavior was in line with our safety rules. With any luck, that would serve as a foundation for helping them go home each day with all the parts they had when they came in.

Similarly, their on-the-job training provided a step-by-step approach for operating whatever piece of equipment they were assigned to. An experienced operator would walk them through performing each task or setting up the equipment to make a quality product without wrecking any tooling, all while hopefully avoiding injury. Like what I was attempting to provide through the behavior-based safety and hazard recognition training, the individuals training these new employees gave them visual examples of the work they’d be expected to perform.

While safety, quality, and productivity were critical to the organization’s success, I can’t honestly tell you that they were listed specifically as core values. And if I couldn’t list or define the core values, as one of less than forty salaried employees in the facility during my final two years with the organization, what are the odds of any one of those 300 new employees - or any of the other employees for that matter - knowing exactly what those values were, let alone how they could live them out in their daily routine? We may have touched on whatever the handbook listed as values occasionally, but I assure you it wasn’t enough to sink in. 

Make no mistake, I don’t share this to shame that organization. Quite honestly, the emphasis we placed on safety, quality, and productivity has been something I’ve been able to model in helping many other companies since. I’m just sharing that values didn’t get all that much specific attention, and I’ll bet you’ve had similar experiences. With that in mind, let’s take a look at how simple it can be to change that…

What Message Are We Consistently Sharing?

For us to come to terms with why some many organizations miss the mark on providing a clear and consistent picture of the values listed in their policy manual or on their website, I think we need to consider what we are emphasizing clearly and consistently with our teams. In the nearly two decades I spent working for a global leader in the automotive parts manufacturing sector, the topics I heard about most frequently were safety, quality, stock price, and productivity - but in the exact opposite order. As I mentioned before, our mission statement contained numerous buzzwords, many of which can be found in quite a few other company’s mission statements, but I can’t say with certainty whether any of those were our actual corporate values.

However, I can recall with remarkable clarity how often productivity was discussed: DAILY at nearly every level within our local facility, which tells me it was just as hot a topic at every other level on up the food chain. When I operated a press, I knew exactly how many parts I was expected to churn out each day. And everyone in each manufacturing area had direct visibility of productivity for the previous day, week, month, and quarter - assuming they paid any attention whatsoever.

I also remember how frequently we heard about the company’s stock price, as well as the hoops we’d be jumping through for the final ten weeks of each quarter (yep, you read that right…) to ensure the earnings statement met Wall Street’s expectation. Safety and quality were frequent conversation points, too, they were just more casual until we received a significant complaint from a customer or there was a serious injury.

While each of those things are imperative to an organization being successful, I still can’t tell you how they tied back to whatever had been defined as our core values. Having shared my poor recollection of those values a few times now, I can see where I could be giving you the impression that I wasn’t all that engaged. Truth be told, I believe I was as dialed in on that company achieving great results as anyone in our local facility; I knew every employee on a first name basis and I had friends and family who had worked there since it opened in the early 60s, not to mention it being how I kept our lights on!

With regards to productivity, safety, and quality, we all had a clear understanding of what we were expected to do daily. In many cases, specifically through our behavior-based safety initiative, folks knew exactly what the behaviors necessary for avoiding risks looked like because they received feedback and guidance on their individual role. For each of those metrics, there was little room left for individual discretion as to what was and what was not acceptable. I think you know the answer as to how all that related back to that company’s values, so I’ll ask if you have that same level of understanding about your organization’s values…

Defining Exactly How It’s Done

In March, April, and May of 1996, I received a tremendous amount of one-on-one training on how to operate the various pieces of equipment I was assigned to. Initially, someone else was responsible for swapping out the tooling and dies after each order I completed so the next part could be made. For a while, at least until I got proficient in the repetitive movements required to run those presses, the guy doing those setups would have another machine ready for me before I finished. Once I found my rhythm, he could no longer stay ahead of me and that gave me the opportunity to start looking over his shoulder and ask questions. I didn’t feel all that mechanically inclined but I also didn’t enjoy standing around or waiting on someone else so I could get started on my next job, so I was chomping at the bit to learn how to do those setups myself. Just like learning to operate each piece of equipment, the person training me to do those setups and change-overs walked me through every step of the process. They showed me exactly what needed to be done, what adjustments I’d need to make, and what to watch out for through it all. Whether it was running the machine to stamp out parts or making the changes necessary to produce the next order, understanding each specific behavior necessary played a key role in being efficient, but it also had a direct impact on the quality of those parts and it helped me avoid getting hurt - and in a manufacturing facility, significant injuries can happen in a split second!

Over the next several years, I became proficient in running, setting up, and troubleshooting most of the equipment in my home department. During that time, I trained quite a few new folks using that same approach that had been used with me. As I moved in behavior-based safety, I learned how to be just as specific as I spoke with my peers about how the actions they took while performing their jobs help avoid or expose them to the potential for workplace injuries. The common thread was being specific about how their behaviors impacted their results. Had any of those interactions provided only vague generalities, I can’t imagine many of those folks gaining a real understanding, leaving them to fill in the gaps on their own.

Over the last year or so, a nearby town has had its share of drama. I won’t bother sharing even what I know, which is limited to what’s spilled out of the rumor mill. From what I can tell, though, only a select few know the behind-the-scenes details. But that certainly hasn’t stopped people on every side of each issue from creating their own narrative for who’s corrupt or what the next conspiracy theory is. Without a transparent explanation for each of the scenarios that’s got the folks in and around that town all riled up, they’ve been left to fill in the gaps - mostly on social media. While it does offer a bit of entertainment value, it’s far from productive (or positive) for anyone involved.

Had the training I was receiving on those machines lacked detail of any kind, I would have had to fill in the gaps myself - just the folks around that town as they hear random rumors. Unfortunately, failing to share a consistent message about exactly what it looks like to apply our values can result in the same thing. Even when we have our values printed in handbooks and on the wall, we run the risk of ambiguity - and that can set the table for things to go downhill fast. Preventing this is simple, though, so we’ll dig into that next!