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Changing Values and Culture
Some Tough Questions About Values...
- Are your employees aware of the shared vision, strategy, and cultural values that are key to the organization's strategy?
- Have they internalized those values, or are they just nicely framed, hanging on the wall?
- Do you know what areas and levels of the organization are "on board" and which need more attention?
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The Scaled Comparison - A tool to monitor your organization's changing culture and values
Changing Values and Culture using the Scaled Comparison is a customized values survey. It will tell you the extent to which the vision, strategy and cultural values are known and internalized by those who have to implement the strategy. Look again at the "tough questions" above. Notice that it is more than just knowing — knowing the strategy, and knowing what new behaviors are required. It is about internalizing the values that are required to support the strategy, and applying them in day-to-day work.
Why are Values important?
If someone studies the "best practices" of a successful company, and then replicates perfectly every one of the practices in their own organization, are they going to be successful? They will have replicated all the procedures and activities, but not the fundamental values. They are not likely to see the same success, because an event will come along where management will have to make a critical decision, and without the values, they will go the wrong way. Values guide you when there are no step-by-step procedures to follow.
 The value of a value is in its priority and its application, not in the words that describe it.
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Won't a simple test tell you if people know the values?
Companies have been publishing values and hanging them on walls for decades, but they seldom prioritize them and never systematically determine whether their people are "walking the talk". The value of a value is in its priority and its application, not in the words that describe it. That means 1) that some values are going to be more important than others, and 2) none of it matters if people don't act in accordance with those values.
What you need to do to really answer the three questions at the top of the page is to determine:
- The priority of your values. It is tempting to think of all values as equally important, but they're not. When "push comes to shove", that is, when an employee is faced with a choice between two values (for example, serving the customer and keeping costs down), you want your employees to know which of the two is more important and act accordingly.
- Whether your employees know the values, know which are more important, and how their job is affected by them.
- Whether the values are in use in the day-to-day behaviors of the employees, and in the right priority.
Why Does The Scaled Comparison Do a Better Job?
Here's what you get with a Scaled Comparison assessment that you won't get with a traditional rating scale (agree/disagree) or multiple choice survey:
- A comparative method, returning much stronger results than traditional rating-scale instruments.
- Measures employee knowledge unequivocally. Does not use multiple choice, or any method that "gives away" the answer. Reports a metric for knowledge of each individual value, as well as for the entire list of values.
- Measures actual application of the value in the workplace. Does not assume that "knowing" the value means it has been internalized and applied in day-to-day work. Reports a metric for each individual value, and for the overall application.
- Reports subgroup differences. Identify areas of the organization where the new values are established and the units where more work will be needed.
- Complete control of manipulation - The Scaled Comparison protects the organization against errors in the results due to
- intentional manipulation
- inconsistent judgments
- misunderstood instructions or concepts
 Deployable online or in paper-and-pencil form.
Show me what Values and Changing Culture looks like.
If you are interested, you can contact us and tell us about your needs and situation. You can also click here to learn more about how we work together on a project like this.
How do I get more information?
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