Does your organization have a set of shared values? Are these values written down anywhere or posted in a conspicuous place for all to view and practice on a daily basis?

If you haven’t adopted shared values for your workplace, here’s a few good reasons to consider. Shared values create:

  • A strong sense of team
  • A shared commitment to workplace behaviour, ethics and support of each other
  • A tangible set of expectations for each team member

Creating shared values doesn’t have to be a complex exercise resulting in a massive document. The best shared values are brief, direct and memorable. When I worked for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Organizing Committee, we had a simple set of values:

  • Team
  • Trust
  • Excellence
  • Creativity
  • Sustainability

These five words were easy to remember but more challenging to live by. But because they existed and were an important part of our corporate culture, there was a strong team commitment to demonstrate these values. And when someone didn’t, they heard about it. If someone wasn’t playing well with others they would be told, “Your approach isn’t very team or trusting. Please remember our values.” More often than not, simply pointing out that someone wasn’t practicing our values was enough to get their behaviour and commitment back on track.

Because the other valuable tool that is enhanced by adopting a set of shared values is this: ACCOUNTABILITY.

If your team doesn’t know what is expected of them, how can they be accountable? Shared values provide a clear picture of how an organization has decided to treat each other, their clients and others. And displaying these values says a lot about an organization, particularly to visitors. It’s a way to say, “This is what we stand for and this is what you can expect when doing business with us.” Developing, adopting and displaying a shared values statement increases the level of accountability for everyone in the organization. The further you share these values, the greater your accountability to them.

Creating a set of shared values can be as easy as answering these questions:

  • How do we want to treat each other?
  • How do we want to treat our clients?
  • What do we expect from ourselves?
  • What words do we want our clients to use when describing our organization and our team?

These values will become the tool that inspires people to improve, is a guideline for decision-making (Does this decision reflect our values?) and provides a framework for accountability and conflict resolution.

Most importantly, it strengthens your team. Practicing shared values builds team spirit and performance, reduces workplace conflict and reflects an organization committed to excellence, honesty and mutual respect. And that’s something worth sharing.

~ Mo Douglas

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