I was invited by the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration to speak about the sense and nonsense of values in organizations. I opened with what has become my professional maxim:
Working together is about relationships.Relationships are about trust.Trust is about caring about the same things.
People sometimes ask whether that means we all have to be the same. No—quite the opposite. Diversity benefits organizations. It does mean, however, that we should care about the same things in the way we work together.
When an executive team values quotas more than service quality, trust often erodes between target-driven leaders and craft-driven employees—especially when those approaches are placed in opposition. Organizational values are about aligning those foundations.
So much for the organization. We sometimes forget that people work there too. Organizational values only have value when the people they concern support them. A values-driven culture asks leaders to cultivate recognition of and connection with those values: the bridge between organizational values and what employees care about as human beings. The person, after all, determines what the professional does.
Values-driven organizing requires us to abandon the Anglo-Saxon belief that people should primarily be managed with carrots and sticks. Take people seriously and invest in development rooted in intrinsic motivation. An organization cannot develop unless its people do.
A call to ‘the organization’: do not merely determine what should matter. Care for the person and for what people actually care about. One way is to place the quality of relationships at the center—with yourself, with colleagues, and with the organization.