Delivering real & compelling values
Introduction
We know that having clearly defined values can be very empowering - they provide a description of what's important with to the business with plenty of latitude in terms of how to go about it. Some businesses utilise them very effectively whereas others seem unable to get their people to genuinely buy-into them.
Someone we know was recently 'mystery shopping' a fast food outlet and, as well as the standard questions of "how long did it take to get served?" and "Was the counter clean?" they were required to ask, "Was the person serving you passionate about the chicken?" Being passionate about the chicken sounds like a great idea in the boardroom, because they probably are, and it's a completely unrealistic expectation of the 20 hour-a-week part-timer.
Many businesses get caught up in the ambiguous nature of values. Let's take the value 'integrity' for example; if I were demonstrating integrity right now, what would I be doing? Can you describe it as a behaviour? We all have a personal meaning for integrity, and it's far too intangible to clearly describe and communicate.
Some businesses specify the behaviour they want to see - which completely defeats the object of working with values in the first place. All of the flexibility is taken away as you attempt to implement prescriptive behaviours which people do not react well to because they are not robots. For example, if I take the value 'friendly' and specify this as a behaviour, I may end up with something like 'smile'. If you were told to smile as a process instruction as part of your role, how genuine would that smile be?
Once delivered, the success of the values will be mainly influenced by the subsequent informal communication within the organisation.
So what's the answer? - using flexible values to create an experience that allows the individual to find their own resourceful behaviours that support the positive intention of the business. We can show you how to create these experiences.
Intention
- To recognise flexibility of communicating at the level of values
- To learn techniques that enable you to make the values real for the individual and drive positive behavioural change
- To live the values - supporting them through informal communication
Methodology
- Discussion about values and intentions instead of prescriptive behaviours
- Demonstration of using values to elicit genuine resourceful behaviours
- Input of techniques to elicit positive behaviour and reinforce positive changes
- Exercise to experience and practice the techniques
- Feedback and evaluation in the context of sustaining positive behaviours
Explicit content/techniques
- Resourceful perceptions and approaches supported by conclusive psychological study
- Introduction to the neuro-logical levels of values and intentions
- Language techniques to engage individuals and elicit positive natural behaviours
- Construction of metaphoric communication
Outcomes
- Deliver values as positive intentions and get buy-in
- Demonstrate and reinforce values through metaphoric behavioural gesture
- Present values from the perspective of the individual
- Elicit resourceful individual behaviours that support the values
Logistics
- This session can be run as a 180-minute 'nugget' or as a one-day training course
- We like to use two facilitators for the 'nugget' version of this session - optimum number of attendees is 12 the maximum is 24
- For an optimal training environment we prefer a theatre style room layout with plenty of room for participants to move around
- Equipment requirements are a flip chart (necessity) and a projector/screen (optional)
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