Why values are important in business (and how to promote them)

1. The difference between existing values and values to be affirmed

2. The link between values and behaviour

With respect to the first point, the values present in a company can be defined as "the way of doing things to get results" and are the result of ways of acting that have proven to be useful in solving the problems faced by the organisation, both in its relationship with the external context and internally.

In fact, these values tend to be implicit for the people in the organisation.

The values to be affirmed, on the other hand, represent the ways and behaviours that the company wants to propose and make people internalise, so that they become the 'normal' way of achieving results in the future.

When a value has to be affirmed, written down and disseminated, it means that it is not yet practised or is not yet an established value: it is 'trending'.

When I had to repeat over and over again to my children - who were fighting each other to share a game - that I would like to live in a family capable of sharing without quarrelling and of calmly deciding how to use the things available to everyone, I was very clear that this was a value to be affirmed and not yet existing. If it had existed I would not have seen them fighting.

With respect to the second point, values and behaviour represent a 'stable system', which is self-sustaining and strengthened with the passage of time: values express themselves in behaviour and behaviour determines values.

When there is a 'conflict', an inconsistency between the enunciation of values and observable behaviour, concrete behaviour always prevails. In fact, what is done is 'worth' more than what is expressed in words.

For this reason, it is very difficult to change an organisation's values and affirm new ones: neither 'formal' declarations, nor exhortations, nor a few symbolic gestures are sufficient.

Spreading new values means promoting, making people understand and activating alternative behaviour consistent with the new culture.

To return to my family, if I had argued with my husband about using the computer in front of the children, I would have had no credibility to back up my statement. And again, only by intervening in their quarrels calmly and helping them to find a win-win in sharing the game could I have any chance of changing their behaviour and slowly their values.

To be recognised and internalised by people, a value needs to be experienced, understood and implemented. It needs to prove itself 'useful' in solving problems and providing solutions or results that the organisation needs.

A value asserts itself and becomes part of the culture if:

- brings the group and individuals a result, an advantage in being implemented;

- enters into everyday action and is not questioned, because it is recognised as 'the right way to behave';

- creates spontaneous sharing and alignment between people.

Precisely because they are closely linked to behaviour, corporate values that need to be affirmed and that are not yet consolidated, often risk coming across as mere declarations of principle, which people feel are distant or rhetorical.

If a company needs to bring people together on new values, it must find a way to create interest, motivation and tension on the subject.

Moreover, since working on values means touching on aspects related to often deep-rooted ideas, principles and beliefs, it is necessary to use a mode of communication that goes beyond purely rational language. It is also important to use metaphorical forms of communication, to foster emotionality and create involvement with the topics discussed.

In this logic, playing with values becomes an effective way that does not belittle or trivialise them. Good play that translates values into concrete situations and translates them into operational behaviour can shift people's attention from statements to facts.

The game metaphor can enable people to reason, experiment, analyse concrete and practical behaviours that express corporate values and also highlight situations that 'challenge' values and require quick and responsible choices.

And a good game can help to interactively manage the process of comparing and disseminating values and the search for the benefits and value that, pardon the pun, values can bring to our work.

* Partner bbsette - Consulting, Training and Professional Games.