Values-based decision-making

Jessica has been a news reporter on a popular regional newspaper for several years. She has a great reputation for getting the bigger stories. She gets depth into her articles, and is always able to link to the human side of a story. Her readers love her.

Inside the newspaper, Jessica also has a reputation. Rather a maverick figure, Jessica bends the rules when doing that allows her to get the real story. A few of her colleagues have become a little jealous of her, as Jessica seems to be the “Teflon Woman” – she can get away with just about anything, because she’s such a great reporter. As she sees it, better to ask forgiveness than permission!

Jessica’s Head of Current Affairs knows Jessica well. He knows he needs to give her the space she needs in which to operate. For a long time, he’s turned a blind eye to some of her operating practices, because, bottom line, her copy sells newspapers.

The news in the newsroom spreads like wild-fire. The Head of Current Affairs has been replaced. Taking over his role is a young guy in his 30’s, a high-flyer with an MBA, someone who wants to climb high and fast.

Brent – the new Head of Current Affairs – immediately starts to stamp his mark on the newsroom. He wants more accountability, better structure, and better visibility of who is doing what. Brent’s objectives are to manage costs down, while creating a better news focus.

To accomplish the first objective, all expenses must be accounted for with proper receipts. Overtime must be approved before it’s taken. And, travel must also be approved in advance.

For the second objective, Brent sets up a new system, whereby all the news reporters gain approval for any news stories they believe will sell papers. Brent’s guidance will ensure that the news policy of the paper is protected and enhanced, through reporters focusing on those specific interest areas.

Jessica is aghast. She feels that all her creativity and previous success has been ignored, and that her wings have been clipped by Brent. Having been used to running with a story based on gut instinct, spending a little to loosen tongues and moving around the region to make progress on a story, now Jessica feels that she’s totally reeled in by this guy, not long out of college, who doesn’t know one end of a printing press from another.

Two very different views: on the one hand, Jessica wants the freedom back to let her be good at the job she loved doing. On the other hand, Brent needs to know where his people are, and more importantly, what his team are doing.

So – who would you side with? Jessica, or Brent?

Think about it – there’s no “right” or “wrong” answer to this question – it’s simply who you would side with.

Made up your mind? Good!

So now do something else. Think about your own personal Values. What
are they?

Might they include: Discipline, Trust, Commitment, Responsibility, Balance, Clarity, Duty, Logic, Order, Efficiency or Authority?

Or might they include: Passion, Determination, Courage, Imagination,  Spirit, Creativity, Adventure, Exploration, Competition, Curiosity, Mystery, Expression, Freedom, Initiative, Spontaneity, Flexibility, Confidence, Luck or Tenacity?

If your Values tend to be in the first list, you’ll probably have sided with Brent. If your Values fell more in the second list, you’re more likely to have sided with Jessica.

So what does this tell us? Clearly, decisions we make each and every day are made on the basis of our personal Values. In business, or at home, this can cause conflict if a strong Value we have is in contrast to a Value others hold. So maybe finding consensus means finding Values we have in common with each other, so we can agree on a decision that we can all live with.

Living our Values = Respecting others’ Values

Tom has been with the organisation for several years. He’s one of the most trusted people, and can be counted on to deliver the right level of quality, on time and to budget.

Customers love Tom, and he demonstrates his Values of discipline, stability, order and duty in everything he does.

Tom’s manager leaves for a promotion, and he is replaced by Zara. Zara was chosen as someone who could inject a little pizzazz, a little zest, into the business. Indeed, her Values are around imagination, spontaneity, creativity and adventure.

Clearly, Tom and Zara will get on like a house on fire!

Our personal Values are the standards that we hold dear and aspire to live to. The problem comes when others appear to display Values which are the polar opposite of our own.

So Zara, wanting to bring some new punch and innovation to the business, will observe Tom as being stuck in the mud, with no challenge, no ideas, and actually a really dull person. She’ll be thinking “Pull your socks up, Tom, for goodness sake!”

Tom, on the other hand, will see Zara as a de-stabling influence.  Everything she does will grate against Tom’s Values of structure, stability and order. He’ll be thinking “For goodness sake, settle down and get on the programme!”

It’s going to be tough for both of them.

Unless…

Understand the worth of different Values to understand and value others better

Both Tom and Zara work on two new Values. Values of Tolerance and Patience. Working with those Values, both individuals will develop a better understanding of each other, begin to realise the purpose and value of those differing Values.

People make decisions based on their Values. We’ll be discussing this in a future post. But who is to say that Tom’s Values are not useful in the business where consistent quality is required and high compliance? Additionally, who could fault Zara for wanting to break the mould and create better systems and processes through innovation and creativity?

Working together, it will be possible for both parties to deliver those better processes and systems in the context of creating a new consistency that provides higher quality and compliance. But they’ll both have to see the world from each others’ perspective first, through tolerance and patience.

The language of Values

Thinking about how we communicate with our people, apart from the general conversations we have, there is the corporate briefing, team buzz, one to one, coaching session and ad hoc meetings.

Then of course, there are the home-spun posters, wallboards and pictures we create in order to brighten the place up and reinforce key messages. Often not quite so controlled, and here the message can sometimes work against its intent. Here’s an example:

The HR Director was very clear. “Here”, he said, “we absolutely respect our people. We treat them like the adults that they are, and talk to them as adults. We know these people come to us with life skills and experience, so we want them to feel like the equals that they are. Respect is one of our core Values”.

As we spoke, we entered a huge training room. I think my jaw actually dropped!

Along one wall, probably 10 metres in length, was a giant mural. Disney-esque cartoon pictures of whales, with bubbles coming from their blow-holes containing the core Values of the business, mixed with other sea creatures, embodying some of the expected behaviours of staff. It looked as if it had been produced for a kindergarten.

I wondered how, as an adult employee, I might feel with this as an example of how the business demonstrated “treating employees with respect, as adults”.

Creative zeal is always a great talent to have in the business. However, it’s always best to take a moment to evaluate if the media and style truly fits with the intended message. If not, the hard work that’s put into the visual appeal might be working against the message…

 

Try a new hat on today

A few  years ago, I was delivering a change initiative in a telecoms business. An element of this was changing mindsets in the contact centres. Inevitably, some training was involved.

Values of this business included “Commitment”. For the contact centre advisors, partly that translated into being on time and managing shift adherence. “Shift adherence” is all around how a person manages time against their rostered shift. So if I’m an advisor whose shift starts at 9am, what am I doing at 9am? It’s not good enough for me to be simply walking into the building. It’s insufficient for me to be sitting down at my desk. Because according to the call volumes forecast, I need to be sitting at my desk, fully logged into my systems with my headset on and “ready” to take my first call.

It’s the same for any volume-based activity. For the advisors, though, this means that a moment’s lateness is chided by management and time management is completely directed by the shift. “Commitment” is when advisors turn up on time, go to break on time, return on time, go to lunch on time and, throughout the day, micromanage their time according to their shift pattern.

So, just for a moment, let’s put on the hat of one of these advisors, sit in their space and look over their flat-screen. What do we see?

• Oh, my manager hasn’t turned up yet. She’s “running late” or “caught up somewhere”. Note the different language of lateness here? If I’m late, I’m “late”, and that lateness is frowned upon and dealt with through performance management. But when managers are late, the language is softer and excusing.
• Oh, now where’s she gone? Oh, she’s over there, talking to her friend, another team leader. I expect they are having a gossip about last night. Look, off they go, I expect they’ve popped downstairs for a coffee.

OK, advisor hats off! What was all that about?

Well, a number of things:

1. If we don’t know what’s happening, we’ll make up a feasible story. Sure, the manager might be late, but she might have gone straight into a managers’ meeting. That conversation with her colleague might also be work-related.
2. If my time is so tightly managed, I’ll perceive it as unfair if my manager (or others in the business) seem to have so much discretion around their own time.

The bottom line – the use of the “Commitment” value here needs context.

Motivating with Values is all about context. If I’m a manager, perhaps I should be sharing a little more with my team. “I’ll be going straight to a performance review meeting in the morning, so will be late on the floor. While I’m away, Sam will be looking after you”. Now your team knows exactly what you’re doing, where you’ll be, and where to go for support. They’ll recognise your demonstration of “commitment” and more attracted to demonstrating their own.

Another Value in this contact centre was “Taking personal responsibility”. Let’s slip that advisor hat back on for a moment and take our seats:

• I’ve been sat here for nearly 2 hours and I still have a while to go before my break. I really need the bathroom, but I don’t want to feel like a schoolkid by putting my hand up to attract my manager. I want to take personal responsibility for when I leave, but there’s no information that can help me make a professional decision. Sure, the wallboards are telling me there are 2 calls in the queue, but when it says no calls in the queue, can I take the chance to go then?
• Bathroom breaks don’t seem to bother my manager. She’s off again: it’s so unfair!

Advisor hats off again!

Contact Centres use wallboards to show essential information around current call volumes and available resources. But if there are 100 calls queueing, one advisor can only handle one or two of them. So what if the wallboard, rather than displaying “calls queueing”, displayed “advisors available”? Then, an advisor could make an informed decision on, say, when to go to the bathroom, if there were a number of advisors available to take calls. Simple, surely?

The key thing here, then, is around acceptable behaviours. If my behaviour is deemed as unacceptable, yet my manager is applauded when she behaves in a way that appears similar, it feels unfair.

So here’s an idea – why not keep a few extra hats in your kit-bag. Pop on the hat of someone in your team and try to understand how they are interpreting things. That’ll give you the opportunity to set context with your people, so they understand the reason things are the way they are.

A different hat will give you a different perspective on reality

And while we are at it, there are a few extra hats you could try on. A customer’s hat, a shareholder’s hat, a competitor’s hat. Doing this will give you new insights into how you and your business is perceived, helping you develop empathy for other people’s viewpoints.

And imagine using this technique as a coaching tool!

When Values become a barrier

Amanda had worked her way up to Senior Cabin Crew Manager on some of the most prestigious long-haul routes. Her passion for giving customers the very best experience had won her an enviable trophy collection over the years. Customers loved her, and so did her staff. She lived, breathed and demonstrated her Value for caring in everything she did.

The importance of Values

Unless your name is Ernst Stavro Blofeld and your organisation is SPECTRE*, it’s likely that your own organisation has positive Values. Typically, they’ll relate to preferred behaviours around how you treat customers, how you improve your products and services, how you innovate and how you want customers to be treated.

Let’s bring this up at the next senior executive meeting. We’ll have a quick brainstorm, then we’ll have our list of key Values. Simple, eh!