Corporate Values and Tchotchkes

A seemingly innocuous question on an online forum about employee communications stirred responses that, frankly, befuddled and irritated me.

            An Indonesian woman working for a local company there posed the original question. She asked, “Please advise a nice and quite simple souvenir for employees to promote company values.” I was late to the discussion. It had already wallowed in the relative merits of mousepads versus coffee mugs and the like. The advice seemed to center on how much to spend and picking the sort of gift that people would want to keep, preferably on their desks.

            Oh dear.

            Fortunately, it wasn’t all like that. Further down in the discussion chain, I found one fellow from Chicago who wrote the following:

“My emphatic answer: None of the above, and nothing of the sort you are asking for. The best way to reinforce values is to train and reward senior managers for the consistent, visible exhibition of behaviors, comments, and decisions that affirm and endorse those values. Focus your attention at the top level, and devote a considerable amount of effort to ensuring that front-line supervisors do the same. Skip the quizzes and the coffee mugs and lapel pins and laminated cards. Just work relentlessly on visibly modeling the values from day to day.”

Heartened by that counsel, I contributed my two cents, echoing and endorsing that view, adding the following:

“If you want to trivialize the importance of a company's values, put them on a poster, coffee mug, or mousepad. On the other hand, if your goal is to reinforce the values that drive the company toward success … reward the right behaviors of your supervisors and your middle and senior managers. When their daily words and actions, and their interactions with their direct reports echo the intent and spirit of the company's values, it's far more likely that your organization will be performing its best for the long-term. Giving out trinkets and such is a waste of time and money.”

I was pleased to see a couple of other participants endorse our view. But nevertheless, the silly responses kept coming. There was little debate, just the continuing admonitions to avoid giving employees cheap gifts that get thrown away, favoring this or that alternative.

            I don’t want to make assumptions or cast aspersions at businesspeople in emerging economies like Indonesia and conclude that this young woman is typical for that country in her naïveté about cultivating corporate values. And that wouldn’t be fair, particularly in light of the fact that comments that encouraged her to tie her company’s values to tchotchkes and gewgaws came from people who work for companies in places like the U.S., U.K., Australia and Israel. An American respondent offered as his idea “a values-imprinted water bottle.”

            Please.

            Could someone possibly tell me what the link might be between a water bottle and the values printed on it? Are we to expect that every time an employee takes a drink from that water bottle, he/she will pause and reflect on the corporate values? Not likely.

            A company’s values are its touchstones. They may be words but are not mere words on paper (or water bottles or mousepads). In fact and in practice, values should embody the core truths of the organization as they are lived day in and day out by its leaders and founders.

            As the word implies, what behaviors does the business value? What behaviors do leaders and managers encourage and reinforce through reward and recognition?

            Once a business is established and profitable enough to hire employees, its values should also be apparent. They are the uncompromising beliefs that are recognized and rewarded to reinforce the desired actions that drive the organization forward toward its vision.

            Typically, values encompass integrity or honesty, quality, and customer focus – words to that effect. They would also include relevant characteristics that underline and support the company’s chosen field. For instance, a value for a restaurant would likely include cleanliness, while entrepreneurial spirit is an important value for a start-up.

            So to the intent of the woman’s original question, how do you cultivate values, particularly in a large, established business?

            Pull the company’s leadership together to put into words the behaviors that they value, as succinctly as possible. They should reach consensus on those words. Then, they should talk about the values among their teams. And there’s nothing wrong with reinforcing that by including them as part of the corporate profile.

            But, as my fellow correspond from Chicago said, you’re going to achieve the desired behaviors far more effectively by living the values and working “relentlessly on visibly modeling the values from day to day” than by wasting your money on useless gifts.