Values are fundamental pillars of corporate culture, but they can also be difficult to implement. They often trigger discussions and misunderstandings, as well as egocentric distortions. Values that are perceived as particularly important then apply above all to others. True to the motto: You have to bring into your life what you want to experience in life.
When developing corporate cultures, heated debates about values arise time and again. Which ones are important, which ones are not? Which values make us unique, or even generate a competitive advantage? It's an exciting process. The more aware people in a company become, the more clearly they recognize the enormous creative power that can arise from living values. So a lot of time and money is invested in developing a corporate mission statement with the appropriate values. This makes the subsequent transfer process into practice all the more frustrating. Despite the best linguistic formulations and visual presentation, implementation proves to be more difficult than running a marathon in quicksand. Why is that? What forces are at work here?
For six years, we have been researching the value responsibility at our institute. (verantwortungsindex.de) Why? So that we can provide a crystal-clear methodology and didactics for learning responsibility. In doing so, we measure the visual acuity of responsibility and internally—in other words, how clearly we perceive the responsibility (externally) and how clearly we responsibility our own responsibility (internally). For six years, the results have been similar: we see the responsibility over 30 percent more precisely and clearly than our own. It follows that we also see the transgressions of others a third more clearly than our own and that most people consider themselves far better than they are.
This illusion of superiority creates an interesting distortion which, based on our 24 years of experience, is the biggest hurdle in the process of putting values into practice. It is the difference between “wanting to experience” and “wanting to exemplify.” When participants are asked whether respect is an important value, there is unanimous agreement. Things get interesting when asked how they recognize respect. Answers such as “being noticed,” “being acknowledged,” “not being overlooked,” or “experiencing appreciation” are the most common. In short, “being respected.” Experiencing respect from others. This finding is confirmed when exploring other values in greater depth. The insight is most striking with regard to the value of “love.” Here, the realization that we are primarily loved rather than wanting to give love into the world is very sobering for the participants.
This raises an interesting question: Who should exemplify a value when so many people just want to experience it? Who brings it to life? Oh yes, the leader! But if we perceive the mistakes of others 30 percent more clearly than our own, can leader really exemplify leader values we need them to? This is always an eye-opener and the reason why values are so difficult to put into practice. The more people become aware of this distortion, the more successful the transformation of a corporate culture will be. Of course, setting an example at the top of the company is very important. But it is by no means everything.
Values are important to us, and above all, we care about receiving them from others. We care far less about giving them to others. This is best illustrated by the trendy concept and buzzword “appreciation.” A wonderful term that, unfortunately, has mutated in practice into a “demand for validation.” This constant state of searching—wondering whether others value us enough—has consequences. Thus, legitimate criticism from outside, when it conflicts with our inner desire for validation, is often interpreted as a lack of appreciation. And that leads us to respond to this perceived lack with moral accusations.
In summary: Most people talk about respect and primarily want to be respected themselves. They also want to experience loyalty, trust, appreciation, and recognition. Very few people realize how much this distortion clouds our senses in everyday working life and hinders the transformation of corporate cultures. Please be smart and overcome this hurdle for yourself and those around you. Again and again. I wish you this with all my heart!
Yours, Boris Grundl