When Values Matter
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Ping pong tables have become a symbol of startup culture. I’ve read that they promote activity in the pre-frontal cortex, a key part of the brain for strategic thinking and long term memory function. I’ve heard that they were used as a way to give software engineers a physical activity as a break from hours of intense focus. I’ve heard that companies use them to convey a “fun” culture in order to attract young talent. And I’ve heard them used in arguments that culture is not about ping pong tables.
The ping pong table is a kind of value statement. It could say, “It’s important for people to have fun together.” It could say, “It’s important for us to attract young people who will work for less as long as there are fun things to do.” It could say, “Our employees’ health is important and we want to offer ways for them to stay active through the day.” The ping pong table is an expression of something that is important to the organization.
Don't bother with aspirational values
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I’ve been involved with many efforts at defining vision, values, and mission statements. For most of that time, I’ve seen value statements as aspirational tools: “Here’s what we think should be important,” or more often, “Here’s what we want other people to think we think is important to us.” In the end, for so many organizations, they sit unused on the values page of the website. Box checked. What’s next?
A few years ago, my manager sent Netflix’s “Culture” presentation to me, and one slide started a change in how I understand value statements. It read, “Actual company values are the behaviors and skills that are valued in fellow employees.” What struck me was the idea of stated values versus actual values.
Let’s face it, aspirational values are worthless if they don’t factor into your decisions. This applies to companies and individuals. Someone once told me, “If you want to know what’s important to someone, look at their checkbook.” Where you invest resources is one way to get to the truth about what is important to you, but it’s still a downstream indicator. Values are best uncovered where decisions are made.
“Let’s face it, aspirational values are worthless if they don’t factor into your decisions”
Value statements are useful when they represent a true contract for how people should function together, make decisions, and do their work. To represent a true contract, they must be both dependable and tangible.
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Make values dependable
When stated values and operating values are aligned, people can have greater confidence about what behavior is desired, how they can provide value, and how they can be successful. If stated values are not synonymous with operating values, the operating values will be opaque and capricious. The dissonance undermines trust in the company and between colleagues. Go back to the ping pong table for a moment.
A company wants to convey the idea that they are fun place to work, so they have a ping pong table installed. After a few weeks, managers complain that employees are spending too much time playing ping pong and they are worried about a drop in productivity. To address this, they institute ping pong time tracking to ensure no more than 2% of employees time is spent at the ping pong table. The stated value, “Fun is important for healthy morale” is undermined by the actual value, “Productivity is important for meeting deadlines.”
Fidelity between what a company says matters and what actually matters when decisions are being made is a key condition to a healthy culture.
Keep values tangible
Value statements also need tangible expressions. What are the stories that are retold over and over? The tribal stories that demonstrate model behavior are key to understanding what matters. What specific behaviors are encouraged as part of employee assessments? Explicit guidance to employees about what they should do more (or less) of because of how they align to what matters to the organization gives managers and employees more objective means to measure performance and reward or correct. What gets celebrated and rewarded?
If an organization values collaboration, it might work to structure teams that are interdisciplinary and represent diverse experiences (organizational structures). It might measure performance based on breadth of contribution and engagement (performance metrics). It might reward team performance, rather than individuals (reward systems).
When value statements are abstract and generic, they provide little value. Employees may pay lip service or ignore them completely. When values are expressly tied to behaviors and decisions, they gain a gravity that makes them effective to guide future behavior.
“When values are expressly tied to behaviors and decisions, they gain a gravity that makes them effective to guide future behavior.”
I suspect that most organizations don’t spend much time worrying about whether or not their stated values and operating values are aligned and tangible. I also suspect that this is a major contributing factor to the toxicity of their culture. It results in either a set of shadow values (unwritten rules known only by the fittest survivors), or a patchwork quilt of values (inconsistent and competing) across the organization.
Values shape decisions. That is why it matters that they are clearly expressed and true-to-life.
If you have a ping pong table, that’s cool. Ping pong isn’t really my thing. What I’m interested in is why you have it. What were the values that drove the decision to install it? What do managers feel when people use it? Also, who buys the new paddles when the old ones fall apart?