Getting us all in sync with where we want to go to win and how we’re getting there to lead has been the timeless preoccupation of business shapers.
That is why we prize a company’s vision and mission statements, accompanied by the core values that would breathe life to lofty aspirations.
How do we therefore breed a work culture of intellectually and emotionally engaged employees that take ownership of key initiatives and hold each other accountable to achieve business goals empowered by the guiding vision, mission and values? Here are the top-of-mind imperatives:
Play up the importance of aligning work deliverables, be they individual or team contributions to the organizational strategies to ensure constant cognizance of VMV.
Surface specific stories that would support the practice of corporate values and make them easily interpretable and doable through real work life applications. Ensure resonance!
Encourage self-reflection on both the enabling and hindering forces in the work environment that impact the attainment of the company vision and mission through the embraced practice of the core values.
Create a winning mindset on accountabilities and the mandate to deliver topnotch results.
Vision-Mission statements are in danger of being dismissed as plain sloganeering when we don’t state specific behavioral manifestations or target meaningful expressions that help promote the practice of the supporting values. Therefore, all programs related to the VMV should possess these following qualities:
POWERFUL. Let us process hard hitting realities and ’pain points’ with where we are in the journey and what needs to be done to stay ahead of the game.
PURPOSEFUL. Concepts on VMV cannot be understood in isolation. It has to permeate across all shops and necessitate collaboration. Let there be ’sense of urgency’ for the envisioned shared future.
CONCRETE. General action plans on agreed commitments and code of behavior must be identified, documented, owned up to and tracked down to sustain gains in learning realizations.
EMOTIONAL. Marry the cerebral with the motivational! Appeal to the heart so everything translates to fired up commitment!
INTEGRATED. While it is likely that different groups will perceive the statements and values differently through the lens of the peculiarities of the disciplines they represent, weave everything together to project collective ownership that will encourage a single identity for the corporate culture.
FUN. Create positive memories. Create ’LOL’ moments!
And finally, INSPIRATIONAL. Nothing short than feverish rah-rah that empowers and engages!