As an organizational leader, I think that it is important to consider a way to ensure that values enable organizational change and leadership transformation. In this way, I believe that it is a focus on a values-based due diligence approach to strengthening your organizational culture, which in turn enhances your business/organizational practices. (Business ecosystem)
One way to apply this frame is by asking a range of questions. The questions are stated in the following context by using value enablers as ways to change and monitor leadership behavioural results. Here is a range of questions to consider:
- How does your organization articulate its espoused values, their definitions, the reasons why they are important, and in which context and which “lived experiences”;
- Are your espoused values applied to your decision-making processes, and how do you align your judgments based on these values which matter the most to you?
- How do your organizational governance policies and practices reflect your espoused values? How will you know?
- How do these espoused values fit within the core purpose of your organization and its relationships with the external world influences?
- How do you ensure that all individuals within your organization, all stakeholders, shareholders and those impacted, have the knowledge and the required experience to be able to live the espoused values of the organization? How do you know this, and most importantly how do you measure this as an impact guiding the organization, going forward?
- How do you take the espoused values and integrate/align these with your organizational core practices? For example, your performance management systems, marketing and communication, design and innovation practices, and overall decision-making in all organizational processes and systems?
- How do your espoused values form an important part of your accountability and transparency framework, including ensuring that the interests and perspectives of stakeholders are taken into account; Reporting on the results of a values-led due diligence approach and the metrics required is critical.
There is so much more to discuss and describe when one applies a values-based due diligence approach to guiding the changes required in many organizational practices. I believe that leaders has the opportunity to be transformed by focusing attention on their actions supporting the espoused values of their organization. (Measuring this is a critical part of the equation – understanding both the positive values and potentially limiting ones as they are lived in the context of organizational life)
