Clear Words, Ambiguous Understanding

How many times have you provided one of your team members with directions for completing a task you needed their help getting wrapped up by a certain time, only to get something far different from what you had hoped or miss the mark entirely? I’m sure we’ve all been on both ends of...

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Defining Exactly How It’s Done

In March, April, and May of 1996, I received a tremendous amount of one-on-one training on how to operate the various pieces of equipment I was assigned to. Initially, someone else was responsible for swapping out the tooling and dies after each order I completed so the next part could be made....

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What Message Are We Consistently Sharing?

For us to come to terms with why some many organizations miss the mark on providing a clear and consistent picture of the values listed in their policy manual or on their website, I think we need to take a look at what we do emphasize clearly and consistently with our teams. In the nearly two...

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Why Do So Many Miss the Mark on Values?

I’ve never seen any organization’s executive team intentionally neglect living out their values, especially if they had a clear understanding of how much doing so could cost them! Whether it’s intentional or not, it happens more often than any of us likely realize. But how can...

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No One Chooses to Fall Flat

I can point to dozens of powerful lessons I learned in the decade and a half I had direct involvement in behavior-based safety. While the initiative was focused on identifying and decreasing the risks the workforce was exposed to, it provided a hands-on look at why people do what they do....

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Strong Values & Clear Definitions that Fell Flat

As an organization, Enron had indeed identified their values:

Respect: We treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves. We do not tolerate abusive or disrespectful treatment. Ruthlessness, callousness and arrogance don't belong here.

Integrity: We work with customers and prospects...

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Without Living Our Values, It Can Go REALLY Wrong

In early December of 2001, I was just getting my feet under me in the behavior-based safety role I had accepted in the spring of that year, doing all I could to take care of our young family, and still reeling a bit from our freedom being attacked just a few months prior. I remember seeing the...

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Values Pushed to the Back Burner?

Before we dig into the challenges that come with “core values so generic that they could easily serve as fodder for a Dilbert cartoon,” and we’ll work through that in specific detail soon enough, we need to think about how that could ever be the case when “more than...

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How Clear Is Clear Enough?

In my experience over the last two decades, I can’t point to a single company that I’ve worked for or with where no values were listed anywhere; in the employee handbook at a minimum, but often painted on the walls in prominent areas throughout the facility as well. With much of my...

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What Can a Lack of Values Cost Us?

The interaction we’ve had with Craig, Kim, and their team over the years since they bought their business has given us a ton of clarity for the critical role values can play in a business. That experience has also helped us develop a clearer picture of who we can best serve through the work...

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Living, Breathing Proof

Over the course of my close to fifty years on this ball of mud, I’ve learned that the only people who truly like change are the ones who came up with the idea for the specific change that’s happening in any given moment. I can tolerate change when I have some level of control in how...

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Changes We Had to Make

As we developed more clarity around the values of the clients we enjoyed working with the most, we found more and more opportunities to challenge them on how to tie those values to nearly every conversation they had with their teams. This didn’t require major changes in what they were...

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