Strategic Values Consulting

“Your presentation to all of the officers of the Auto-Owners Insurance Company inspired us to think about our core values. We came to the realization that our success has been primarily because of our believing and living values which are similar to The Twelve Core Action Values… Thank you for your inspiration and guidance.”
Roger Looyenga, Chief Executive Officer
Auto-Owners Insurance Company

The ROI Process

Most organizational values statements confuse values and outcomes. Quality, customer service excellence, community service, and superior financial performance are not values, they are outcomes. The reason this is so important is that helping people connect with the underlying personal values is usually the most effective way of achieving the desired outcomes.

Shared values are a powerful competitive advantage for recruiting and retaining the best people – both employees and customers for whom values really matter. The ROI process used in our Strategic Values Consulting will help you create value (for employees, for customers, and for stakeholders and shareholders) by capitalizing upon your core values. The project will unfold in three phases.

I. Review

We will review your current values, vision, and mission statements; marketing documents, brochures, annual reports; recruiting and training materials; and other documentation which does (or should) reflect your organization’s values. To the extent that values, vision, and mission have changed in recent years, we will study historical documents for a sense of continuity/discontinuity.

We will also interview key executive and medical staff leaders within the organization to identify their values-related priorities or frustrations. Before moving on to the next phase, we will submit an interim report summarizing preliminary findings and plan of subsequent action.

During this review, we will also focus on the following key relationships. This is vitally important, because values statements are often either constructed in the abstract without reference to these realities, or are ancient documents no longer in concordance with current realities.

• The relationship between values and valued outcomes (a distinction that is often confused in organizational values statements).
• The relationship between the organization’s stated values and its actual strengths and weaknesses.
• The relationship between the organization’s stated values and its actual and desired market positioning.
• The relationship between the organization’s stated values and its actual and desired corporate culture.

II. Observation

“You can observe a lot just by watching,” said Yogi Berra, but sometimes the closer you are to the problems, the farther away you are from the solutions. A former chief operating officer for a large community teaching hospital who now works across a variety of industries, Joe is farther away from the problems but often closer to the solutions. As such, he is often able to offer high-leverage suggestions for improving operational performance across many dimensions.

Through a combination of focus group meetings, employee questionnaires, observational studies, and wandering around we will gain an objective and subjective impression of the extent to which your people understand and buy into the organization’s stated values. We will identify performance gaps between the ideal and the actual. 

Quite often, performance deteriorates so gradually that it is imperceptible within the organization.  In one case, for example, people at a client organization truly believed they were living their value of friendliness, but our observations revealed that widespread preoccupation with a distressing budgetary situation created quite a contrary impression to visitors.

Our observations also often identify significant opportunities for improving customer service, productivity, and other measures of operating effectiveness. These are some of the key questions toward which our observations will be directed:

• Are your people clear about the hospital’s values, and do they take
  these values seriously (as reflected by their attitudes and behaviors)?
• Are your values consciously and consistently used for goal-setting,
  decision-making, conflict resolution, and other key processes?
• Are people clear about how to handle situations in which key values
  are mutually exclusive or in conflict (a common sub terra issue at
  budget allocation time)?

III. Intervention

The Strategic Values Consulting project will conclude with a comprehensive summary report including recommendations to enhance the role and impact of the organization’s commitment to values, vision, and mission. Based upon our review and observation, we will submit a range of recommended interventions.  Theses might include:

• Revising corporate values, visions, and mission statements.
• Giving greater emphasis to organizational values in marketing, public relations, training, and other documentation.
• Doing more to incorporate stated values into job-descriptions,
  performance appraisal, and other management responsibilities.
• Implementing advanced training in values-based life and
  leadership skills.

Because The Twelve Core Action Values are universal values, this course can provide an excellent springboard for revisiting your organization’s current values, vision, and mission.