When Company Values Are Put to the Test
Updated: Aug 20
Most organizations know how to talk about their values.
Integrity. Respect. Accountability. Transparency. Trust. They appear on websites, in strategic plans, recruitment materials and presentations about organizational culture. There is nothing wrong with these words. The question is whether those values hold when they are tested. All too often they don't.
After more than 30 years working with organizations and leaders, I have learned that values are easy to claim. The real test comes when values are challenged. When doing the right thing is uncomfortable, costly or disruptive. When a difficult concern is raised about someone with influence or when addressing a problem could have consequences for the organization such as risk and reputational damage. That is when values stop being words and start becoming decisions.
Harvard Business Review's The Leader's Guide to Corporate Culture makes an important distinction. Culture is rooted in “unspoken behaviours, mindsets, and social patterns” and is expressed through shared assumptions and norms, not simply through what an organization says it values. Read: The Leader's Guide to Corporate Culture, Harvard Business Review
The distinction matters. An organization can say it values respect, but what happens when someone raises a difficult concern? It can say it values transparency, but what happens when the information is uncomfortable? It can say it values accountability, but does accountability apply equally when the person involved is senior, successful or well connected? It can say it values people, but what happens when protecting people becomes inconvenient? This is where culture becomes visible.
People pay attention to what happens when values are tested. They notice who is challenged and who is protected. They notice whether the same standards apply to everyone. They notice what happens when someone raises an uncomfortable question. And they form their own conclusions. This is also where leadership and reputation meet.
An organization can communicate its values very effectively. But if people's experience contradicts those values, the communications eventually lose credibility. No amount of messaging can permanently close that gap.
Harvard Business Review recently examined this question in What Values Do You Really Stand For? by Columbia Business School professor Paul Ingram. The article looks at the role values play in guiding decisions and behaviour, rather than simply describing the organization we would like to be. Read: What Values Do You Really Stand For?, Harvard Business Review.
As someone who has spent much of my career helping organizations navigate reputation, change and crisis, I have learned that the hardest communications challenges are rarely solved by finding better words. Sometimes the words are not the problem. The problem is what the organization is asking those words to represent.
That is why I think leaders should ask a more difficult question about their values: What would we do differently if we actually had to live by them?
Would we listen differently? Would we ask harder questions? Would we challenge someone we respect? Would we accept accountability when it is uncomfortable? Would we make the decision that reflects our values even when another decision would be easier?
Those are not communications questions. They are leadership questions.
They ultimately determine whether an organization's values have any meaning beyond the words used to describe them. Culture is not what an organization says it believes. It is what people experience when those beliefs are put to the test.
About the author
Catherine Cameron is a Toronto-based senior communications leader, strategic advisor and leadership coach with more than 30 years of experience helping organizations navigate leadership, change, reputation and complex challenges. Her work spans strategic and executive communications, crisis and reputation management, stakeholder engagement, organizational culture and trust. Catherine is also an established Canadian artist and trained art therapy practitioner. Her creative and therapeutic arts practice explores resilience, human experience, emotional awareness and the power of creative expression. This work, together with her professional experience, informs her interest in leadership, communication, accountability and the ways organizations build or erode trust.
