Three-dimensional value systems
What is a value system?
As of late, corporations have discovered that mission-statements are only somewhat helpful in providing direction to a company. Being strategic in nature, they don’t provide enough detail to govern tactical decisions made by the corporate employees on a daily basis.
To answer this need, value-statements, and value-systems have come into vogue. Many companies have value-statements to underscore their mission statements.
Just as some mission statements are more effective than others, some value-systems are more effective than others.
The simple approach to establishing corporate, department, or team values is to get everyone together in a room and have them suggest values the team should adopt. Voting happens, and the group committs to their agree-upon values.
After one of these sessions, the group might come up with a list like:
- respect
- trust
- excellance
- high performance
This list is a start, but only representative of a one-dimentional value system. These values, by themselves, realy don’t project any context or weight.
A more effective approach would be a two-dimensional value system. A two dimensional value-system provides a greater context fabric. For example, you could say your group values:
- respect over cynicism
- trust over hope
- excellence over heroics
- high-performance over sub-optimization
These comparison value statements proved direction and context. This represents a two-dimensional value system, and is more effective that a simple list of values.
A three-dimensional value system is a prioritized list of these comparison statements. For example, you could say your group values these statements in this order:
- trust over hope
- excellence over heroics
- high-performance over sub-optimization
- respect over cynicism
This list shows that trust is the highest factor in inter-departmental dynamics. It shows that excellence is more important than high-performance (so no cutting corners!), and that the group values trust, excellence, and high-performance more than respect.
Every group will have their own values and differences in priorioties, but putting a three-dimensional value-system in place with your team is a great step forward in building functional team cohesion.
Once in place, a reward-systems can be built around your value system to promote it’s effectivness.
Mike J Berry
www.RedRockResearch.com
March 5th, 2008 at 12:30 am
[…] think the concept is fascinating. Just as a good value system should be in place to help an organization, department, team, or individual govern their […]