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Implementing Organization Values in large organizations Using the online Q-sort as Awareness Game to give meaning to Organization Values and raise employee engagement Q-Research/TDF Amsterdam / The Hague Visit: www.q-research.nl Contact: +316 2180 2828 / +316 218 55 099 © 2009 Q-Research/TDF

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Implementing Values in large organizations – some challenges <ul><li>We have identified some basic challenges: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Values – what do they mean and to whom? First, there is the question of the meaning the selected values have to various people. Differences in interpretation lead to misunderstanding and confusion. Not a recipe for success. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>How to engage employees in large organizations? When implementing company values, how do you engage employees in the process? How do you make sure all employees across regions are involved and share the same meaning and consequences of these values and ultimately change their behavior? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>How to create continuity during the process? With the ultimate goal being a change in behavior, we all know that a one-off intervention will not suffice. Continuity in the implementation process therefore is essential. What’s the trick to maintain continuity without people losing interest? </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>How to support managers in their role? Management behavior is a critical factor in driving change, not only as role models but also in facilitating the change process. Most managers could use a hand when given a role in the implementation of the values. What practical support can you offer and do you activate managers to play their part? </li></ul></ul>Managing by Values Values offer guidance to management and employees when making decisions and acting in complex situations. Once employees understand the company’s Values, they are able to figure out the correct objective and course of action across a variety of situations. Many organizations nowadays recognize the importance of managing by using company values. When introducing Company Values however, they often face the same difficulties in making it work and having the values translated into successful employee behavior and improved organization performance.

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Creating an ongoing constructive dialogue <ul><li>Creating a constructive dialogue for implementing organization values, is based on two principles; </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Values get their meaning through social constructing: people exchanging their views and experiences and construct a common understanding. In a constructive dialogue, values get collective meaning. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>In any (real) dialogue, people interact; they give their opinion and are listened to. They are involved and feel valued and ultimately become engaged. </li></ul></ul><ul><li>In our approach, an ongoing dialogue is created by combining personal (group) sessions with online tools to involve large groups on different locations. All steps build upon the prior one, thus continuing the process of dialogue and giving meaning. </li></ul>Getting meanings and images: what are values made of? Creating awareness and involvement amongst employees: which behaviors I find most important? Discussing priorities and actions for improvement: what can we do and what would we need? Sustaining change in behavior: agreeing on concrete changes. Reinforcing awareness and change: which behaviors I find most important C o m m u n i c a t i o n s Engagement = Being involved & feeling valued Wat heeft de meeste impact op mijn werk Sneller reageren op klantvragen Wat heeft de meeste impact op mijn werk Sneller reageren op klantvragen Processes Procedures Skills Communications Tools, support actions

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Giving meaning to Values – getting meanings and images <ul><li>Because Values – such as Customer focus or Flexibility – can mean very different things to different people, it is of little use trying to impose one single meaning on a large group of employees. It is better to engage employees and ask what the Values mean to them. These individual meanings and images can be collected trough (group) interviews. </li></ul>In Marketing, there is a well-known phrase: “Do not ask your customer what he wants, he does not know it” It illustrates the difficulty people have considering what is important to them. Indeed, most people are not always fully conscious of what matters to them. There is a way around above dilemma though and that is asking what people have experienced before. Not in an ordinary way but a true exceptional situation, which gave life and energy. And people are good at recollecting positive memories, when asked. This interview technique, known as Appreciative Interviewing, is very well suited to get behind the meanings employees give to Values, what it truly means to them. As a result, many individual meanings and images are collected. Instead of counting which one has come up most, they are interpreted in a way to look for deeper, shared meanings. These capture, according to the employees interviewed, the meaning of the Company Values. Now its time to involve the remaining thousands of employees.

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Creating awareness and involvement <ul><li>The added value of the “game” is its psychological background. Participation creates awareness and organization engagement amongst employees. The meanings (often described as behaviors) resulting from the (group) interviews are fed into the Q-sort as the items to be ranked. These are prioritized by (potentially) all employees when they “play the game”. </li></ul><ul><li>The prioritization of the meanings makes people think about how they see the values and what they think is most important. Forcing employees to make choices is to make them think about the values and their implications on daily work. So they become aware of the Values and their underlying meaning. </li></ul><ul><li>In addition to the actual Q-sort itself, employees are asked how they behave now, with respect to the values, what they could do to improve and what they would need to do so. These questions trigger further thinking about the values and implications on one’s behavior. This also offers wonderful input for further personal dialogue on how to improve. So its not only creating awareness, its also about activating employees. </li></ul>The Q-sort, with its scientific background and extensive ‘track record, appears very effective when used as “awareness game”. In a small timeframe the instrument strengthens employee engagement. The online Q-sort allows employees to become involved by participating in less than 10 minutes. As awareness game, the Q-sort is user-friendly and easy to do. Composed in the organization’s ‘look & feel’, it builds trust and identification. Wat heeft de meeste impact op mijn werk Sneller reageren op klantvragen

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Discussing results and agree on concrete actions and changes <ul><li>From the Q-sort come results that represent priorities according to the group (i.e. department, location). These priorities are accompanied by clarifications from participants and suggestions on how to improve. These results form a perfect starting point for team discussions to continue the dialogue. Employees get feedback on their collective input and feel they’ve been taken seriously. And their involvement in the process does not stop, intensifies even. </li></ul><ul><li>Within the team, concrete actions can be taken and changes can be agreed upon based on the ‘Card Game’ results. This will make the Company Values not only come to life in employee behavior but also lead to sustainable changes in the organisation. </li></ul><ul><li>In the team dialogue, managers play an important role in facilitating the following process, building on the things that matter to the team members. When managers are expected to play this important part, participation in a workshop can be made available where they learn how to do this. It also activates managers who would otherwise ‘hide’ and play a less active role in making the organization values come to life in their unit. </li></ul>Result s used in team dialogue Agreed actions and changes Processes Procedures Skills Communications Tools, support actions

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Continuity: cultivating the new Values <ul><li>The awareness game can be introduced again, after some time, to re-engage employees and strengthen awareness around the values and their implications. It can be combined with some form of effectiveness measurement to capture the effect of the process. One can vary by having participating employees prioritize for their department or the overall organization. With such subtle adjustments, employees focus shift from the individual, from the “me” to the “we”, the collective perspective. </li></ul>C o m m u n i c a t i o n s Throughout the whole implementation process, communications play a crucial role. When executed appropriately, it builds consistency in the process, making sure employee get the same information about what is happening and why this is important to the organization. Instead of the traditional campaigns, in which employees were overwhelmed with lots of unidirectional information now communications supports a change process. And had gained in importance. Wat heeft de meeste impact op mijn werk Sneller reageren op klantvragen

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Results <ul><li>So, what does this all deliver? Are there better results than with any of the methods we know and readily apply? </li></ul><ul><ul><li>First of all, people are more engaged. Not surprisingly when its known that many employees working in large and somewhat anonymous organizations are tired of too many surveys without any feedback or follow up. Taking your employees serious pays off. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Values get real meaning Taking successful experiences from employees themselves delivers powerful stuff in terms of credibility and realism. The things that worked before are not challenged because people know they work. So organization values are brought to life with real-life material. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Employees participate and are involved Participation for just a few minutes in what appears to be a game – but bears lots of thinking behind it – is easy and fun to do. Participation rates show that an online dialogue through user-friendly tools is very effective in getting to the heads and harts of your employees located all over the world. </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Better organization performance Although very hard to measure whether its caused by implementing the values but the feedback we get from our clients is that performance has improved. And when seeing the change in behavior all around you this seems pretty obvious. </li></ul></ul>

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Onze klanten “ Q-Research/TDF has, in close collaboration with our project team, contributed enormously to the important change in becoming more pro-active. We did not just gain insight into what defines proactive behavior, they have also helped us make the change to improve ourselves.” Jan Nooitgedagt, chairman of the Board Ernst & Young Netherlands “ With the help of Q-Research/TDF we have repositioned and launched our new service within a very short time-to-market..&quot; Robert Bals, Managing Consultant Topforce “ Their approach appeared to be the perfect combination of practical tools and well-applied theory. By positioning the Q-sort as being the intervention itself and applying it as such, we could raise employee engagement where it was not so obvious. &quot; Laura Kloet de Martinez, Sr. Consultant Euro RSCG Bikker For more information, please contact Nina Binnendijk Florent Meier +316 218 55 099 +316 2180 2828 nina.binnendijk@q-research.nl [email_address]