Values

The anchor point for this project is Values. How does an organisation decided the values it wants to live by, and how did then make sure that everything it does is true to those values?

One way to think about this is to look at the strength of connection between Stated Values, Felt Values and Lived Values.

Stated Values

These are the values that the organisation talks about in its formal communications – its Constitution, its website, its strategic plan, its marketing literature, etc. to begin a cohesive organisational culture, an organisation must have a clear story about its values.

BUT some organisations may not have looked at their values and a long time, and there may be a misalignment between constitutional values, other written values, stated vision, stated mission, and strategic directions.

In these situations, it makes it much harder for people to understand the organisation's story.

Felt Values

These are the values that the organisation's people actually believe in. To nurture a cohesive organisational culture, it is important that the organisation's people all feel the same way about what is important in the organisation; that they genuinely subscribe to the organisation's Stated Values.

BUT it is possible for an organisation to have an emotional allegiance to values that are not in the stated values. Also, the organisation's people individually may have differing commitments about what is important.

In these situations it makes it much harder to develop a cohesive organisational culture.

Lived Values

These are the values that are most evident in the organisation's behaviour. To achieve a cohesive organisational culture, the organisation needs to provide sufficient guidance to its people so that the behaviours they choose, the actions they take, faithfully reflects the Stated Values and Felt Values.

BUT some organisations may not be giving clear enough signals to their people through their policies and practice guidelines, and/or through the behaviour of their leaders.