Let’s start with a recap of what your vision, mission and values should look like. Your vision should be ambitious and set the direction for your people. Your mission should detail how you plan to execute your vision and your values should describe the way you want your people to act in the process of achieving success.
Bring your people closer to your vision, mission, and values by working on these three areas together. You could do this at your next company day or as a part of your next annual planning event.
Articulate the company-wide vision, mission and values – these can act as the brightest stars in the sky for your people. The next priority is to get your teams to translate what the vision and mission (as the values should be pretty consistent across the organisation) means for their department.. If you miss this step, it’s a challenge to help bring your intention to life and you also miss the opportunity to ensure your colleagues can take some ownership of their roles within the organisation.
Once teams have had the chance to articulate vision and mission, get them to play this back to other teams, constructively challenge teams and question them where appropriate, and then formalise these “translations” somewhere that is easily accessible.
The next translation exercise is for individuals and their line managers / coaches/ mentors to consider their personal goals against the backdrop of both the organisational and team vision and mission statements. Give people the opportunity and the autonomy to think meaningfully about their contribution to the bigger picture whilst still serving their professional goals.
The more you do to promote your vision, how you plan to achieve it, and the values you and your organisation embody, the more likely you are to attract the type of talent and people that you want to work with.
New recruits should understand your vision, mission, and values before they even join the organisation. Ensure that these statements and examples of how you’re living them are not only on your company’s website but also across all your socials. You don’t need to explicitly say “Here’s another example of how we’re living our values” – just ensure the content you’re creating actively demonstrates what you want to be famous for.
If you can, consider baking client testimonials into your content and ask clients if they would do the same. It won’t do you any harm to spread your message with examples of how you’re working towards your vision across more than just your own platforms.
Consider the faces that represent your content. Representatives from across your organisation can help you spread the word and will increase your people’s alignment with your vision, mission, and values.
Finally, ensure your onboarding process is aligned with your company vision, mission, and values. This is a fantastic way to demonstrate your ability to practise what you preach. If, for example, your vision is to give every customer “the best digital experience ever”, then ensure your new recruits have an onboarding experience that weaves in the use of great tech and digital tools alongside the human experience. As a part of onboarding, ensure new recruits understand the vision of the department they’re joining and start conversations about what they’d like their individual objectives to be against these as soon as possible.
Another significant tool to leverage is your performance, recognition, and reward systems.
Your employee code of conduct/handbook should include your company vision, mission, and values; highlighting what expectations you have of your people and illustrating how this translates across different departments/levels/subsidiaries, etc.
The way you assess your people’s performance and recognise and reward them should be designed in such a way that incentivises the vision, mission, and especially the values you have collaborated on. At Clarasys, for example, we use a recognition tool called Kudos to share positive feedback with each other. All feedback can be tagged with one or more of our official values which is an easy way to show each other how we’re in alignment with the type of organisation and people we want to be. If you have a company intranet, you could do “shout-outs” to colleagues who have performed well, hash-tagging the comment with the company value(s) that your colleague lived up to.
Where performance is less than what you expected, and therefore less in alignment with the company’s vision, mission and values, give your people the opportunity to learn and grow. Often negative performance comes from a place of misunderstanding or a lack of knowledge or capability. Give your people the chance to flourish in line with your values and show them that you care. However, if a fundamental value such as trust has been broken more than once, sometimes the only way forward is for an individual to leave.
No employee, recruitment candidate, or customer should be unsure of what your vision, mission, and values are. And that’s not because they’re plastered on your website or your socials but because the day-to-day interactions and engagement they have with your organisation are so clearly an active expression of the words on a page that they speak for themselves.
To find out how we can help with change management in your organisation, please get in touch.