Values Pledge
As part of our Global Values Alliance’s purpose of inspiring greater authenticity all over the world, by putting values at the heart of society, we worked with UK Values Alliance and other regional movements to create a Values Pledge.
This is a way for any organisation to publicly demonstrate that it belongs to our values community and is a commitment to improve the way the organisation lives its values, with a view to becoming a truly values-driven organisation. The Values Pledge can be promoted by regional values movements and used by organisations of all sizes and in any sector all over the world.
If you are interested in piloting the Values Pledge, please let us know at info@valuesalliance.net, we’d love to welcome your involvement.
“Values are like fingerprints. Nobody’s are the same, but you leave ’em all over everything you do”
Welcome
Thanks for your interest in the topic of values and visiting our site (launched on World Values Day 2017). It is our ambition to become a virtual “go to” place for people, organisations and communities who are interested in values. We look forward to our Global Values Alliance community all over the world contributing to the development of the site so that it can help you to connect, explore and take action. Please explore the site, send us your content, suggestions and ideas, and get involved in any way you want to.
What are Values?
Values are what make us who we are. They are the compass guiding everything we do – our choices and our actions. When we lose touch with that compass, we can take the wrong turn. It’s the same for our families, for our communities, for the organisations that we belong to or work for. Our values show us how we work together.
Values are the things that are important to us, the foundation of our lives. They guide our choices and behaviours and influence our emotions.
Values are the heart of every organisation as they reflect what is important to us. They are the shorthand way of the describing our collective motivations. They are the glue that binds the organisation together. They define its culture, the way it operates and how it shows itself to the world. They guide it and keep it focused and on track.
Why are Values so important for organisations?
Changing environment
The world is not just rapidly changing, it is being dramatically reshaped. Digitalisation changes the way we operate and interact. Social media creates direct, transparent and interdependent engagement between individuals in society and organisations. Machines are starting to outperform human thinking. This all raises the question of how we connect – heart to heart – with our stakeholders. PwC’s CEO Pulse survey 2016 (Connecting the dots: how purpose can join your business*) shows that 75% of CEOs are changing their values and code of conduct to respond to stakeholder expectations.
Sustainability of the organization
Having a strong purpose and clear values and behaviours defined will serve as a guidepost in your action and responses toward the future. It creates internal cohesion that supports achievement of organisational aims. It allows our stakeholders to hold us accountable for our actions and increases our brand value when we get this right.
Ensure strategy execution
By articulating why the strategy at hand is important and how (through values, behaviours and capabilities) it can be realized, we empower employees to realise the strategy from their own perspective and position within the organisation and provide a strong guidance for decision-making. 96% of CEOs agree that it is important for leaders to take time to explain how values influence business decisions*.
Loyalty of employees
An organisation that has a culture based on shared values creates internal cohesion that supports the achievement of organisational aims and retention of motivated staff. These organisations will engage the long-term loyalty, engagement and energy of their talent.
The power of values
The power of the values can be harnessed to achieve key organisational aims and objectives by understanding what they are and how they drive behaviours and actions throughout the organisation. Values can also be harnessed to address and overcome whatever challenges stand in the way.
Research from Strategy&* shows that organisations with a distinctive culture are…
- 1.9 times more likely to grow revenue faster than competitors
- 1.7 times more profitable than their industry peers
- 2 times more likely to quickly translate important strategic and operational decisions into action
An organisation whose values are aligned with its members and stakeholders and which is therefore able to fully harness their energy and creativity will have a culture which is collaborative, resilient, productive and fully motivated to achieve its goals and objectives.
Can Values really change the world?
We can all sometimes forget our values or just ignore them – often when we need them most. Then we find ourselves somewhere we really don’t want to be. This is as true for organisations as it is for individuals.
But there is a wider impact when individuals and organisations forget their values. If those values are not lived to the full in our lives, at home, at work and in the community, then our communities won’t live those values either. If our communities don’t reflect our values, then the wider world won’t reflect them either. It won’t be a world we want to live in, where we can be fulfilled and happy.
So if we want to change the world for the better, then we have to change the behaviours that currently make our world go round. And the only way to do that is for all of us to live our values to the full every day in everything we do.
This is more relevant and important today in our super-connected world than it has ever been before. We refer to this paradigm as The Values Economy (R).
