Attract more effort.,feedback.,engagement.,buy-in

Upgrade Your Culture With Functional & Frictional ValuesTM.

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Talk to one of our experts to learn if your values have what it takes to create value in the modern workplace.

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WHY do values lack value?

 

According to MIT Sloan Management Review, 80% of companies have a published set of Values Statements on their website.

 

However, they found ZERO correlation between the cultural values a company emphasizes in its published statements and how well the company lives up to those values in the eyes of employees.

 

Your Values suffer the same fate if they are unable to accomplish two primary functions:

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Enable Conflict In Those You Have:

 

Task-based Conflict enables team performance. Relationship-based Conflict kills team cohesion. The quality of your Values dictate which type of conflict you're allowing your people to have.

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Better Identify Those You Should Have:

 

How do you know if someone has the right makeup to fit your culture? The truth is you don't if your Values can't act as a benchmark when hiring.

Culture is defined as, "the values & beliefs that separate one group of people from another." This poses a bit of a problem when according to Harvard Business Review:

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of companies reference ethical behaviour or the use of the word 'Integrity' as a Value.

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of companies mention commitment to their customer or 'customer service' as a Value.

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of companies cite 'teamwork' and/or 'trust' as a Value.

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Your cookie-cutter Values are betraying you. You're trying to fit-in when your culture must be what makes you stand-out.

 

This is killing your ability to have effective conflict and hire the best talent possible.

 

Enter: Functional & Frictional ValuesTM

 

Functional & Frictional ValuesTM are the only 'core values' that allow for both of these critical functions to happen consistently, thanks to the science-backed method used to create them.

Why Enabling Conflict Matters

Conflict is like cholesterol, it's not enough to decrease the 'bad' kind, you need to increase the 'good' kind as well.

 

Task Conflict is, 'any disagreement about the goal or content of the work.' Low levels create Mistakes as work is not critiqued. High levels enable Performance as work is continually refined.

 

Relationship Conflict is, 'any disagreement about beliefs or ideologies.' High levels create Mistrust as people feel personally attacked. Low levels enable Peace as teams feel more cohesive. 

 

Fear of Conflict becoming Relationship-based is what prevents teams from having enough of it.

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Your organization's Values are your beliefs and ideologies. Defining them properly eliminates Relationship Conflict, increasing your team's ability and desire to have more of the conflict you need to drive performance.

Why hiring for 'fit' is so hard

Engagement is, 'the emotional connection one has to their company's values and objectives.' Too bad most hiring approaches only assess people's rational abilities.

Few companies know how to quantifiably assess Culture fit during a hiring process, leaving Competence as the primary benchmark used.

 

This prevents them from being able to Target A Players while hiring, forcing them to Tolerate C Players once they hire.

 

So, how do you quantifiably measure Culture in an interview?

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You Need To Know The 'Good' Things That Lead To Bad Outcomes

 

Ask someone if they believe in integrity or teamwork and they'll say yes. That's because saying no is obviously the wrong answer. Ask someone if loyalty is better than cooperation, or if logic is better than adaptability, and they're forced to answer with their beliefs. This is the only way to test if they are aligned with your Values, or if they simply know what answers you're looking for in an interview. This is why you need two sets of Values (Functional and Frictional), not just one.

The Science:

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Functional & Frictional ValuesTM leverage the science of Social Identity Theory. When belonging to a group creates a part of a person's self-identity, serving the group becomes their primary motivation. 

 

This is known as In-Group behaviour; actions that promote solidarity with the group. Out-Group behaviour by contrast; defines actions the group will forever struggle to accept.

 

We define both sets of Values-based behaviours for you, creating choice. These choices are used to both assess prospective hires, as well as to performance manage your existing team.

The steps:

Whether you are looking to upgrade your existing Values, or you don't yet have Core Values, determining the Functional & Frictional ValuesTM that will unlock your culture's full potential can be done in as little a 90 minutes, without even leaving your office.

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Functional & Frictional ValuesTM Enable You To:

Increase:

  • Alignment Between Leaders
  • Alignment With Staff
  • Healthy Conflict
  • Decision-Making Speed & Accuracy

 

Decrease:

  • Operational Silos
  • Unhealthy Conflict
  • Turnover
  • Hiring Inefficiency

Unlock:

  • Team Performance
  • Team Cohesion
  • Employee Engagement
  • Organizational Growth

 

...All In Less than 2 hours Of Your Time.

Most importantly, Functional & Frictional ValuesTM automatically eliminate the three fatal flaws found in most companies' Core Values statements:

Why Core Values Fail

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how we fixed this

Most organizations struggle to turn their Values into essential tools the business can use to ensure its mission and purpose are realized.

 

Below are the three most common flaws that contribute to this, and what we've done to eliminate them.

Fatal Flaw #1: Too Many Values

Values are meant to increase people's ability to make decisions that are aligned with the needs of the team. That can only happen if they can recall those Values, on command, in key times.

 

Dr. Nelson Cowan of the Working Memory Laboratory discovered the brain struggles to keep more than 4 things in mind at once. Companies with more than 4 Core Values, inadvertently limit their people's ability to recall them when needed.  

Our Advantage:

Not only do we only generate 4 sets of Values for the companies we help, those 4 sets of Values are uniquely tied to the 4 emotional triggers (Responding to Feedback, Providing Feedback to Others, Responding to Chaos, Responding to Pressure) that force people to decide whether to put the team's needs ahead of their own.

 

We not only help people know what Values to live, we help them know exactly when to live them.

Fatal Flaw #2: Bias & Their Creation

If your Values were chosen because they rhyme with one another, all start with the same first letter, or fit some form of acronym, your bias toward this may be doing a disservice to your team.

 

The sole purpose of your Values is to ensure your people meet the needs of your organization. Yet still we see leaders trade function for 'cleverness' by forcing words into their Values statements that fit a grammatical framework instead of a business one.  

 

Our Advantage:

Functional & Frictional ValuesTM are designed to address the only four problems a business will ever have: Money issues, People issues, Information issues, and Time issues.

 

In building a set of Values around each of these problems, and ONLY these problems, we remove any and all ambiguity around what 'living your Values' actually entails.

Fatal Flaw #3: A Lack of Contrast

The most fatal flaw of all however is only having ONE set of Values.

 

Again, Values are meant to improve decision making. The brain struggles to make decisions without being given choice. Without choice, we will continue to think about things, we will continue to feel about things, but we won't take any action.

Our Advantage:

This is why we create BOTH a Functional AND a Frictional Value for each of the measures above.

 

It is only by contrasting these two choices that people are able to instantly see how their short-term behaviours will impact the long term health of the team, and correct their behaviour accordingly.

These flaws are why so many companies have Values - despite the fact so few of them create value.

 

Flaws or Function. Which do you want to build the foundation of your organization on?

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Audit Your Values!

 

Wondering how your current Values hold up? Click the icon to take a free Values Audit. You will be asked to rank your Values across 5 critical dimensions and will be given a free assessment of where you rank.

Values-based insights are woven into the DNA of all our services.

Whether we are working to grow our client's leadership through ServantEQTM, improve their hiring effectiveness through HireEQTM, or create more engagement through WorkplaceEQTM,  Functional & Frictional ValuesTM are the essential first step in each program.

Frequently Asked Questions:

The high-performing, insanely well-aligned team you've always wanted is closer than you think. Book an Exploration Call to talk about your Values, and let's get started.
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