Making Values Part of Your Everyday Culture

Values aren't just words on a page, they're the heartbeat of your organization's culture. In this episode, we'll explore practical, creative ways to bring your nonprofit’s core values to life every single day.

Connect with host Jill Fowler on LinkedIn.

This episode was brought to you by Songbird Leadership -- Amplify your organization's mission through outcome-based executive coaching, strategic planning, and capacity building.

Transcript

Thank you for joining us today. I’m your host Jill Fowler of Songbird Leadership.

Your organization’s values hold significant power and meaning. They speak to who you are as an agency, your culture, and your unique approach to fulfilling your mission. They help you stay focused and influence how stakeholders view your impact. Your values should be known and spoken, purposefully lived every day, and considered when making important decisions. Too often, an organization’s values are created during strategic planning and that’s where it ends – those important words are part of a plan document, forgotten until the next planning cycle. This is a missed opportunity! 

So, let’s talk about some practical ideas for incorporating your values into your day-to-day activities. An easy way is to simply post them on the wall in high traffic areas of your workspace. Or you could paint a nice mural in a common area. If your team is remote, you could display them on the front page of your intranet in a creative way.

While fine ideas, these methods are kind of passive and can easily be overlooked or ignored over time. Think of it like your marketing efforts – you need seven touchpoints for people to remember. (Although, recent research suggests that it could be as high as 13!) If you’re like me and desire more active values integration, a great way to start is to incorporate them into your staff meetings. List your values on your agenda and kick off each meeting with each person sharing how they have personified one of your values since the last meeting. This not only engrains your values into your team’s consciousness, but it makes for fun dialogue. 

Along these lines, you could also set a values intention each month – one small action everyone will take to live out one of your organization’s values in their work. This can be done individually or as a group, and it should be reported out at the end of the month. Again, this provides great opportunity for dialogue and creativity among your team. 

Speaking of igniting your team, you could create a Values Committee, a group of people who are responsible for really knowing your values and then developing ways to incorporate them into your organization in all regards, from programming and operations to fundraising and service. Think of this group as the party planning committee on steroids. They should have specific and measurable objectives, be given latitude in their creative endeavors, and maybe even a budget. The great part of committees like this is you never know where they’ll take you if given the opportunity.

Another option is to utilize your internal group messaging platform to not only communicate your organization’s values to the team, but to make your team an active part of recognizing each other for embodying them. I’m sure many of you have a kudos Teams channel for giving shoutouts to folks for a job well done. Well, this is in the same vein. Offer a values channel on which staff can share praise for others who have demonstrated one of your values. This not only reinforces your values, but it creates comradery and boosts morale. Then, at the end of the year, I like to tally up who received the most mentions for each value on the channel and give awards, sort of like the Dundees. It’s a fun way to celebrate both your values and your team at the same time.

Finally, you may consider asking your team to incorporate your organization’s values into their annual performance goals in some way. Ask them to identify the value that resonates most with them in their work and then strategically utilize that connection to make the most of the goalsetting exercise. 

In the end, organizational values only matter if they’re lived. By intentionally weaving your values into your daily culture and practices, you’re fostering a workplace where those values are not just remembered, but felt. It’s about turning abstract principles into meaningful actions. The more creative and consistent you are in bringing your values to life, the more powerful and authentic your organization’s culture will become, both internally and externally.