It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it

So much has been written about organisational culture and values. After spending a day talking about them on a recent ION leadership Leading Growth programme, I would not dare to suggest I am an expert in any way shape or form. I view things very simply though and to me, culture and values are not what you do, but how you do things.

A lot of organisations have their values adorned all over their office walls but then their actions suggest otherwise. Don’t get me wrong, a lot of organisations 100% live their values, but practice what you preach. Don’t shout from the rooftops about how professional, honest and respectful you are, and then do the opposite.

Enron’s values were communication, respect, integrity and excellence. And we all know what happened there.

As with most people, my favourites brands are ones whose values and ‘reasons for being’ are aligned with mine:

Patagonia — build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.

Wales Football Team — despite being English, I am lucky to have called Wales home for over 20 years now and am very proud to say that my children were not only born in Wales but are being brought up bilingually. During Euro 2016 the whole nation came together under the ‘Together Stronger’ banner and as an ‘outsider’ (but with a vested interest) it was difficult not to go along for the ride.

Surfers Against Sewage — inspires, unites and empowers communities to take action to protect oceans, beaches waves and wildlife.

CreativeMornings — we believe in the power of community. We believe in giving a damn. We believe in face-to-face connections, in learning from others, in hugs and high-fives.

In a recent ION masterclass, Lynda Campbell who previously held a senior role at British Gas, took the group through how they developed a high performing culture at British Gas. I am not going to go over how it was done as it would be the longest blog ever (and still wouldn’t do it justice), but below are just some of my key take-a-ways.

· know what you want to be known for

· learn from the very best

· the importance of emotional intelligence

· trust

Lynda’s session was so awesome that the next day I booked Lynda to speak at a Swansea University event which took place just last week.

The masterclass led to a discussion in the office about ION’s values. As part of Swansea University, we share the universities values which are:

· Professional

· Together

· We care

Since the session we have rejuvenated something which the team used to do. We share something awesome that has happened in the last week (it doesn’t have to be work related) and also an example of how we have ‘lived’ the values that week. It’s been cracking so far and really helps clarify on a Monday morning why we go to work.

However, I personally don’t feel shaped by the values of the organisation I work for. People do business with people, so the way people do things is (to me) more important than what they do. People have to do rubbish things every day. Things they don’t want to do. But how they go about things says more about them than what they actually do.

Take Wes and Josh in Love Island for example (managed to get Love Island into 2 blogs in a row! Boom!) They were both happy in relationships but realised that they could be happier with someone else. This is completely fair enough but the way they handled it sucked and with at least one of the couples involved, it left a pretty sour atmosphere between the two of them. All of this could have been avoided if they had just handled things differently.

As an ardent England football fan, it might be a bit over the top to say that I think Gareth Southgate has single-handedly changed the way the national football team do things. As a recent article in Campaign extolled, Southgate ‘shunned ego for unity, dogma for emotional intelligence’. After knocking Columbia out on penalties, Southgate’s (who of course had bad memories of penalties) first thought was to go console the Columbia players. Positive platforms were given to Danny Rose to discuss his mental health and battles with depression. The article goes on to say that Gareth and his actions sent ‘out a message that young, hungry ambition will be applauded’ and ‘a team and country of don’ts has become a team of do’s’.

Unfortunately, what they went there to actually do (win the World Cup) didn’t happen, but the way they went about things has made supporters care again and certainly stood them in good stead for the future.

It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. (However, I’d happily take winning the World Cup in 2022!).

(This blog was originally written on Marketing Manager Adam Fairbanks Medium page - https://medium.com/@AdamF