Institutional Excellence:

Corporate Culture

Shared Values

What Links Your Organization and People Together

• Shared values link the organization together; all employees live the values... More

Shared Values Defined

Shared values are what engender trust and link an organization together. Shared values are also the identity by which an organization is known throughout its business areas. These values must be stated as both corporate objectives and individual values. Every organization and every leader will have a different set of values that are appropriate to its business situation.

10 Rules for Building a Great Business

• Define shared values and let values rule. As Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple Computer, put it, "The only thing that works is management by values. Find people who are competent and really bright, but more importantly, people who care exactly about the same things you care about."... More

9 Signs of a Losing Organization

3. Discouraging Culture: no shared values; lack of trust; blame culture; focus on problems, not opportunities; diversity is not celebrated; failures are not tolerated; people lose confidence in their leaders and systems... More

5 Keys to Building a Great Company

By: Narayana Murthy, Founder of Infosys

• Shared Values: A great company practices an enduring value system, and follows the finest system of corporate governance... More

Establishing Shared Values

Ensuring employee's understanding of organization's values and vision requires your organization to have clearly defined values. Without this, your organization can get itself into real trouble.

Defining shared values is more than putting words on paper.  Most organizations have values statements or mission statements; yet many do not follow them. Winning organization create successful cultures in a systematic way using various approaches that may include visual representations, training seminars, and/or socializing events.

Creating a Culture for Innovation

By: Soren Kaplan

Shaping culture, especially when it comes to creating a culture of innovation, is a daily task that involves elevating the mundane to the strategic.

A common metaphor for culture is the iceberg. Icebergs float on top of the water and are visible to the eye, but beneath the surface they may extend hundreds of feet and can be significantly larger than what’s visible above water. As a metaphor for organizational culture, the part of the iceberg above the surface is the visible culture, including such things as the stated vision, mission and values, organizational charts, policies and procedures, and formal processes.

As we look beneath the surface, however, we find clues as to “the way things are really done around here” – norms, unwritten rules, shared assumptions, taken for granted beliefs, process workarounds and so on. What’s above the surface isn’t always consistent with what’s below.

It’s what’s beneath the surface that really supports or inhibits organizational culture and the ability to innovate... More

Several models (as well as the usual informal interactions between functional groups) may exist within an organization at the same time. All help an enterprise drive growth by taking a strategic approach to innovation. While some models arise and evolve spontaneously, others need to be intentionally created and managed. Increasing levels of complexity are accompanied by increasing commitments in terms of cost, time and maintenance. At the same time the organization will benefit from the “social capital” that drives sustainable innovation, namely personal networks, cross-functional trust and shared values... More

 Case in Point  General Electric (GE)

Nowhere GE shared values take on importance greater importance than on a small, wallet-size card that GE employees now carry with them. GE's values are so important to the company, that Jack Welch had them inscribed and distributed to all GE employees, at every level of the company. But before the cards were furnished to the staff, GE had come to consensus on which core values it wanted to cultivate in its employees. Many hours were spent at GE's Leadership Institute and elsewhere deciding on exactly what those values should be. "It became a badge of honor not only to carry the card but also to uphold the values."³ As Jack Welch notes: "There isn't a human being in GE that wouldn't have the Values Guide with them. In their wallet, in their purse. It means everything and we live it. And we remove people who don't have those values, even when they post great results."

Techniques to Create a Shared Purpose...

Inspiring Employees...

Empower Others...

Balancing the Personal Ambition With the Shared Ambition...

Launching a Crusade...

GE Values Guide...

 Case in Point  Hewlett-Packard (HP)