30 years is a long time. That's about how long it has been since I saw my first examples of inspirational posters. Beautiful pictures adorned with words such as “Courage” and “Communication” hung in corporate offices. The idea was to use them to motivate employees. I always thought they were eye candy; once hung they might have as well been pictures of flowers or snow-capped mountains. Certainly no one has ever told me they came up with a product that saved the company after studying a poster with the word “Imagination.”
Recently this came to mind when I read about an idea of how to take a motivational concept, put it in front of everyone and get each person in the company to use that concept in a way that drove the company forward to growth and greatness.
The New York Times Sunday Business section had an interview that caught my eye. In Corner Office, Adam Bryant interviews Lars Bjork, the chief executive of the data software company, Qlik Tech.
Asked to describe the culture at Qlik Tech, Bjork describes five core values that everyone in the company lives by:
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Challenge. “Always challenge the conventional” is the mantra of the principle. Why? He describes that “if you follow others, you can at best be No. 2.” His other point is to challenge other people in the company “because if you're complacent, you're not going to survive.”
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Move fast. Bjork points out, “It's O.K. to make mistakes” when building a “hypergrowth company...just don't make the same ones.
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Be open and straightforward. It's important to say something, Bjork says, when you sense things aren't going right. Plus it's important for everything to be on the table for the group to make the right decisions.
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Use teamwork for results. This ties in with the previous core value. Speak up “and you learn a lot from other people that way.”
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Take responsibility. Not only does Qlik Tech expect people to use their authority. It expects them to take responsibility beyond this basic authority.
Having “core values” is typical of many companies' approach to motivating their workforce. But Bjork's approach is to take the statement of these core values one step further. Under Bjork's guidance, Qlik Tech takes preaching about core values an important step further. This is my point here.
Bjork describes how, at each annual company meeting, awards for these five categories are presented to five people, or five teams, whom employees nominate as embodying a particular core value. To nominate someone for an award, you have to understand the basis for the award.
Tying each principle to an award is the extra step that makes the values a real part of the company culture. The annual awards take the core values from being a poster on the wall that employees pass by without seeing (or using) to being part of everyone's day-to-day consciousness.
Want to have everyone in your company respond to a set of values that will help your company succeed? Don't just put those values on the wall. Put them in everyone's daily consciousness. Put those values in people's hearts. Take an approach that will make them a real part of the company culture.
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