Stephen Berkeley, How to Cultivate a Values-Based Culture – InnovaBuzz 440
Stephen Berkeley, Flyntrok
In this episode, I’m really excited to have as my guest, Stephen Berkeley, Director of Global Business at Flyntrok Consulting. Stephen has three and a half decades of experience at a leadership level in Australia, England, and India. His industry experience includes health, shipping, manufacturing, agriculture, IT, and law. He has worked with boards and senior leaders in the areas of change management, strategy development, governance, business improvement, organisation development, human resource management, learning and development, community building, and values-based management.
Stephen is an experienced group facilitator and executive coach and works with clients to identify opportunities for growth and help them make that a reality.
In our discussion, Stephen talked to me about:
- Creating a values-based culture in an organisation and moving values from posters on the wall to conversations in the hall
- Using stories to highlight and articulate values
- How to develop shared meaning around values
Graham Miller in episode 429 introduced us to Stephen.
Listen to the podcast to find out more.
Listen to the Podcast
It is only when you've established a shared meaning of these values within the organisation that you can start a shared usage of them. @SJFBerkeley on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
Show Notes from this episode with Stephen Berkeley of Flyntrok
Key points and takeaways from this episode include:
- Values are a resource for every organisation.
- Having your values visible is a good first step. It’s about telling the world that you are holding yourself accountable to these values.
- Enable conversations across the organisation so that people can begin to have shared-meaning around your values. It is through having conversations that values start to infiltrate throughout the organisation.
- Everyone of us have our own values. We use them every day.
- Give people the opportunity to listen to each other and hear each other’s stories.
- It is only when you’ve established a shared meaning of these values within the organisation that you can start a shared usage of them.
- Values are a living resource. If you really want to utilise them to work for you, there has to be constant conversations about them across all levels of the organisations in all different settings.
- Values are things that people can’t live without.
- Having value-based conversations is key.
- THOMS – tell, hosting, and making sense.
- Provide an opportunity for people to tell their stories. It is one thing to tell a story. It’s another thing to listen to the stories, and making sense of what has emerged from those stories.
- Psychological safety is a key part of building a values-based culture.
- You can have different frameworks about integrating values into your performance management systems and policies, but in order for those values to be shared and used across the organisation, you have to create those heartfelt places where people can really align themselves with those values by hearing each other’s stories and develop a shared meaning of those values.
- It is when people have their heart connected with the value through stories that the value comes alive.
- Create a safe space for people and learn how to host conversations where you are an invisible partner, who’s not delivering any content but providing an opportunity for people to have a conversation and helping them to make sense of what they’ve just discussed, as well as their insights and learnings.
- Values require an ongoing renewal of ideas to keep them alive.
- Visual arts is an important part of communicating values.
- Creativity is an important part of cultivating a values-based culture.
- It is a work in progress. Your understanding of a particular value will evolve over time, that’s why it’s important to keep the conversations going on a regular basis.
- Research shows that organisations that change their values perform better financially than those who remain static over a long period of time. Things change. The core values of an individual change over time and the same goes for an organisation.
- Always be ready to have conversations about your values according to your existing environment.
- The values that an organisation does choose are important.
Psychological safety is a key part of building a values-based culture. @SJFBerkeley on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet
The Buzz – Our Innovation Round
Here are Stephen’s answers to the questions of our innovation round. Listen to the conversation to get the full scoop.
- #1 thing to be more innovative – Create more time for silence and exercise more.
- Best thing for new ideas – Daily meditation.
- Favourite tool for innovation – Evernote
- Keep project/client on track – Be very clear about the relationship, motivations and objectives for that particular project right at the beginning, and tie everything back to it. Ask questions. Always tie it back to your client and don’t try to do everything for them.
- Differentiate – Write. Writing creates a feedback loop. It helps clarify your ideas and share your mind with others. Writing is an important part of creating your uniqueness. Keep being of service to others.
To Be a Leader
If you really want to make your values work for you in your organisation, start having conversations with people. Ask them for stories where they saw that value being lived. Start listening to those emerging stories in your organisation to discover the strong values that have a common red thread across the organisation.
Reach Out
You can reach out and thank Stephen through their website and on LinkedIn.
Links
Book
Cool Things About Stephen
- He’s the Founder and Vice President of the Australian Friends for Global Hospital (AF4GH).
- He’s a Board Member of the International Association of Facilitators – Australia Chapter
- He studied Health Administration at the Queensland University of Technology.
Writing creates a feedback loop. It helps clarify your ideas and share your mind with others. It is an important part of creating your uniqueness. @SJFBerkeley on #InnovaBuzz podcast Click To Tweet