I heard about a local school the other day whose mission is about pupils becoming DHBs (Decent Human Beings) through their education at the school. Not a new idea but an inspiring one.
It got me thinking about this in the context of organisational life where values are often mentioned though not always with the depth and consciousness that’s needed. Might some organisations be guilty of lip service…values are created because you’re supposed to have them rather than a richer exploration of what matters to the organisation/what’s valued and the behaviours needed to support that.
The thing is all organisations, and teams and individuals, have values they function by, that set the standard for behaviours that are acceptable or not. Some are arrived at consciously through personal reflection if we’re an individual, through dialogue in teams, and in colleague groups for the whole organisation.
Others arise without conscious thought, where reflection/conversations haven’t happened. With no agreed framework how people behave, whether that’s helpful or not, becomes the accepted norm. And so, the way we do things around here may be entirely counter to the way we would want to do things around here and if we had invested the time and really thought about it.
So, when it comes to values isn’t DHB a good place to start. It speaks of kindness, fairness, honesty, respect, inclusivity, community, responsibility, character.
These may not become our articulated values but provide substantial foundations for who we recruit and for how we expect our leaders (and all colleagues) to behave so the standard, and expectation, is set for those who follow.
Imagine if we set this as the baseline in every organisation, building this into our value set and competence frameworks, using it to guide performance reviews. And imagine the ripple effect of the resulting conduct across stakeholder communities. We’d surely be creating a better world for all, within the organisation and way beyond that.