Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture that Outperforms the Competition

ISBN: 0470901926

Author: Ann Rhoades

Condition: New

Most leaders know that a winning, engaged culture is the key to attracting top talent-and customers. Yet, it remains elusive how exactly to create this ideal workplace -one where everyone from the front lines to the board room knows the companys values and feels comfortable and empowered to act on them.Based on Ann Rhoades years of experience with JetBlue, Southwest, and other companies known for their trailblazing corporate cultures, Built on Values reveals exactly how leaders can create winning environments that allow their employees and their companies to thrive. Companies that create or improve values-based cultures can become higher performers, both in customer and employee satisfaction and financial return, as proven by Rhoades work with JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Disney, Loma Linda University Hospitals, Doubletree Hotels, Juniper Networks, and P.F. Changs China Bistros.Built on Values provides a clear blueprint for how to accomplish culture change, showing: How to exceed the expectations of employees and customers How to develop a Values Blueprint tailored to your organizations goals and put it into action Why it's essential to hire, fire, and reward people based on values alone, and How to establish a discipline for sustaining a values-centric cultureBuilt on Values helps companies get on the pathway to greatness by showing the exact steps for either curing an ailing company culture or creating a new one from scratch.Amazon Exclusive: Q&A with Ann RhoadesAuthor Ann Rhoades How do you define a values-based culture?Most companies will tell you that they have a mission statement, or a formal vision statement. To me, the best companies have a fundamental value that they have defined as an anchor for the organization. In the best airlines, for instance, integrity and, of course, safety, are important anchors that really define the organizations.Knowing that values are important, how as a leader do you actually implement them?Like anything else thats worth doing, its worth planning, so first you assess where you are. Then figure out, do you presently have a culture you want to continue having, or are there issues that you want to change? We believe that you have to blueprint the process and then have an ongoing system for maintaining that culture once you create it. We call it values blueprinting. You sit in a room with your best employees (from every level of the organization) and make sure that the values you presently have are correct, that they differentiate your organization, and, frankly, define it as a high-performing organization. Or you determine and define other values you really want to have. But the critical part of the blueprinting is that you also define the behaviors that will support those values. Thats the piece that most organizations fail to do. When employees hear integrity is a value, they dont know necessarily what it means in terms of their behavior. The Values Blueprint walks you through how you roll it out, how you maintain it, and how you hold people accountable for it; thats how you develop a culture that differentiates itself from others.What is different about a values-based culture? What would someone notice about an organization that adopts one versus one without it?The great thing about a values-based culture is that it defines everyones expectations. You can always rely on how you are going to be treated as a customer and what is expected of you as an employee. It comes down to consistency of performance and consistency of behavior. For instance, when I ask people to define Southwest Airlines, they will almost always define it by the behavior of employees. They talk almost invariably about how much fun they have on the Southwest flights versus flights on other airlines. That doesnt just happen, its planned. Fun is one of the values at Southwest. They not only hire people who are fun, they hold people accountable for having fun, and it is one of the values of the or