How To Get Your Core Values off the Walls and Onto the Floor

Your organization’s core values might be seen in plaques on your walls, but are they showing up on the shop floor? Even when you think your organization has strong core values, they might not be clear through actions, behavior, and language—or if they’re outdated, your core values might actually be doing more harm than good!

So how do you get your core values off your plaques and onto the floor? Here are three great lessons from Adam Hill, a 9-figure CEO, bestselling author, and recent guest on the Mindfulness Manufacturing podcast.

Lesson #1: Core Values or Sacred Cows?

Core values are meant to drive growth in your organization. But if you hold too tightly to an outdated idea, it can become a “sacred cow,” or an ideal or custom that actually holds your team and organization back. When a core value becomes a sacred cow, it can actually restrict your team.

If you find your organization struggling or plateauing, look toward your core values. Do they reflect your organization’s ideals? Do they promote growth and health in your company, or are they contributing to a poor or unproductive environment? If you find that a core value is causing more restriction than growth, it might be a sacred cow that needs to be reevaluated, changed, or eliminated from your organization.

Lesson #2: Cultural Shifts

Some organizations have very old core values or traditions that go back to when their company was first started. However, core values that were set decades ago might not match up with current culture. For example, smoking in the workplace might have been the norm years ago, but isn’t consider safe or appropriate now.

As culture shifts, your core values should shift and change, too. If a core value is leading to unsafe or unproductive conditions, it might be time to reevaluate. In some cases, you might be able to find a way to keep the main elements of your ideals while still shifting to meet the current cultural environment.

Lesson #3: A Culture of Empowerment

If you want change in your organization, you need to create an environment where people feel empowered to speak up. If people don’t feel like they can safely voice opinions or concerns, it can create a culture outdated—or even dangerous—core values go unaddressed.

To create a more empowering environment for all, start with curiosity and courage. Don’t be afraid to have difficult conversations, and create a sense of trust with your team, so they know they can comfortably voice their thoughts and feedback. When it comes to core values, discussing about changing them can be challenging, but sometimes, you need healthy conflict to spark real change.

Learn More on the Podcast

To hear more about core values from Adam Hill, listen to his episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing here.

Mindfulness Manufacturing

Our show is about providing listeners with real stories that come from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. Most importantly it’s about what we learn from these stories and applying Mindfulness in our everyday work and personal lives.
Our intention is to create an environment where people can learn through open honest discussions on how we apply Mindfulness. Although our experiences and stories come from time in a manufacturing environment hence the title “Mindfulness Manufacturing”, we still see our discussions and topics relatable to any organization or profession.

When a mistake occurs on the plant floor, your mind might jump to one question: who caused this issue, and should I write them up for their mistake? But there’s a more productive approach you could be taking—and in this episode of Mindfulness Manufacturing, guest Dr. Jake Mazulewicz breaks it all down!

With a background as a firefighter, EMT, and military paratrooper, Jake knows the challenges of high-hazard industries, and works with organizations to reduce errors and create safer, more reliable workplace environments. In this episode, Jake shares why you can’t procedularize everything, including the way you handle errors and accidents, and offers great insights and stories about how to use connection and curiosity to improve safety, address errors, and strengthen your organization.

3:35 – Procedures and policies are the work that is imagined, and on the floor is how the work actually gets done

4:19 – The work as-done is almost always radically different than the work as-imagined

5:20 – Even when you have standards and people show up wanting to do a good job, you can still see issues that need to be addressed

6:44 – There will always be areas that absolutely need to have procedures in place

8:02 – There are also adaptive jobs, which leans less into procedures and more intro troubleshooting and tacit human knowledge

10:56 – In an ideal environment, both mechanistic and adaptive models are used and respected and needed

12:11 – There are four levels, ranging from strict procedurals to looser guidelines that show what to do, but not how to do it

15:36 – Tacit knowledge gets shared through conversations

16:22 – A way to share important information is to have frontline experts record videos sharing their insights to problems, especially those that are not covered in procedures

19:44 – Through conversation and connection, more knowledge is shared

21:58 – Debriefing also plays a central role

23:45 – If you have strong discipline, you’ll find more freedom

25:31 – In most situations, errors are signals, not defects

27:07 – When an error occurs, be curious and find the deeper cause of the problem

Connect with Jake Mazulewicz

Find him on Linkedin

Visit his website