324 Part V: Integrating Your Learning
Holding On to Values
Your values are important because they support your identity; a value of
honesty and kindness may result in you knowing that you’re a ‘good person’.
The way you measure your values is by the criteria you give them. People
can share a common value but can measure them differently. For example,
two managers who espouse efficiency as a corporate value may measure
efficiency with different criteria. One may see efficiency in purely monetary
terms and only look at the bottom line. The other manager may measure
efficiency in terms of people engagement.
Because values lie in the realms of the unconscious mind, until you understand
them consciously, you hold on to them with a fervour, verging on the
religious, which leaves very little room for manoeuvre. You may think that
this strength is good, perhaps when training puppies, husbands, and children!
However, as regards the workplace, some flexibility can be efficacious. The
criteria for measuring the effectiveness of values can give room for negotiation.
In the example of the managers with the efficiency value, a mediator may
be able to show how employee engagement benefits the bottom line or how
a healthy bottom line gives job security and leads to employees engaging
more fully. Understanding how to address people’s values makes any change
easier, be it getting all the members of a team to pull together or a husband
and wife to work towards a common goal.
Grasping the Importance of Clear Communication
You can’t impose change, change has to be bought into.
—Jayne Reddyhoff
The success of any change programme depends on everybody in a team
pulling together; the team can be the whole corporation or part of a
department, or indeed, a family. In this situation, rapport really comes into
its own. The person with rapport can influence and bring on-board the
people who can make or break the change process. The idea is that your
communication reaches out to everybody so that they understand very
clearly what you want from them. This section pulls together techniques
given throughout this book to build rapport, especially in the written form.
