Values in Use

Firms work with two types of values (talking about culture, behaviours and that sort of stuff, not finance). There are the ‘Values as Stated’ and the ‘Values in Use.’

‘Values as Stated’ are what you see written down. The sorts of things that the Executives love to talk about…words and phrases that make them sound good and their organisation wholesome and generally nice and fluffy.

They don’t mean a thing! Except to provide a sort of screen that the organisation can hide behind when things go wrong.

The only values that matter are the ‘Values in Use’ because they actually drive behaviour. So a good way to understand the actual ‘Values in Use’ in any organisation is to watch what they do.

Here is a typical and typically sad example:

Weight Watchers just fired a bunch of people in a cruel, uncaring and unpleasant way (and I don’t mean that they used Zoom…I mean the way they used Zoom!)

‘How Weight Watchers Fired Workers Via Zoom, The New Cruel COVID-19 Layoff Tool‘

Says it all really. I wonder what that might mean for their ‘Values in Use’ when it comes to their customers…or suppliers?