Business values affect a business’s priorities — Focus Guest Column

“Our first priority is to get the people in place.”
“No, our first priority is to get the plan in place.”
“No, our priority has to be the first one to the marketplace.”
Values organize our priorities. The important understanding for us is that most of us who differ in our values are not ordering our priorities as good or bad values, but rather that one person more highly prizes one value over another.
Successful leaders understand that a distinct statement of what we personally value, and what we value as a company, provides clarity throughout the balance of the organization. Undocumented, fuzzy generalities create confusion and a lack of precision.
Remember when your grampa used to say, “Well, I recollect that back in …” Our brains actually work like that. We store different pieces of memory in different parts of the brain – sounds, shapes, colors, conversations, textures and our feelings about those elements. Just like Grampa, our brain then has to re-collect all those different elements and re-assemble the parts in order to recreate the memory. Sometimes our brains are selective at what they recall by only acknowledging those memories that we perceive to be aligned with our system of values.
Research is revealing that, whether conscious or subconscious, we build mental models of entire systems of value. Our brains are constantly choosing recollections of preferences for one thing or against another. An interesting process of neurobiological recollection is that our brain may recall that we are attracted to, or repulsed away from, something long after we have forgotten the specific elements of the circumstance.
The disadvantage of this recall is that we may continue to choose patterns that were previously valued without placing that choice in the context of an environment that is now significantly changed. Such a memory may lead us to settling for an old solution that is merely satisfactory because it has worked for us before. Acceptance of that “satisfactory” solution prevents us from changing to new, innovative or creative solutions that could lead us to competitive advantage in the marketplace.
We give lip service to the importance of change. Some people adapt to change while others lead change. Leadership is always more effective when strategic direction is guiding the focus of our resources. Let’s bring the change in our lives up to a conscious level that we can honestly question how our values will direct our choices. Great choices will depend on the formation of great questions. Great questions lead us to great answers.  
Dividends of significant yield will belong to those spending time to improve the quality and precision of their questions. Questioning what we value as a business, and as a person, can keep us focused on what success means to us. So, I challenge you to create two statements of value – in writing. Unwritten value statements reveal a lack of commitment by the author.
Create one statement that guides your personal life, and a parallel statement that specifically addresses your role in your business. Your first draft should not be etched in stone. Continue to question what values drive you. This statement should be dynamic, it should be forever subject to scrutiny and change.

Research for this article was previously presented to the Autonomous Learning World Caucus at Oxford, England in March. R. Bruce Moore is a doctoral candidate at Regent University in leadership and organizational development. He teaches as an adjunct professor in the business department of Northwest Nazarene University. He may be reached at bruce@price-associates.com.