Those of us who are in the world of consulting and for that reason have to travel constantly, we live reviewing the organizational cultures of each company, and we monitor it daily, just as a doctor reviews a patient. It is enough to arrive at the reception, listen to the dialogues between the employees, see how they greet each other, see their attention or indifference, perceive their climate, to get an idea about the company in which one is. This acuity develops as one more visits companies and when one has the privilege of talking with their senior management, they can contrast the often “aspirational” values of the management, which contradict the palpable reality of everyday organizational life.
There is always that claim, where desperate managers consult you, how to make values are converted into behaviors that employees model and execute as part of their daily lives? How to close that perverse gap between values "duly agreed in the convention of the company ”or, those that come from the corporate vs“ those of the daily practice that contradict them ”.
Recently, I had to observe this experience, on an airplane flight, I coincided with the Vice President of HR.of a company, who, accompanied by another lower-level employee, were going to visit one of the company's branches in another country, I know that executive, and I saw how at the immigration entrance, the employee's husband said goodbye effusively and told this executive to take care of her, then after the immigration procedures, I observed the interaction, with some amazement… already in the waiting room, the executive was by his side and the employee by another, as if it were people who do not know each other or who do not speak, an aspect that seemed unusual to me, as well as out of place; Because the common thing in this type of situation is that alliances are made and groups unite, particularly if they are from the same company and if they are going on a business trip. What things could happen so that everyone is on their own?Could it be that they are from different organizational ranks, which means that they cannot even speak to each other in a waiting room? And I was left with those questions in my head.
It seems that upon entering the plane the situation was clarified to me, the executive entered first class and, much later, the employee in the seat that corresponds to economy class with the rest of the passengers.
While on that flight, I was reminded of the national outrage that was produced in the United States when in December 2008 the presidents of the automobile companies Rick Wagoner of GM, Alan Mulally of Ford and Bob Nardelli of Chrysler came to Congress to ask for money for the Help, the interesting thing is not why they went ?, but how did they arrive? and it turns out that both arrived in expensive private jets, while announcing to their employees plans to cut costs and expenses, great paradox!
This illogical and unintelligible action made public opinion wonder how those executives of the automotive industry had the moral authority to ask for money to save industries with problems - which they had not known how to handle - and at the same time their work deployment is framed in private jets, juicy bonuses and gross benefits.
It is these realities that make the values "stiff in the corporate offices" not lived in the lower hierarchy, among other things because the example contradicts their execution.
Returning to the case in question, which led me to write this article, I was wondering, how is the behavior of this executive with the employee possible if the values of teamwork and orientation to control of expenses are two of the most emblematic values and about those that this industrial company discloses to its customers and related?
What might the secretary who requested the passage for these employees think, in relation to the value of austerity or cost awareness, when the company spends different amounts depending on the position of the employee?
What could the employee think, about the value of teamwork that this company professes so much, when being in the same waiting room with the Vice President -nothing more and nothing less than- of HR, he himself did not have the slightest courtesy to accompany her during waiting hours ?.
The truth is that I understood and in a very illustrative way, why it is so difficult for values to be “lived”. The management guru Peter Drucker used to say that we establish leadership by example, as well as values. It is not possible to ask for values of orientation to reduction of expenses and teamwork, when in such everyday circumstances, such as a work flight, behaviors contradict those values.
If we want to build values, we do not translate them into posters for the reception of the company, first let us live them with our behaviors, which will serve as an example for transformation.
