In my last post I introduced the idea that your values are not enough, and in order to bring values to life in your organisation or team you need to turn them into standards.
There are at least 10 benefits to having an agreed set of standards in your team or organisation. You;
1. Create a game you can win; you will set clear and shared expectations for behaviour, rather than encouraging others to subjectively interpret what is desired.
2. Raise accountability; you cannot say to your team, "we all need to raise our values," but you can say "we must raise our standards." Standards are a call to action.
3. Increase momentum; leaders who subjugate their formal authority to shared standards acquire a much greater power to lead - a genuine commitment from everybody to live up to those standards.
4. Encourage simplicity, speed and autonomy; you will have guideposts that clarify and accelerate decision making, so you will have less need for policies, rules and procedures.
5. Give 'soft stuff' sharp edges; standards make the intangible more tangible by creating a language for concepts that may be otherwise be fluffy or esoteric.
6. Foster solutions; when you get a group of smart people with shared standards in a room, they can solve almost any problem.
7. Eliminate friction and drag; you will readily identify those who are not a good fit for your organisation. More often than not, they will identify themselves first.
8. Define your culture; you will have a clear identity that attracts like minded people and reinforces shared expectations.
9. Build trust; you will create an environment where people give each other the benefit of the doubt and move forward together, rather than get stuck in politics and silos.
10. Reach your aspirations; you will encourage the exact behaviours you need to achieve your goals.
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This was originally published on PeterFuda.com