How can a company bring its core values to life, so that all employees understand them better and are equipped to act on them? We developed a program with visual tools for Axians, to do this together with all employees.
Axians, a service provider in the tech sector, pays a lot of attention to the people behind the technology: the customers and the employees. The company does not call itself a people-to-people organization for nothing. And if you want to be ‘The best of ICT with a human touch’, it is important that all employees are on the same page.
How do we actually cope with challenges and each other? What is the DNA of our company? What are our shared values? Core values are the most important characteristics that show what the organization stands for. We developed a program to bring Axians’ core values to life among all employees.
Hear it, believe it, live it
In an earlier process, the organization formulated five core values together. They didn’t just come out of the blue, but they are characteristics with which the company makes a difference to their customers. Elements that are recognizable and tangible for everyone, from management to the workplace. Axians works in a way that is responsible, empowered, entrepreneurial, trusting & transparent and solidarity.
Of course you can come up with such core values and put them on your website, but it is more valuable to really pay attention to them regularly. Share with each other, talk about it and actively apply it in your daily work. Keep it alive together in a convincing way, so that the entire organization is convinced to go for it and keep acting on them. Flatland believes in co-creation: not sending, but developing together and thus creating ownership and connection.
Journey in different steps and methods
We developed an employee journey for the Axians employees, in which everyone is introduced step by step into the core values. As a leadership team it is important to provide clear frameworks, because that provides direction and security. But within those frameworks, people must feel autonomy and ownership in order to master the theme and apply it in their own way.
Because you cannot change others, you can only change yourself. So for a change you want to talk to people, so that they start thinking for themselves about what the change means for them. Knowing the expectations of employees gives a manager the opportunity to respond to them. Good expectation management leads to better (team) results, more customer value, more work ethic. In short: more work energy! So together we developed a program for Axians with an animation, workbook, visual tools and a serious game.
Clear frameworks and room for own input
Flatland’s Janita van Ginneken designed a program for different moments and with different methods:
1. Animation with examples
2.Workbook that employees can use to think about it at home
3. Workshop with serious game to interactively reflect with each other
After the core values are introduced in an animation, people can continue reading in a personal workbook. You can write down first ideas for yourself, in preparation for the game. After the game you translate this into your own points of interest, which you can discuss in the PMI conversation. The PMI shows how the employee values the organization.
And because we visually bring all the perspectives of the team members together and make them visible, this provides a lot of energy (and fun!). All means propagate the core values in an inspiring way that provides frameworks and is consistent, but at the same time leaves room for personal input.
Animation: what, why and how
In the video we see a multidisciplinary Axians team traveling through a futuristic landscape. With the aim of bringing back ‘the human touch’ in ICT. It may sound a bit heroic and too serious, but the characters in the movie rightly ask:
“Okay, but what does this mean to me?”
They face five challenges, requiring the core values as a secret weapon. It places Axians and its employees in a rapidly evolving, connected world and makes it clear in a light-hearted way why core values are so important. Where is our focus as a team? What do we address to each other? What does the customer notice about us? What is the value we deliver? Watch the animation down below:
Watch video
Game and workshop with the team
To discover how an employee makes a difference for customers, we developed a serious game. In continuation with the personal workbook, we made a card set for a role play and an intervision game. Intended to familiarize all employees in a playful way with the topics, and their own role and actions in it. The situation cards contain questions such as: ‘You have miscommunication with a customer. How do you solve that?’ or “You notice that agreements are not kept. What do you do?”
With the game, the team makes a choice together – per core value: what will we focus on in the coming period and can we hold each other accountable. Team members reflect on themselves and their collaboration and get to work with joint and individual actions in their personal development plans. Flatland’s Janita is proud of the project: “It reflects all the values of the Flatland way of working: change through co-creation and visualization, which is proven to provide energy and decisiveness!”
Janita van Ginneken
Find out more about this project? Feel free to contact Janita, she will be happy to tell you about it.
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