Our values and how positive action influences them
“Values are the principles that help you to decide what is right or wrong, and how to act in various situations*”.
We all hold values, whether we like it or not. They are incredibly important as they guide everything we do day-to-day. Our values are influenced by our environment with their formation early on in all our lives, however, they can and do change. Here are some of the top influences of our values over time:
- The culture we live in — e.g. family, workplace
- Religion — a formalised set of collective beliefs
- Environment — do we have a relationship to the land for example
- Race or Gender
- Media / Advertising
And in turn, our values influence everything from our career choice, size of wardrobe to travel plans.
And so for a company to operate there is, of course, an incentive to create an alignment of values between individuals and the company they work for. If everyone in company X valued handstands then client meetings might get a bit awkward and no one would probably get much work done.
So companies try and instil a set of values that can help guide everyone to safeguard its success. As we’ve learnt though, there are many ways to influence our values but by far the most powerful of all is through the influence of our surrounding environment and particularly other peoples actions.
So for companies to instil these positive values on their people they can’t just stick them up on their intranet site. They need to demonstrate them every day through the actions of their people.
This is why there is an emphasis on positive action across so many of the worlds most successful companies. It creates a value system necessary for everyone in a company to thrive and everyone outside to see, admire and follow. For more on why positive action that is not directly profit-oriented is so important, you can read about my last piece on why trust and doing good matters for business here.
At MyResonance we link every action back to a companies values, bringing them to life.
If you’d like to find out more then reach out at hello@myresonance.io or give it a try at www.myresonance.io.
