Performance: The Secrets of Successful Behaviour

Chapter 10. Making values come alive

	Vision without execution is hallucination.
	--(Thomas Edison)

What we value is what we consider excellent, useful or desirable. Values represent the judgement of what individuals or organizations consider is important. They form the basis for how decisions and actions are evaluated. The power of deeply held values is that they determine how individuals act without thinking – how they naturally react to various situations.

The most successful companies don’t just have stated values; they link specific behaviours to the values that are observable and measurable. Stated values set out the expectation of specific behaviour. They create both predictability and transparency of behaviour and that provides reassurance ...