K&P Chapter 12 / Celebrate Values and Victories
In chapter 12, Kouzes and Posner build on the theme “Encouraging the Heart” by urging leaders to “Celebrate the Values and Victories.” Celebrations, they write, “offer leaders the perfect opportunity to explicitly communicate and reinforce the actions and behaviors that are important in realizing shared values and shared goals.”(312) This is yet another message from K&P that clear values are critical towards taking organizations along a path to success. If everyone within an organization is not clear about the core values, than it is unlikely they will be working in a unified manner towards goals. I write this as an employee who understands the general goals and purpose of the organization I work for, but who honestly cannot say what the values of the organization are – and I’ve worked there for seven years. Unfortunately, in my experience in other nonprofit organizations, this is not an uncommon scenario.
K&P advise leaders to choose key messages to communicate when planning celebrations, such as: “What values do we hold dear? What visions do we aspire to realize? And what behaviors do we want to reinforce?”(331) In this way, celebrations have the dual purpose of recognizing individual and organizational accomplishments while also creating meaning and reinforcing core values of the organization. Celebrations serve as a useful tool in building commitment to an organization and inspiring higher levels of performance. The authors make a many good arguments for bringing fun into the workplace as a motivational vehicle.
In arguing for a building a “spirit of community,” K&P write that social networks are essential for sustaining the motivation to serve. “Coworkers who support each other and achieve together can be an antidote to service burnout…. Working with others should be rejuvenating, inspirational, and fun.”(316) This speaks to the authors’ earlier writings on fostering collaboration (chapter 9), and their message, “Collaboration is the master skill that enables teams, partnerships, and other alliances to function effectively.”(242) In chapter 12, K&P quote a leader saying, “Each of us makes an important contribution and doing our best is what makes organizations successful.”(317) This speaks to the importance of employee recognition at all levels. In my workplace, not everyone is able to have remarkable achievements, such as having a book published or securing an important grant. Therefore, when recognizing important achievements, it is important to keep in mind the support team that also contributed to the project, not just the key individual who managed the project.
K&P ask readers to remember: “Leadership is a relationship, and people are much more likely to enlist in initiatives led by those with whom they feel a personal attachment. It’s precisely the human connection between leaders and constituents that ensures more commitment and more support.”(321) While I agree with the authors, I also wondered about the feasibility of busy leaders maintaining personal contact with employees, especially in large organizations. Is it okay for others to stand in for the director, perhaps through a vice president or another senior staff member or supervisors? I’ve heard stories from museum colleagues about one local museum director being so incredibly busy and focused on major projects that it was no surprise that she didn’t have time for networking with her staff of hundreds. Yet, at another local museum, a part-time worker (who ranked rather low on the organizational chart) recently relayed a story about how impressed she was with the new director’s commitment to learning the names of all 300+ staff members. This is a bold initiative in her first months as director, and while this is a very intelligent approach to connecting with the staff, I question how realistic this is, and whether this personal engagement can be sustained with the responsibilities of a multi-million dollar organization to run? K&P write, “When leaders model encouragement and others follow their example, organizations develop a reputation for being great places to work.”(322) I think we would all agree that the director who sets a goal to know every staff person on a first name basis is one who is building the kind of organization we’d all like to work for.
In this chapter, K&P return to the power of storytelling as an effective means of communication. “Stories illustrating organizational values and practices are not only easier to remember and recall than policies, rules and guidelines, they translate more quickly to action.”(326) This got me thinking about the story that gets told most often around my workplace, and it is fifteen years old. While it is a good story about a major accomplishment, I realize that my workplace needs to be identifying and telling new stories about itself. Certainly many successes have occurred in fifteen years. K&P write, “much about the culture of a company can be learned as a result of listening to and understanding the stories it tells about itself.”(327) K&P did not offer any advice for organizations that are lacking in good storytelling examples. As they wrote in chapter nine, stories “are powerful tools for teaching people about what’s important and what’s not, what works and what doesn’t, what is and what could be.(91) If, in my organization’s case, we are without fresh stories to tell, it is very likely that it is time to revisit our vision for who we are and where we are going. By doing so, there could be improvement in recognizing current accomplishments and that could momentum for several large projects that are on the horizon.
I’d like to hear from classmates about whether you have celebrations or events in your workplaces that are building on common purposes, and where extraordinary things are happening as a result. Or maybe you have ideas about how to build celebration into your work culture.
Jackie Starbird
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I liked the section of Chapter 12 that focused on the stories of an organization. It reminded me of cultures or groups of people (like the Maori tribe in the Whale Rider) who maintain their history by passing it down through the generations. It is true that most organizations, families, groups, and communities have "stories" that they tell about themselves. So what do those stories do?
As K&P illustrate in the "story" about Dave Snowden of Cognitive edge, as he says stories are "an integral part of defining what that organization is and what it means to work for it. Stories show, for example, whether employee are rewarded or punished for speaking up." Stories teach people the rules, the norms, and hopefully the direction of the organization. They can then decide if they fit in or not.
I liked Jackie's comment about her organization needing new stories. I think there is powerful meaning about leadership there. As organizations, families, etc. change and get older, there should be room for newer people to be apart of the stories of the work place- otherwise a sense of ownership is not there. If those stories don't celebrate your membership how much do you feel apart of that organization? At what point does the leadership turn over to the people who aren't a part of the old stories? How ready are people for new stories?
I can relate this to my experience with my in-laws. Four years ago when I met them, I remember the thousands of family stories and jokes I was told. Looking back, I realize that this was a way of making me part of the family. Laughing and re-telling the stories was a celebration of their traditions and their relationships. It was also teaching me the types of connections and behaviors that were valued in their family.
It was only recently that I have realized that in the last four years since I have spent a lot of time with my husband's family- on vacations, at their home, during holidays, planning a wedding, that I am now a piece of many of the stories being told. It is fun to realize that I am finally both a part of the history of this family, as well as its present, and future.
How can you be sure of your future in a company or organization if you aren't sure of what your history has meant in it? I think K&P hit the nail on the head when they push leaders to have celebrations not only where stories can be told, but new ones can be created. Organizations need to make people a part of them if they want people to make the organization a part of their own lives.
Posted by: Kristin Farrell | March 31, 2008 09:40 PM