Values Drive Behaviors & Behaviors Drive Habits
You’re ‘being’ and ‘doing’ the right things your organization values or the wrong thing perfectly. In some cases competing values identifies the underlying dimensions of an organization’s culture that exist in almost all human and organizational activity. There are four critical dimensions that drive our habits and behaviors:
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Community – the need for one another
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Educate – a thirst to learn
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Acquire – a desire to possess
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Safety – the need to feel safe
These four dimensions are in alignment with the four culture archetypes present in workplaces around the world.
To Create a dynamic, entrepreneurial spirit culture
To Collaborate in a people-friendly community culture
To Control a process-oriented, discipline culture, and
To Compete in a results-driven culture.
The framework here is based on the work of Marcella Bremer and the research and application of author, practicioner and professor of leadership excellence at the University of Michigan, Kim Cameron. It’s likely you’ll recognize your business or organization’s ‘way of doing things’ in the examples below regardless of the setting or market you’re a part of.
Create Your Culture – An entrepreneurial spirit is a mindset – an attitude, an approach to actively seeking out change, rather than waiting to adapt to it. It embraces critical thinking, innovation and continuous improvement. An entrepreneurial spirit is a of feeling empowered, motivated, and capable of taking things into your own hands. Companies that nurture an entrepreneurial spirit encourage their employees to not only see problems and opportunities but to come up with critically creative methods and solutions that move their business forward.
Collaborate With Each Other – Moving beyond an entrepreneurial spirit is about building a team of people who aren’t afraid to be in the driver’s seat. They are equally happy to ride in the passenger’s seat when others take the lead, also. It’s built around collaboration; the concept of no idea is a bad idea. Teams want to be fulfilled in their jobs and accomplish great things with great people. More than that, employees want to contribute their ideas – so employers and employees work together to foster a culture that enables ideas to flow from anywhere within the company.
“a culture of discipline is not a principle of business, it is a principle of greatness.” – Jim Collins