TLS Continuum Part 1: Importance of Values

This post will be the beginning of a series of posts based on our book Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma and its sequel a Field Guide to Achieving HR Excellence through Six Sigma to be released by Productivity Press late in 2015 or early 2016. It is our intent to take you on a unique journey, which is like no journey you have ever been on. We can provide you the departure point but I have no way to tell you where you will end up. There are too many twists and turns that can take place.Let me begin the journey with a question for you. The TLS Continuum is based on the concept that in order to take this journey you must see the problem. You must visually be able to see where your obstacle is. Once you have seen the problem you must be able to feel the effects of the problem on your organization. It is the ability to see the problem and feel it that results in a new normal. It results in a new corporate culture and mandates that you cannot go back to where you started.I am in the middle of reading the book “Inside the Box” by Dr. David Cohen (a Parsons College classmate) in which he states that everything we do as a successful organizations is rooted in the values established by the founders of the organization. When I presented him with the statement that we have to see the problem, feel the problem and create the new normal, his response was that we were creating a new business environment, not changing the values of the organization. I have talked to a number of my colleagues in the HR and Process Improvement arena and have come away with mixed views on the response that David suggested. Let me give you my take on the starting point of our journey.Organizations do not for the most part exist in a vacuum. They were created based on a set of principles that governed how the organizations would operate. These value sin the beginning were the guideposts that told us what was right and what was wrong within the organization. The values laid out the behaviors expected by the organization. These values led to the establishment of the culture of the organization. Jim Knight, who speaks across the country on the theme of Culture Rocks, suggests that culture of an organization changes when someone joins the organization or even more important leaves the organization. The result over time is that the values, in my mind, also change. One colleague suggested that the values today for HP are not the values that were important to Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. Many may wish that they were, but we can’t necessarily return to that spot today.When we make the decision to take this journey of recreation of the culture there are beliefs and processes that are required, maybe even forced to change. We can have value statements, which are nothing more than hyperbole, but in the TLS continuum environment the organization must change to become all encompassing. It must recognize that the value of the human capital assets to the organization, are tantamount to success for the organization. As an organization we must come to grips that our human capital assets are no longer just an expense item. They are what determine whether our organizations survive in the global workplace.As David suggested there is some foundation in those values that were the crux for the organization in the beginning. As time moves on and we find ourselves in an ever-changing

global work environment, those values tend to change. Further these changes require a new buy in from the total organization from management down to the office floor.What is your view on the corporate values and their role in your current and future organization? Are they still as important as when the organization was founded? Email me your thoughts at dan@dbaiconsulting.com