[Music]
you
[Music]
whose the day before Star Wars day in
the year 2000 May the 3rd I was looking
after an offshore oil and gas platform
at a team own show on a team offshore we
were doing some drilling operations to
try and produce some extra oil which was
important to the company’s financial
results I was getting really concerned
about some accidents that have been
happening thankfully nobody had been
hurt up to that point but I was getting
concerned that safety wasn’t the prime
motive and I knew that the company would
be concerned about that because the
company made it clear that safety was a
top priority they put it on poster no
job is so important it can’t be done
safely they put it on my smarts safety
is no accident they even put it in the
back of annual reports and screensavers
the safety of our people as a top
priority on that day we dropped a large
metal piece of drilling equipment it
fell several meters it bounced came to
rest thankfully it didn’t hurt anyone
didn’t damage any other equipment but it
was a clear indication that something
was seriously wrong it’s something been
in the area that would have been killed
at the time so it was a matter of luck
so I said we’re going to shut down this
operation and my team offshore said we
agree we need to actually think again
about what we’re doing here and make
sure we don’t hurt anybody or heaven
forbid worse than that two hours later I
get a call from New York now this is
from the CEO of the corporation who was
my boss’s boss’s boss quite spoken to I
think once a social gathering he said
Bob he said them I believe you’ve shut
down the drilling operations
I said yes I have he said you do realize
how important the oil from this new
whale was to our annual results I’m
saying am yes he said I hope for the
sake of your career that you have made
the right decision
with my career I came off the call I was
bewildered I felt light down and I
thought am I going to get fired
really am I going to get fired or am I
gonna have to compromise the principle
here and actually carry on an operation
I know
is potentially really unsafe I thought I
forget fired I won’t get a reference
from the business that I’m working in
and if I don’t get a reference a week
another job of a similar status and more
importantly the similar P because at the
time I was living in a house where my
mortgage and my salary would just about
imbalance I thought I’m going to lose my
house enough all these tricks were
playing on me I went home that night I
struggled to get to sleep woke up early
the next morning however and things were
clear I thought I’m not going to
compromise I’m not going to be the
person that agrees to an operation when
ultimately something could die and if
they fire me they could find me and if I
can’t get a job that pays the same
amount of money I’ll get an evening job
I’ll get a weekend job I’ll do whatever
is necessary but I’m not going to bend
on the principles now I didn’t get I
didn’t get fired I didn’t stay too long
with our organization after that episode
but I resolved at that point I thought
if I am ever in charge of a large
organization I’m not going to do it that
way I’m actually going to say what I
mean mean what I say I’m going to walk
the talk and I’m going to make sure that
we’ve got principles those principles
are real and genuine and honest and we
do what we say we’re going to do so fast
forward eight years now find myself in
charge of a large organization but this
time I’ve got six thousand staff for
work operations in 20 countries two
years prior to that we’d introduced core
values into the organization and they
were working well for the senior leaders
in the team because we were using them
to make decisions about which markets we
should go into what customers we should
deal with the kind of people we needed
to hire into the organization but I’d go
and speak to people across the business
and I would say so what do you think of
the core values let’s say the core and
the core what’s the core values and say
I’m not sure we do them here Bob
but not that cool then are they and it
asked a simple question let’s see how
many core values do we have we had seven
at the type M is it for nine I went back
to my team and I said we’ve got a
problem here I said we’re talking about
core values all the time but the people
in our organization really have no
appreciation of them at all what are we
done to try and make sure that people
understand them they said Bob we’ve
tried everything we’ve put them on
posters we’ve put them on my smarts
we’ve put them on screensavers okay so
ask them a question I said whose job is
it to try and make sure that everybody
in our organization is truly engaged and
that hearts and minds are with us and it
was like an out-of-body of experience
because atoms as I’m asking the question
there’s another part of my brain telling
me the answer and saying it’s your job
ah no I had an issue because there was a
study done in 1999 jointly by the New
York Times and CBS and they asked people
from the general public they said what
proportion of the populous of
trustworthy and I said Bohr about 30
percent and said there was a
supplementary question said what
proportion of the people that you know
are trustworthiness ‘add that’s
different
the average was 70% which doesn’t really
make any sense but actually it does if
you interpret it that we tend to trust
people we know and we tend to distrust
people we don’t know
so I’m asking people in my organization
to accept and trust the fact that these
core values are real and genuine and yet
I didn’t know them so if I didn’t know
them why would they trust me if they
didn’t trust me why would they follow me
and if they weren’t following me
who was i living that’s a question for
anybody in an organization if your
people don’t know you the people don’t
know what you look like what you sound
like
more importantly if they don’t know what
you care about of what causes you
concern then why should they trust you
and why should they follow you and I
thought we need to break this down again
it starts with awareness I thought so
how do I make people aware
I need to give them awareness of chips
and don’t you hate it when people roll
their eyes during a presentation
I was going to do this I was going to do
this as a PowerPoint chart I was
convinced that props for a better idea
it starts with awareness how did you get
people aware of the values in your
business
we gave him a personal copy and asked
the same for them I helped I started
writing a weekly blog about our core
values and I crafted this careful note
that I thought everybody’s going to read
this and they’re going to absorb all
this knowledge about the core values it
was a waste of time because I wrote a
note I gave it to my comms department
they removed every ounce of personality
and uniqueness out of it turned it back
into a grey management talk and put it
out there and people did what they
always do is it I’ll read that later
now delete so I thought I need to get
around that so I said to the comms guys
I said look next time I’m going to write
a note I don’t want you to edit it and
you could see the look of panic on their
face particular when I came up with a
note that was your baby is ugly people
read that one and of course the next
week I put thoughts on death and beauty
we’re beginning to get an audience here
people are going to understand this but
I also realized that the more I put
personal information into the notes and
shared the person I was the more the
response I got so I’ve talked about my
father’s death I talked about my
mother’s Alzheimer’s I’ve talked to my
brother suicide and all the time the
core most people are saying you can’t do
that but the response was remarkable and
of course the next thing what to do is
to get inside people’s brains I wanted
to do this from a bucket of embalming
fluid but now that all our kids dead we
set up a training course to tell people
how to use the core values we give them
scenarios and we said what would you do
in this scenario and the teams would
come up with all sorts of different
discussions and we say now try it with
the core values hold the core values
against the decisions and see what you
come up with and it was remarkable how
consistent the outcome was which really
took us to the next point on the journey
which is this
but what’s foliage no think again belief
how do you get people to believe in the
values people want evidence they want
evidence that they’re not going to get a
phone call from the CEO if they do
something against the core values asking
them if they’ve made the right decision
for their career so they needed evidence
that we as a senior team were prepared
to walk away from business because of
the core values I’m going to tell them
which contracts and what volumes were
walking away from they needed evidence
that we had senior people an
organization that we let go which is
fired because their behaviors were
incompatible with the core values
irrespective of how good they were at
the job and once people began to see
that there was evidence to back up the
claims of what we were saying about
these values you could see people
beginning to believe in them and
beginning to buy into them and of course
the final point there is this and you’re
thinking engagement I’m thinking no no
no commitment how’d you get people
committed to the core values we set up
an award scheme people started sharing
the stories of how the core values were
being used and what really worked for us
is once we started taking these these
tales of how people were using the core
values turn them into proper stories and
sharing them across the organization it
created the social proof that people
were looking for they said ah my
colleagues are all on board here then I
can get on board too and the results
were remarkable as a business we did
really well we probably did better than
a lot of our competitors at the time we
attracted lots of good people to come
and work for us because of the culture
and values and customers told us they
said look we’re going to give you these
contracts and it’s not because
technically you’re any better than your
competitors okay oh we think we are oh
you’re not and it’s not because you’re
any cheaper than your competitors okay
but we’re late your culture and we like
your values we like working with you and
I had a little cynical engineers in my
business and once I was able to show
a list of contracts that totaled in
value over two billion dollars I said we
got these contracts because of the
values that gone ah so we’re doing this
kind of stuff because it works something
that’s exactly it
we’re doing it because it works because
it makes sense so I was speaking to an
old colleague of mine I used to work
offshore in the central North Sea and I
had an old colleague of mine called mech
McNally from Barnsley and we met two
years ago and he was I was taking him
through the journey of introducing core
values over many years and doing lots of
tonal talks and doing lots of weekly
blogs and everything and he said Dex is
Bob it sounds like this is an awful lot
of work I said yes Mick it was an awful
lot of what he says it’s not the sort of
thing that many organizations commit to
them saying no they don’t
he says but it sounds like it’s made all
the difference I said yeah it’s made all
the difference there’s two choices in
terms of core values you can talk about
them and put them on posters and mouse
mats and screen savers bla bla bla or
you can do them thank you very much
you
you
[Music]
whose the day before Star Wars day in
the year 2000 May the 3rd I was looking
after an offshore oil and gas platform
at a team own show on a team offshore we
were doing some drilling operations to
try and produce some extra oil which was
important to the company’s financial
results I was getting really concerned
about some accidents that have been
happening thankfully nobody had been
hurt up to that point but I was getting
concerned that safety wasn’t the prime
motive and I knew that the company would
be concerned about that because the
company made it clear that safety was a
top priority they put it on poster no
job is so important it can’t be done
safely they put it on my smarts safety
is no accident they even put it in the
back of annual reports and screensavers
the safety of our people as a top
priority on that day we dropped a large
metal piece of drilling equipment it
fell several meters it bounced came to
rest thankfully it didn’t hurt anyone
didn’t damage any other equipment but it
was a clear indication that something
was seriously wrong it’s something been
in the area that would have been killed
at the time so it was a matter of luck
so I said we’re going to shut down this
operation and my team offshore said we
agree we need to actually think again
about what we’re doing here and make
sure we don’t hurt anybody or heaven
forbid worse than that two hours later I
get a call from New York now this is
from the CEO of the corporation who was
my boss’s boss’s boss quite spoken to I
think once a social gathering he said
Bob he said them I believe you’ve shut
down the drilling operations
I said yes I have he said you do realize
how important the oil from this new
whale was to our annual results I’m
saying am yes he said I hope for the
sake of your career that you have made
the right decision
with my career I came off the call I was
bewildered I felt light down and I
thought am I going to get fired
really am I going to get fired or am I
gonna have to compromise the principle
here and actually carry on an operation
I know
is potentially really unsafe I thought I
forget fired I won’t get a reference
from the business that I’m working in
and if I don’t get a reference a week
another job of a similar status and more
importantly the similar P because at the
time I was living in a house where my
mortgage and my salary would just about
imbalance I thought I’m going to lose my
house enough all these tricks were
playing on me I went home that night I
struggled to get to sleep woke up early
the next morning however and things were
clear I thought I’m not going to
compromise I’m not going to be the
person that agrees to an operation when
ultimately something could die and if
they fire me they could find me and if I
can’t get a job that pays the same
amount of money I’ll get an evening job
I’ll get a weekend job I’ll do whatever
is necessary but I’m not going to bend
on the principles now I didn’t get I
didn’t get fired I didn’t stay too long
with our organization after that episode
but I resolved at that point I thought
if I am ever in charge of a large
organization I’m not going to do it that
way I’m actually going to say what I
mean mean what I say I’m going to walk
the talk and I’m going to make sure that
we’ve got principles those principles
are real and genuine and honest and we
do what we say we’re going to do so fast
forward eight years now find myself in
charge of a large organization but this
time I’ve got six thousand staff for
work operations in 20 countries two
years prior to that we’d introduced core
values into the organization and they
were working well for the senior leaders
in the team because we were using them
to make decisions about which markets we
should go into what customers we should
deal with the kind of people we needed
to hire into the organization but I’d go
and speak to people across the business
and I would say so what do you think of
the core values let’s say the core and
the core what’s the core values and say
I’m not sure we do them here Bob
but not that cool then are they and it
asked a simple question let’s see how
many core values do we have we had seven
at the type M is it for nine I went back
to my team and I said we’ve got a
problem here I said we’re talking about
core values all the time but the people
in our organization really have no
appreciation of them at all what are we
done to try and make sure that people
understand them they said Bob we’ve
tried everything we’ve put them on
posters we’ve put them on my smarts
we’ve put them on screensavers okay so
ask them a question I said whose job is
it to try and make sure that everybody
in our organization is truly engaged and
that hearts and minds are with us and it
was like an out-of-body of experience
because atoms as I’m asking the question
there’s another part of my brain telling
me the answer and saying it’s your job
ah no I had an issue because there was a
study done in 1999 jointly by the New
York Times and CBS and they asked people
from the general public they said what
proportion of the populous of
trustworthy and I said Bohr about 30
percent and said there was a
supplementary question said what
proportion of the people that you know
are trustworthiness ‘add that’s
different
the average was 70% which doesn’t really
make any sense but actually it does if
you interpret it that we tend to trust
people we know and we tend to distrust
people we don’t know
so I’m asking people in my organization
to accept and trust the fact that these
core values are real and genuine and yet
I didn’t know them so if I didn’t know
them why would they trust me if they
didn’t trust me why would they follow me
and if they weren’t following me
who was i living that’s a question for
anybody in an organization if your
people don’t know you the people don’t
know what you look like what you sound
like
more importantly if they don’t know what
you care about of what causes you
concern then why should they trust you
and why should they follow you and I
thought we need to break this down again
it starts with awareness I thought so
how do I make people aware
I need to give them awareness of chips
and don’t you hate it when people roll
their eyes during a presentation
I was going to do this I was going to do
this as a PowerPoint chart I was
convinced that props for a better idea
it starts with awareness how did you get
people aware of the values in your
business
we gave him a personal copy and asked
the same for them I helped I started
writing a weekly blog about our core
values and I crafted this careful note
that I thought everybody’s going to read
this and they’re going to absorb all
this knowledge about the core values it
was a waste of time because I wrote a
note I gave it to my comms department
they removed every ounce of personality
and uniqueness out of it turned it back
into a grey management talk and put it
out there and people did what they
always do is it I’ll read that later
now delete so I thought I need to get
around that so I said to the comms guys
I said look next time I’m going to write
a note I don’t want you to edit it and
you could see the look of panic on their
face particular when I came up with a
note that was your baby is ugly people
read that one and of course the next
week I put thoughts on death and beauty
we’re beginning to get an audience here
people are going to understand this but
I also realized that the more I put
personal information into the notes and
shared the person I was the more the
response I got so I’ve talked about my
father’s death I talked about my
mother’s Alzheimer’s I’ve talked to my
brother suicide and all the time the
core most people are saying you can’t do
that but the response was remarkable and
of course the next thing what to do is
to get inside people’s brains I wanted
to do this from a bucket of embalming
fluid but now that all our kids dead we
set up a training course to tell people
how to use the core values we give them
scenarios and we said what would you do
in this scenario and the teams would
come up with all sorts of different
discussions and we say now try it with
the core values hold the core values
against the decisions and see what you
come up with and it was remarkable how
consistent the outcome was which really
took us to the next point on the journey
which is this
but what’s foliage no think again belief
how do you get people to believe in the
values people want evidence they want
evidence that they’re not going to get a
phone call from the CEO if they do
something against the core values asking
them if they’ve made the right decision
for their career so they needed evidence
that we as a senior team were prepared
to walk away from business because of
the core values I’m going to tell them
which contracts and what volumes were
walking away from they needed evidence
that we had senior people an
organization that we let go which is
fired because their behaviors were
incompatible with the core values
irrespective of how good they were at
the job and once people began to see
that there was evidence to back up the
claims of what we were saying about
these values you could see people
beginning to believe in them and
beginning to buy into them and of course
the final point there is this and you’re
thinking engagement I’m thinking no no
no commitment how’d you get people
committed to the core values we set up
an award scheme people started sharing
the stories of how the core values were
being used and what really worked for us
is once we started taking these these
tales of how people were using the core
values turn them into proper stories and
sharing them across the organization it
created the social proof that people
were looking for they said ah my
colleagues are all on board here then I
can get on board too and the results
were remarkable as a business we did
really well we probably did better than
a lot of our competitors at the time we
attracted lots of good people to come
and work for us because of the culture
and values and customers told us they
said look we’re going to give you these
contracts and it’s not because
technically you’re any better than your
competitors okay oh we think we are oh
you’re not and it’s not because you’re
any cheaper than your competitors okay
but we’re late your culture and we like
your values we like working with you and
I had a little cynical engineers in my
business and once I was able to show
a list of contracts that totaled in
value over two billion dollars I said we
got these contracts because of the
values that gone ah so we’re doing this
kind of stuff because it works something
that’s exactly it
we’re doing it because it works because
it makes sense so I was speaking to an
old colleague of mine I used to work
offshore in the central North Sea and I
had an old colleague of mine called mech
McNally from Barnsley and we met two
years ago and he was I was taking him
through the journey of introducing core
values over many years and doing lots of
tonal talks and doing lots of weekly
blogs and everything and he said Dex is
Bob it sounds like this is an awful lot
of work I said yes Mick it was an awful
lot of what he says it’s not the sort of
thing that many organizations commit to
them saying no they don’t
he says but it sounds like it’s made all
the difference I said yeah it’s made all
the difference there’s two choices in
terms of core values you can talk about
them and put them on posters and mouse
mats and screen savers bla bla bla or
you can do them thank you very much
you
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