Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

I have evaluated dozens of CEO/executive town halls. As idealists, when we plan these events we envision a turn-of-the-century town hall during which passionate employees engage in vigorous debate with organizational leaders....

Most forums have too much content and a lengthy presentation with too much detail. In addition to substance, our leaders tend to be too positive and rarely negative, and employees don't think they are getting the truth. This sort of comment is heard: "That is not the real strategy; the real strategy happens behind closed doors."

The good news is that employees tell me they really do want to know and understand strategy and what is impacting the business. They just don't believe that happens in leader forums.

Senior executives tell me they want to know the best way to share their direction and strategy for the organization. Employees tell me they want the truth. They want unscripted answers and to participate in a discussion about the competing demands placed on the business....

Can you spot the differences between these two statements?

1. "You're required to create three videos a month."

2. "If you make the effort to create three videos each month, you'll get your own video equipment and software to use for free. Not only that, we'll recognize you as a leader in the company."

It's like night and day, isn't it? According to Paolo Tosolini, director of emerging media at Run Studios, all it takes is a little incentive—a little bit of making video production into a game—to get employees excited about bringing their expertise to their company's video messaging. It's a good way to get employees to watch important videos, as well.

Organizational core values are a primary determinant of culture, employee satisfaction and business performance. This article addresses six core value topics that CEOs and business executives should know about.

The Six Topics

Below is the core value list:

Core values are the building blocks of organizational culture.The process of defining, measuring, and improving core values can be an excellent vehicle for improving organizational culture.Core values provide a common language to address unacceptable behaviors in a less threatening way.Core values guide decisions and emphasize what is important to the business as the organization continues to change and improve.Core values influence business performance.If core values have not yet been established, a step-by-step process described in this article can be followed to discover them....