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4 Ways to Roll Out Company Values: Show Notes & Transcript

Post | Oct 11, 2022

Welcome back to Marketing Smarts! From brand-building and marketing veterans Anne Candido and April Martini (that’s us) comes a podcast committed to cutting through all the confusing marketing BS so you can actually understand how to take action and change your business today. We deep-dive into topics most would gloss-over, infusing real-world examples from our combined 35+ years of corporate and agency experience. We tell it how it is so whether you are just starting out or have been in business awhile, you have the Marketing Smarts to immediately impact your business.

This is Episode #122 and we’re talking how to roll out company values. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and your other favorite podcast spots – follow and leave a 5-star review if you’re exercising your Marketing Smarts!

  • Episode Summary & Player
  • Show Notes
  • Marketing Smarts Summary
  • Transcript

Marketing Smarts Episode #122: 4 Ways to Roll Out Company Values

We spoke a couple episodes ago about how to build company values. Here’s Part 2: how to roll out those values to your company. And it’s super important – because company values don’t mean anything if no one on your team knows about them or takes them to heart. In this episode, we’re sharing 4 ways to roll out company values. You’ll learn how to nominate the right representatives, why you should involve as many people as possible, how to create an engaging launch strategy, and develop a post-launch strategy and evaluation process. You’ll also find out what to do if the value creation efforts get lost in the mix, how to make sure the team latches onto the values the way you want, and what to do when you’re sensing less momentum and enthusiasm. This episode covers everything from teamwork to internal communications. Here’s a small sample of what you will hear in this episode:

  • How do you roll out company values?
  • What do you do if momentum is falling off?
  • How do you ensure the values don’t get lost?
  • Who are the right representatives?
  • How do you make sure people latch onto the values?
  • Why should you involve as many people as possible in the process?
  • How do you create an engaging launch strategy?
  • What should a post-launch strategy and evaluation process look like?

And as always, if you need help in building your Marketing Smarts, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at: ForthRight-People.com.

Check out the episode, show notes, and transcript below:

Show Notes

What is Marketing Smarts?

From brand-building and marketing veterans Anne Candido and April Martini comes a podcast committed to cutting through all the confusing marketing BS so you can actually understand how to take action and change your business today. They deep-dive into topics most would gloss-over, infusing real-world examples from their combined 35+ years of corporate and agency experience. They tell it how it is so whether you are just starting out or have been in business awhile, you have the Marketing Smarts to immediately impact your business.

How do I exercise my Marketing Smarts?

Thanks for listening to Marketing Smarts. Get in touch here to become a savvier marketer. 

Transcript

Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.

Anne Candido 0:02
This is Marketing Smarts – a podcast committed to helping you become a savvier marketing leader, no matter your level. In each episode, we will dive into a relevant topic or challenge that marketing leaders are currently facing. We will also give you practical tools and applications that will help you put what you learn into practice today. And if you missed anything, don’t worry, we put worksheets on our website that summarize the key points. Now, let’s get to it.

April Martini 0:29
Welcome to Marketing Smarts.

Anne Candido 0:31
I am Anne Candido.

April Martini 0:32
And I am April martini, and today is going to be a “Part 2,” as promised of a previous episode on building your company values. And so this one is the rollout of company values. So pause right here, if you have not listened to that episode, go back and do so now. Because you can’t roll out company values if you don’t

Anne Candido 0:51
have them. Right. And we want to make sure you understand are just as important as developing unique ownable and culturally relevant values is ensuring that you develop a plan to help them take hold in your organization. And that’s what we’re going to be discussing today. Because it’s part that people tend to miss absolutely right. They just kind of push things down a email them out, and they don’t really think about how to really indoctrinate them into their culture and their company. Yep, exactly.

April Martini 1:19
And with that, we will get into how to effectively roll out company values. So number one, and this point is probably a little bit of an overlap with the previous episode. But it’s the right jumping off point to get into this conversation. And that is to nominate the right cultural and departmental representatives. So just the same as we talked about in the building company values episode, it’s the same for the rollout, it is not designed the plan by committee. But what it does require and and just set this up in the beginning is it does require buy in again at this point in time. And that’s right from the start of when you’re going to start building up this rollout plan. So in order to do this, you have to have number one, of course have the continued support at the ownership level. But then you have to have the right people to manage and develop the rollout process. Same as the previous episode, these people do not have to be on the leadership team. And oftentimes they are not, you can sometimes have it where it is that right fit. But what you’re looking for are the people that are able to corral others around them. They plan events people attend, you ask them how the culture is going. And this was something at the agency the executives did all the time you go to that person and you say, give me the temperature, you know, what’s the temperature on the culture, those are the type of people that you are looking for. And then in addition to that, you need to make sure that you have representation from all relevant departments. Now, note that I did not say every department, right? That’s not what we’re talking about here. But it’s what are the lead departments in the organization? Is there a large concentration of employees there? Does it make up the bulk of the business and where you make your money? Is it like in the agency world, it was the combination of strategy, account and creative, those were the three main teams with support functions around them. And that was really where the bulk of the employees were. And really, what we’re talking about here is with these people, again, you don’t need more than your handful, you don’t want to end up with 8, 10, 12, you want to try to keep it in the like 5-6ish range. And again, this is because these should be people that can kind of cross-pollinate, if you will, and again, just represent the bulk of the organization. And then the other piece, just last point here, and then I’ll let you give her perspective on this, because I know she has one, you also want to make sure that they have a lot of passion for the organization. So I kind of hit on that. Like if they have the pulse and all of that it makes sense that they would be those people, but they have to have buy in, like I said from the start and be enthusiastic and not feel like they’re being voluntold that they have to do this roll. Yeah, and just to build on something you were saying about where to look to it might be also where your culture may not be as good as you want it to be as well, which is really important to consider that you’re not just taking a culture in your identifying the culture, and then you’re going to force everybody to abide by that culture.

Anne Candido 4:13
You’re trying to understand what may be going on in the organization that is either reflecting on the court the culture poorly or well at this current point, and then what your future state look like, and what you want that culture to be. So don’t ignore the tough areas, if you will, because those are gonna be as influential at shaping and defining your culture as the places that you’re like, Oh, this is the culture we want to model. And I also wanted to make another point that you really need to think about as you bring people in that you incentivize them appropriate to participate in this point. Now a lot of people are going to raise their hand are going to want to do it, but really when push comes to shove, it’s going to be a hard decision for them to make if ever But he’s not on board for to their participation, but also that they don’t feel like they’re being valued in their participation. So it could be things. It could be gift cards, it could be recognition, it could be, you know, whatever that looks like, because in terms of things, but what we see the most is when people are recognizing this is a opportunity for leadership as an opportunity to grow your skills and, and to really be overt that, hey, if you take on this and you are going to be invested in this, the value you get from this is going to be recognized as something that’s above and beyond what you’re currently doing. And when evaluation time comes around, or when we’re handing out awards at the end of the year. This is definitely something that can be taken into consideration. Yeah. And

April Martini 5:42
I just want to go back to what you were saying at the beginning. We’ve found in these types of rollouts, I think your points well taken about don’t ignore where the culture is not going well, because that’s a good opportunity to convert some of your squeaky wheels. Absolutely. If they’re bad eggs, probably they should go if it’s really a matter of the feel under appreciated or like they want one of these roles, but they don’t have to go to go and get it that sort of thing. You can convert people through part of this process by choosing them when I think that the natural inclination would be to not do that. So I think that was really good point. It was most of the time, the lot of times about their squeaky wheels. They just want to be heard. Yes, right, exactly. So hear him.

Anne Candido 6:20
All right, point number two. And I’m going to turn this over to and involve as many people as possible in the process, which sounds a bit contrary to what we were just saying, but I’ll let you take this one, right. And so while there’s only three to five key developers and decision makers, the more that you can involve the organization along the way, the better because as we just mentioned, people want to be part of it. And if they are invested in your organization, they want to feel hurt, like we just said, right. And sometimes when things aren’t going so well in the culture is generally because people don’t feel heard or respected or listened to. Yep. So there’s definitely a variety of ways that you can facilitate this. There are some very mechanistic ways, which is sending out surveys that just kind of gives you like the lay of the land, if you will, it gives you the words back and be careful, you’re not leading people in the survey, like, do you like disorganization as much as we do? Yes or no. So I mean, I use that as a flippant example. But really critically, look at your questions and make sure that they are presented in a way that you can get the unbiased feedback that you’re looking for. But again, like I said, that’s just a lay of the land, that’s just gonna give you the word, it doesn’t really give you the vibe, it doesn’t really give you the tone, it doesn’t really give you kind of like, what people are really, really feeling. So I would suggest taking those surveys and looking to develop some focus groups. Now, again, focus groups, you need to be very careful with too, because you can tend to get some groupthink, and if there’s certain people leading them, you’re going to be predisposition to certain responses. So for example, person of your leadership team is sitting there doing the focus group, what do you think everybody’s going to say? Do you think everybody’s gonna be very open, probably not even observing, or even observing, right? So our suggestion here is make sure your focus groups are in groups that feel like they can trust one another, and you’re not going to get that groupthink, or these these people who are going to take over the conversation, those are definitely usually done more in the natural team settings that they are in and facilitated by usually the leader unless the leader is the problem, okay. So use those in that that familiarity intimacy, in order to really get an understanding of that vibe, and then nominate somebody who’s going to be a quote unquote, brand ambassador to bring the messages back. And actually, they’re responsible for the two way traffic, right, they’re responsible for bringing the messages from down in the teams down for the people who are doing the work or on the front lines up to the people who are actually making decisions. They’re also responsible for taking what’s happening there and disseminating it down into their team so that the team can absorb it, understand it, implement it, feel it, right. So that’s a couple of ways that we suggest you start to really get a sense and know what’s going on in your organization. And that might mean you to like getting out of your office and taking a moment to go sit in somebody else’s meeting just as a fly on the wall just to kind of see what happens. Right? See what dynamic is going on, see how people are exchanging information and see how people are treating each other. Get in a in and have some sort of presence? Well, it changed the way people act sometimes. Yes,

April Martini 9:31
they will, at least initially. But after five minutes, they tend to forget you’re even there, especially if it’s on a Zoom call and you don’t turn on your camera, then you’re just a voice right? Yep. So try some of these in order to get in touch. But definitely get in touch and definitely don’t feel and get comfortable with the fact that if hey, if I set up a couple focus groups, hey, I’m good. Make sure that you’re doing them strategically in order to get the information that you really need in order to make good decisions. Yeah, and this is Super Top of Mind number one, we’re doing this with a few clients right now. But also, I had an old client, which is always a great compliment reach out recently, and we were maybe reliving a bit of the good old days, we work together. And we did one of these projects. And I think the really cool thing about the work we did there, and to this point about involving as many people as possible, there was number one, a lot of buzz around the creation of the values for their organization in the first place. And for a lot of reasons, it was the right thing to have the marketing team and kind of the senior leadership in partnership, working through what that should look like and what those values should represent. But there was a lot of mystique and excitement around that happening. And so when the time came to involve a whole bunch of people, we had a lot of people raising their hands to be part of that process. Number one, they wanted to be in the know. But number two, they felt a lot of enthusiasm that the company had needed this for a long time, and now is going to go ahead and do it. And then the second thing I will say is that a byproduct of involving all of those people was the ability to bring people that didn’t necessarily work together all the time together in rooms, and break down some of the barriers that existed, there had been traditionally a lot of angst around things like, Well, if we communicate something, and certain people that work on the floor producing the testing mechanisms don’t have email. So what do we do with that? Right, and it got into like this really, tactical brokenness, when really the challenge that should have been put forth was, how do we start bringing people together in meaningful ways. And so through this process, we were able to correct a lot of that and build and help facilitate the building of meaningful relationships, because like I said, a lot of people were excited. And then they were able to talk to and interact with co workers, who they never actually co worked with. Yeah, that is a really, really fantastic point. It

Anne Candido 12:03
reminds me of a story at P&G When I was working on Gillette, and I held a meeting to bring the people that were working on the razors with the people who are actually working with the shave prep. Now the first time they actually talk to each other. It’s crazy, right? It’s crazy how often this happens, right? And so at the end of meeting with them saying, well, we should have like thought about this a long time ago, right. And I think that tends to happen when you start getting into interactions with humans as well, when you’re implementing values, or when you have some sort of conflict, or you have some sort of tension point is like just bringing people together to share what’s on their minds, tends to make everybody feel a little bit better just to kind of release that energy, but also as a first step in forging the new solution, which becomes the basis for your culture, right? Yep. So I think that that’s really important to consider is that you bring those people together, it also sometimes reveals themes that you didn’t know or you connect dots, you’re like god, now I understand why this was going on kind of thing. So it does bring in a heightened level of awareness. And the last thing I’ll say is that, I think it’s really important, too, that as you’re getting this feedback, you’re setting expectations for how the feedback is going to be used. Yep. Because when people start providing feedback, a lot of people are like, Oh, well, then I provide this feedback, I expect it to come forth in a certain way and expect it to be listened to and execute upon. And that doesn’t always happen, because you have to do what’s best for the group, right? So

April Martini 13:25
what one person says may not may not be the best for the group. So you have to be very clear about, okay, we’re getting we’re collecting data, we’re going to listen to all the data, we’re going to synthesize it all down, and we’re going to make the best decisions, we feel like it’s going to suit the whole population of folks. If you feel like something got missed, and you want to have more conversation about it, feel free to reach out, but just know that we’re not going to be able to honor everybody’s thoughts and bring everybody’s ideas to fruition here. Yeah. And I think that marries nicely with this next point here, which is about creating an engaging launch strategy. And the reason I say they’re connected is Anne’s point well taken is you have to match the people with the process that has to happen in order to create a launch plan. Otherwise, you may never have one, you may just kind of toil. And to the point about you know, this isn’t designed by committee by any means. There has to be discipline and rigor and a process that you’re going to continue to follow and not get held up with the individual feedback from people. So that same project that I referenced just before and also the last agency I worked at where we did this, we said exactly what Angela said, which was we definitely want to hear from all of you. Absolutely. But you’re gonna have to trust us that we are embracing the feedback that is relevant to this initiative, and bringing it forward and then yes, always the caveat if you’d feel like you weren’t heard or you feel like we really missed the boat on something etc. Then speak to your manager or your the lead on your project team or Whatever and have that conversation, but this train is going to keep moving. Because the intent of this is to reorient the culture by reintroducing new values that now the whole organization collectively should be living by not just April individual opinion about the way that this should go, right. All right, so to this point, then create an engaging launch strategy. So first and foremost, again, I’m going to keep saying this, you must get buy in from leadership, they’re the ones that hold the purse strings. And if they’re not going to support you, it’s not going to go well and nothing’s going to ever happen. And this isn’t going to get off the ground. But once you have that, you want to build a very robust plan. And what you really want to address is, number one, how will the values be rolled out? Really specifically, how are you going to introduce these to the organization, we always, always recommend events of some kind. Obviously, if you have offices all over the world, the events may look different, right? They may be virtual, or you may have different looking ones based on cultures in different offices or parts of the world. That’s okay. But you want to outline the events? How many are you going to have? What are those going to look like? I’ve given the example of my previous agency where we made the commitment that we were going to roll out one of the six values every week for six weeks with a different type of event associated with it, we recognize that that was going to mean that folks were going to be quote, unquote, distracted from the work of the work and the clients and the things that we get paid for. But that this was really important to showing the seriousness to the organization. So you want to think through that lens, then it’s who’s going to introduce your values, this is another good way to bring people together. A lot of times, you can use that example that I said before about people that don’t typically work together, partner them, have them launch a value together, plan the event, or whatever that looks like or a group of people that wouldn’t typically work together and then have them plan out their specific value. And you want to think through again, who are the right people to be doing that. So all that previous criteria applies here, of people that people would go to, or a squeaky wheel that you want to convert all of those types of things are the criteria you should be thinking through, then what swag is going to be created. And when we think about swag, this can get off the rails, especially if you’re doing this for an agency because we love all of the things and we have artists and writers on hand save 10,000 umbrellas. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. If you’ve listened to us for a while, you know that that was a miss that was a client mistake of misprinting 10,000 umbrellas. But yes, we had 10,000 instead of the 1000 1000.

But honestly, it’s the things that are likely most visible or currency that exists within the organization or sometimes things that need to be replaced within the organization. And you also want to think about where you’re going to get the biggest bang for your buck. Because this is where you are going to get pushback from leadership. When you go for the budget. You don’t want to be looked at like you’re being unreasonable, right. So having we want to do these things in prioritized order. But also, here’s the justification for why these are the ones that we chose is a really good way to position that. And also having a full audit of pretty exhaustedly Really of every thing that exists already in the organization or where those outages are, like I said, so that you can prove that you have done your homework. So, at that agency that I mentioned before, it was the TVs rotated the visualization of each of the six values, the coffee mugs needed to be replaced with this beautiful new space. And our I mean, it was like chipped China and all the all the mishaps or, you know, random clients over the years that had given us a one off coffee mug. So we pitched all of those and replace those with the six values, coffee mugs. And then we did notebooks because like I said, we love art, we’re actually quite snobby about our notebooks. I will say we do love our notebooks and agencies. And so again, those designs were actually embossed on the notebooks with an embossed description on the back super high quality of each of the values. And those were handed out at each event. And actually, I think I may have said this on the other episode for this, but clients actually started to request them because they thought they were so cool. So that allowed our values to travel even further. And then we had a massive wall mural created that was a different visualization. I don’t mean to the ceilings in this it was a warehouse type ceiling, right. So the wall was massive. And we had a group of designers that hadn’t been the ones nominated for the notebooks, go and create this mural together. And actually an interestingly, a new client that I had a meeting with last Thursday morning new the organization that I worked at previously, and was like that space and that mural on that wall. I mean, that was just the coolest thing. So again, and she hadn’t been working for the client that she was coming from for several years and remember that was able to recall that so you’re looking for cost efficiency relative to amount of impact and then also kind of that enthusiasm or swagger that’s going to take hold where people feel feel proud of the values and and what the meaning is behind that swag, not just creating everything that you could. And then what’s the timeline? And what is the budget. So I mentioned before, when and made, the point about every person’s feedback isn’t going to be implemented, a timeline needs to be developed and it needs to be stuck to. And the reason that is so important is because nothing signals that the organization is not serious about something, like pushing off things like this do number one, because people get really excited about it. I already said they want to be involved in it, but they really want to see it come to fruition. And when you let the timeline slip, that’s indicating every time you do that, that it’s actually less important than you’ve stated that it is. So I said, we were going to have six events. Once a week for six weeks, we communicated to clients that this was the schedule for those events. And that if it was an emergency, of course, we would pick up but for that point in time, and it was like half hour to 45 minutes, right, it wasn’t a crazy amount of time, the employees would be unavailable. And then we stuck to the timeline of the rollout. And so one it the enthusiasm just built every week, who’s going to come up with what next. But then also, we had the accountability factor, and everyone in the organization was like, man, we don’t do this ever. So if we’re doing this, this really must be important. And then lastly, I already talked about the budget and the approval by leadership. What I will say here is that while it’s an investment, and it’s one that the company is investing on, and not making money on, the return is huge. But you just have to again, be thoughtful and considerate about the things that you want to produce, right? Someone came with hooded sweatshirts for everyone on the staff and super high quality and whatever. And we just were like, that’s not really relevant to the work we’re doing here. We already know that you guys aren’t going to want to wear matching sweatshirts ever. Also, half of these people working here don’t want a hooded sweatshirt. So it was like that kind of stuff where it was like, Alright, if we’re gonna do all that kind of money, the return has to be there. And that’s how we let go of that one and came up with the notebooks because no matter who you were in the organization, you needed a notebook. And they were cool enough that no matter who you were, you wanted to have it.

Anne Candido 22:03
Yeah, there’s several things there that I think are extremely important. One is that the thoughtfulness that comes with how you’re going to do the rollout and making sure it’s going to work for your organization. And I kept doing something to do something. Yep. I remember one year, we all got scarves, I’m like, What the hell like and not like, like a pashmina kind of scarf. Not even like like a winter scarf. I’m like, what, what are we going to do? Even the men? Yes. That’s why it was so ridiculous. And so sometimes you might need to have like a couple of different things that appeals to different people’s interest, if you will. Yep. But also that will signal to people because the big thing about the swag is for it to be a self signaling thing. Yes. So in consider if people are going to be in office and out of office. So you, you’re going to have to do some some brainstorming to figure out okay, well, in office, it could look like this out office is going to look like this. But think about things are going to signal and remind people on a day to day basis about what your values mean. That’s why the notebooks are always a really good one. Because no matter where you are, what meeting you are, if you’re in the office at the office, it’s something that could be a reminder on a consistent basis. But think about things are going to be a value to the people that are going to be the recipients or they’re actually going to use them. Yep. and have that be then a way for them to have a remembrance of what the values mean to them. And then how they mean what they mean to the company as well. Yep. And I was gonna say to this is the biggest mistake I see a lot of businesses make is that, especially if they’re trying to transform the culture, they want to pretend like the existing culture isn’t even reminding us of that. Yes. They’re like, just want to wipe it out. Yeah. So it’s like, oh, yeah, all that stuff that was happening. No, this is us now. And they want to do like a hard stop, and it reset. And it’s nice to set a reset in the context of acknowledging, okay, we get that this is what has been going on in the past, we acknowledge that what’s what’s going on the past, this is what’s going to change. And this is what our future state wants is going to be. And I think it’s really important to hit those three pieces. So people know that you’re not tone deaf, right? Because if you just want to do a quick reset of everything, just pretend like none of this happened. And you’re never gonna get everybody on board. Because it’d be like, what what is even going on here, we’re just going to just pick up and just totally like, you know, shift and not even have any conversation acknowledgement about how things are. So make sure you connect the dots for people that’s really super, super important. It doesn’t behoove you just to kind of gloss over all of that. It’s, yeah, nobody’s going to really appreciate the effort and the work you’re putting into it. If they don’t get that you understand and you hear it. Yeah, I

April Martini 24:42
mean, I think that’s a really good point. We have a client that we’re working with now. And to the point of getting people’s feedback, there were some themes that bubbled to the surface and this always happens this is not this specific client it no culture is perfect, right. But part of what Anna and I have to do and have been doing is communicating that feedback? And then what are we going to do about it so that when we do the full rollout, we can acknowledge, look, we know, as an organization, we have these things to work on. Right? We are committed to doing that this is where they are, or you know, who’s doing them or whatever. But we also have heard resoundingly, or have evaluated that there are some cultural breakdowns happening. So this exercise is meant to put us on the path that’s the right foot. Will the there be hiccups? Yes. Will all of these other things be solved tomorrow? No. But we want to build momentum and create change with this one leading the charge while we’re doing all these other things. And then you have to make sure those other things are addressed, or put to bed or whatever, so that people feel that. But I know that, you know, we asked a lot of people when we asked them to participate in executive interviews, and a lot of times the first question is, is this anonymous, and they’re trying to self protect, but then they also do want to get their point of view out there. And most times people aren’t doing it to, you know, poison the well, or rock the boat or whatever. They really just feel like, okay, maybe this is my opportunity to state what I feel is going on. And maybe if I’m honest, something will happen as a result of it. But I think like I said, You’re always the one that that brings this side up. And I think it is just tremendously important. You have to help people along and help them understand that it’s not a situation where we think we’re just going to snap our fingers and everything’s going to change. It’s that no, we’re doing this with the intention of making things better over a period of time. Exactly. All right. And number four, I’m going to hand this one too, and develop a post launch strategy and evaluation process.

Anne Candido 26:42
Yes, because like you just said, this is going to happen over a period of time. Yep. Like building culture, especially shifting or changing your culture is a journey. So for you to anticipate that you’re going to launch this thing out, even in a six week period of time, like you did in your other agency, and expect it to dramatically shift and that six week period of time, nope, no, it’s not going to work like that. So what you need to do is you need to carefully plan for how you’re gonna continue to remind the organization of these values. Yep. And there’s two really big ways of doing this. And this is doing things and acting a certain way. Yep. Right. So part of a shift and culture are really indoctrinating values is to model the behavior you want to see as a result of these values being implemented. And this starts with the leadership, right? You absolutely absolutely absolutely have to model and not in a way that seems contrived or inauthentic. But in a way that shows I see what they mean now by whatever this value is already see what they mean now about how we’re going to switch our behavior up all I’m seeing my managers, my leaders now acting differently, so therefore, I feel like, okay, I’m starting to trust this a little more, and therefore, I am going to act differently. Yep, they are not going to act differently if you do not act any differently. Alright, so true. And this was like the fundamental flaw 90% of what we try to roll out at P&G, right. So we just to be very, very honest. Now, once they take your lead, and you guys start working together, then you just start developing a conversation in a way of engaging with each other, that allows you to have very honest conversations and start holding each other accountable for when you’re not behaving according to the values, or you’re not keeping the mission vision in mind. Right. So that is a process, right? So that’s the acting that you have to act, you have to behave a certain way. But there’s also the doing and that is in the context of continuing to have some level of events continue to have some level of swag and to have rewards or incentives that continue to remind people and keep these things top of mind. Oh, yes, let me let me remind myself about the values. Let me see now in this new context, maybe how this new these values are coming into play, because your environment is consistently changing. So you need to kind of think about if new people are coming in, for example, or if you’re your client roster is changed, or you’re going after a new customer, it may impact the way that you need to think about the way that your culture is indoctrinated back in your company. So there might be little tune ups and things that you need to do in order to bring that to fruition. But also, then, finally, the last thing I’ll say here is that you need to start making this the filter by which you make decisions. Yes, that’s hiring, whether that’s firing, as we said, that’s a really, that’s a much harder piece of it all. But you have to be able to uphold the integrity of the culture. If you’re willing to let some of these things slide. People are going to step that down. Say, Okay, they weren’t serious. Yep. Like, this was fun for the moment, but like, we know that this is not going to happen. That’s like every time at p&g they said we’re gonna have a Google like culture and like, yeah, ain’t gonna happen. No way. So I mean, be realistic, make sure that you are now screening for people, in order to bring the right people in the culture, you now have a criteria by which to go do that, and then use that as a way to actually hold people accountable for the behavior say, Hey, listen, we have this value of this, we don’t see you behaving in that intent. This is what we expect from you, if you’re going to be in line with this, this value, these are the behaviors we expect to see this is the changes we expect you to make. It’s not always based on performance, guys, so you have to make sure that it’s all working together, if you want the vibe of the place to be the way that you want it to be.

April Martini 30:38
Yeah, I think that is hugely important. And I’ve seen many cases, not just I mean, yes, that I won’t, you know, get on my P&G soapbox too much here. But yes, where there’s like this unrealistic, oh, we’re just gonna do a one ad. And suddenly, we’re gonna be like Google or whoever, you know, where it’s just laughable. But the other thing as you were talking that I thought about is, we already talked about making sure that you’re addressing any sort of issues. But the other piece of this is, a lot of times there are authentic things that exist in the organization, if you’ve built the values the right way, you’ve embraced that. And so if you can continue to remind people of that piece, but then also look for places where you want to do it with more discipline, the agency I talked about, we had a great culture up into a period of time, and then we were growing rapidly, and we weren’t vetting people the same way that we used to. And honestly, a group of us started to panic, right? So and then people in the company started to panic, because they started seeing people enter the doors, and they were like, I have no idea how this person fit, right? We were on this in this little bubble where everything was going great. And we were painstakingly choosing people, and then the business didn’t allow for that anymore. So a lot of what we communicated was, look we heard you here is here are the authentic pieces that we’ve put together, we worked really hard and really long, even though the rollout was short, the process to getting there was long on getting this exactly right. And then you’re right, it has to be the people modeling the behavior. And then we continue to engage with the folks that had helped along the way, but then also created an open dialog where people could offer suggestions. And we did it a couple of different ways. We had a suggestion box, like an actual physical box, if they didn’t want to send an email and say who they were good and bad feedback, do you have an idea of another event we could do? How could we extend this more to our clients, they seem to like the notebooks, you know, just keeping it very top of mind. And then every time that we had an agency communication go out from the CEO, he would give a nod to the values and what was going on right or highlight people that were doing it well. So you’re right, you have to really keep your eye on it. And it’s both in the behavior of the people that are leading the charge and seeing that waterfall down. But then also the discipline of okay, but now the company is changing because has to for whatever we’ve decided. And then this, these are the types of things that you’re going to be held accountable to are the things you’re going to start seeing come out, we redid all of our reviews, a lot of the questions were based around how the person was living the values just as much as it was about their performance at the company. And then monthly rewards were big for a long time, we just would rotate through and have people nominate peers that had lived that value. And then someone from leadership would get up and talk about that person and why they were living it. So it was in people’s faces all the time. But then they were evaluated that way. And we did honestly to your point about it’s not about performance all the time, we did get some pushback from people that were really good performers that just weren’t getting on board with the culture and we kept having to have the conversation of the two are equally important. If you can’t do both, then you’re not going to get whatever they were after. All right, so just to recap how to effectively roll out company values. Number one, nominate the right cultural and departmental representatives, limit the group. This is not decision by committee, but make sure you have the right people in the room. Number two involve as many people as possible in the process. This is the opposite of what we said in the previous point, the more people that are brought along the way the less likely you’re going to get to unreasonable push back and be slowed down. Number three, create an engaging launch strategy, find the best ways to build momentum and excitement and then deliver on that. And finally, number four, develop a post launch strategy and evaluation process you must continue to evaluate and introduce new ways of keeping the values fresh and front and center in the organization.

And on to our next segment, which is in the trenches. This is where all of you know why now we give you real world examples specific to industries and situations but with broad application, so anybody listening can digest them and put them into action. Number one, this was a good one. We have trouble focusing on these types of initiatives and I worry this will get lost What do you suggest? So we’ve covered some of this. And I think I already said in this episode, this is a fair and common situation, I’ll use one of Ann’s phrases here, which directly applies, which is you cannot work in and on your business at the same time. Yes. So this is why we’ve put this process in place and really shown you and we show other organizations all the time. Like we said, we’re in this right now with a couple of clients, the importance of this, you have to build a team of people that are focused here, and then you have to make it their priority and hold them and the organization accountable. And how do you do that? Okay. Again, buying and communication from the top that these people are being nominated by and and endorsed by leadership, to be taking a step from what they typically do in the organization, whatever that looks like. And that exit proportion of their time is going to go to this. That means that you need to then take things off of their plates to help them focus and already said, You need to incent somehow. But the other thing you need to do is not give them a second job, right? Because a lot of times these folks are already high achievers, learners, they’re excited, they’re engaged, the way to kill that is to keep just keep piling things on there. Right, right. But then also back to the intern on your business piece, right, they can’t be constantly feeling like they’re pulled between their clients or the client work. And this work, this work has to be more important, really, for that point in time for it to succeed. And then I already said about the incentives, but then also evaluate their progress and their ability to do this along the way, one of the really good things that we did is have leadership keep commending the people that were on this team and popping into meetings here and there, and showing their face and getting excited to and asking me about where we were with the rollout process. I mean, that’s a really good way for them to get that face time. But then also to feel like man, what I’m doing actually is really important. And then we did incent them on the back end. But we actually didn’t tell them that until it was over, it was more like we’re gonna remove this from your plate, this is an honor, you’re getting exposure to the leadership that you’re aspiring to. And then they got their I think we did gift cards or spot bonuses or something at the end of it. And then also, I would say that this sounds like this is a cultural issue that your organization needs to fix. Because if you’re constantly working on the work of the work, and you’re not keeping an eye on your culture, this is where things go south. And this is where honestly, people start to leave or disengage or start phoning it in or whatever this initiative and putting the work into it will help ensure that that doesn’t happen. But like Dan said, In the beginning, you can build the best values in the world, if you don’t put the focus on rolling them out and making them a priority for the organization, they’re never actually going to take hold. And then all of this just sheds light on the point that you need to make sure that you have some one or a couple people overseeing the doers and making sure things are going smoothly. herding cats is a real thing and a real expression for a reason. There has to be someone that is the lead on this same rules apply, it has to be their priority as well, they have to be the right fit for the role, they should be someone that’s enthusiastic about the culture in this initiative in general. And really someone that people look to respect listen to and kind of have the power again, not does not have to be senior leadership in the organization. But there has to be someone at the helm as you go to do this, especially because as you’ve heard us say there’s a lot of moving parts and components and different initiatives and things that need to be created and all of that.

Anne Candido 38:34
Yeah, all of that is super, super important. And I love the part that you said about this almost becomes more important than the work. Yes. Because you need that foundation of culture in order to keep that actual business living and thriving. Absolutely right. And a lot of people will say, Oh, no, I mean, the work is the focus, it doesn’t really matter if everybody has some kind of cohesiveness or anybody understands the value of the company or this and that and the other whatever your excuses. And I will tell you, this is why people leave it totally is when you don’t have a culture in which to really pull and hold people. You became a commodities based business. Yep. And so people are gonna start job jumping for better pay better opportunities, and APR. I know you can speak to this because I mean, that’s the agency world, right? I did it a million times, right? It’s you’re always in some respects, seeking a better culture, something that’s going to help you to feel right so that you have the freedom to grow so that you have the freedom to express who you are so that you have like people around you that you’d like to work with. So if you’re sitting there saying, Oh, that’s not an important piece, hear me when I say this is why people are losing talent. And then on the other side is that if you’re trying to recruit in talent, the one thing that the people who are who are going and doing all these interviews are seeking out just like do I have a place here? Yep. Do I fit in here? Do I Jive here, do these People feel like people that I would want to be with on a day in and day out basis. So if you’re not intentionally creating a culture that does that, especially if you’re not the top of the top, you know, and I say this a lot, you know, yes. p&g and as much as I make fun of things that happen there, they are the top at the top right? People want to go work at p&g People are competing to work at p&g, if you are a smaller, mid sized business, and you’re not able to compete with those bigger businesses, you have to have something else to differentiate yourself or you’re going to be stuck with the sir I say like bottom of the barrel kind of folks. I mean, we make the joke all the time. What do you call pursue graduates last and and either law school or med school? Lawyer and doctor, right? So what kind of talent do you want to bring in? What kind of company do you need to be in order to bring in that talent? What kind of culture do you need to cultivate in order for it to feel like a place that people want to stay, that’s how you get the talent you want. That’s how you retain talent. So you have to have to have to spend some time in doing that. I was part in fabricare called that we called the team to culture team, a real creative, right for a branding and marketing agency. But it was called the culture team. It started as a small group of people as we started to do our thing, more and more people wanted to participate because they wanted to be part of the the organizational structure that was actually trying to define everything that was going on. And they wanted to be part of making the culture so it’ll start to pool, you won’t have to push as hard if you’re doing the right things by your people and letting the team do what they need to do in order to build a culture. So definitely listen to them, they are the ones that are in touch, don’t try to override it, give them everything they need in order to be successful. The budget, the timing, the support, the leadership, the prioritization of the work. And that will help substantiate something that’s going to give you back dividends, huge dividends as you go forward.

April Martini 41:55
Yeah, and I just want to touch on the other side of things where you were talking about people that are seeking out new opportunities, because I can tell you right now, between co opting and different agencies that I worked at, I believe, I worked for nine or 10, but I interviewed it probably twice as many, right? I can tell you that it took one or two cool atmospheres that then translated to crappy cultures, for me to be able to sniff out whether it was authentic or not. And so I think your point is really right about Yes, of course, it’s valuable for keeping the people you want and all of that, but it’s also valuable for pulling the right people in, right. And I think this is trickier now than ever. agencies were notorious for having beautiful spaces that you wanted to be in with cool stuff, and this and that, and whatever. Well, as we’ve seen, space is defined very differently these days. In fact, there’s an agency in town here that’s making a whole lot of money on simplifying and taking down the footprint of a lot of companies. So in a lot of cases, now, more than ever, you’re not going to have that physical space. And the people aren’t all together all the time. So this cultural piece is relevant. Now more than I’ve seen it ever in my whole career. It has a transcend the walls, right? Yes, exactly. I totally agree. All right, number two, in the trenches, I’m nervous that people will not latch onto the values in the way we want, how do I get over this and make sure that they do, this is a very, very real thing. I’m gonna get on my soapbox here for a minute. All right, I’ll just relax here. And I’m just gonna sit.

This is why and this was stated in the previous episode, part one, you cannot just take single words like accountability, leadership, honesty, integrity, trustworthy, and put them on the wall and think those are the values. I talked about the amount of time and that’s the baseline, right? That’s the bad, really bad behavior. But I said, it took us a lot of time to get to what the values actually were. And this is a huge passion area and something I push really hard on with our clients, and you’re really good at it. Well, thank you. But it’s making sure that you get to things that are ownable. For you, you want people to say things like, I haven’t heard it like that before, oh my gosh, that totally feels like us, or you want them to chuckle or you want them to take a minute and tilt their head and think right, like they’re supposed to invoke real visceral emotional reactions within people. So if you have this worry, number one, you better make sure that you have created really ownable unique values that represent your culture and the culture you want to create. Then, if we think about the rollout side of things, number one, it’s really hard work to get in here because people need to hear things seven to 10 times before they even take hold initially in a way that they can recall. But then when they’re doing their day to day job and they’re interacting with other people and they may or may not be in Office, you’ve got to keep them front and center so that they start to just be comm ingrained in their brain in a way that they’re like, oh, yeah, okay, I know that I see that, like, they see the visual representation. They already know what the value is in words, right. That’s what you’re trying to get to. And then also think about how your organization internalizes information now and borrow from what works or has worked in the past. So that’s why those the swag and executions are really important. But also there’s things like I mentioned, you know, a CEO note went out regularly at one of the companies I was at, it was a natural place, people wanted to hear from him and they read it. So that was a natural place for him to reinforce the values. It’s also that swag that I talked about, and getting that right, multiple different ways to ensure the message and talked about this a bit before. A one size fits all approach doesn’t always work. If you get someone to pashmina and they don’t use pashminas may seriously pashmina why, yeah, that sounds like that’s what one person on the team wanted, and they went with it. But then finally, the thing I will say is you can’t give people a choice, either. They don’t own the company. If they want to work there, they need to get on board. And that needs to be communicated from the top down the seriousness and the severity of the repercussions if they can’t do this, I talked about high performers not leaving the culture and being mad that they didn’t get awarded on one side and they were being punished on the other it was like no, that’s not the way this works. This is part of the organization and you better get on board and be a part of it. It’s also a really good vetting strategy for you, if anyone does try to start avoiding it, you know, and talked about criteria for firing before, it’s a really real thing. But I think also what you’re hearing me say is this is not a set it and forget it in which we’ve alluded to, or maybe directly stated that throughout this episode, you gotta put the work in to make it really latch on. And I may or may not have given this example, I know I’ve said it in previous episodes. But the day that I was leaving a conference room, and I heard an employee asked another employee, that they could cover something because they were going to be out in the afternoon, and I heard the person respond back, I’ve got your six a little bit tongue in cheek. I was like, that’s when I knew we’d hit it. Because now it was part of the vernacular of the organization. And not only did people know it, remember it, but they were buying into it, and they were feeding it back. And that’s what true success looks like. Yeah, I

Anne Candido 47:16
agree with all of that. And I also would just give the build of in reinforcement of something that we’ve said before in this episode in a lot. But again, you need to be the model of the behavior you want to see, you need to be consistent in the way that you actually show up in that behavior. And you need to be accountable to yourself and to others, that everybody is doing right by the values. And this is like you said the hardest part when it comes to dealing with people who are not, and they happen to be high performers. Yes. Be it’s horrible. Usually, the biggest conflict is like, well, can we just give him a pass because they do such good work. But if your organization sees you giving them a pass for bad behavior, again, it’s totally undermining the values of culture that you’re trying to build. And I can guarantee you nobody likes their work more than they don’t like the person. Yes. Right. So it’s so true. This is so human, all of this it is. And so you have to take a very human lens when when you’re approaching these things. Because I can tell you, you could probably find a bunch of people to do the work, you’re not going to be able to make that person act a certain way if they don’t want to act that way. Right. So you really, really need to honor what you’re trying to build and understand that it could be very painful in the short term. But what you’re trying to build and in the longer term, and the immediate longer term is way, way more important with a whole lot more gravitas in and potential an opportunity, then the short term decisions that you have to make absolutely. Well said.

April Martini 48:46
All right, our third and final in the trenches question, it feels like the momentum has fallen off. And we’re seeing far less enthusiasm about what we have in place. What do we do? And

Anne Candido 48:54
yeah, we’ve heard a lot of this, I’m just going to really just put some fine points on this. One is, and you’ll hear us say this a lot about everything is kind of like our motto is that it’s probably time for some testing and learning, you may just not be hitting it in the way that they’re being receptive. Try a couple different things and try a couple of different ways of engaging, then maybe changes it up a little bit, or maybe hits in a slightly different way. And ask people for feedback because they’re probably are experiencing something that you maybe you’re not recognizing or understanding or appreciating. So make sure you’re continually asking for Pete feedback in order to be able to adjust for Ghen how things might be changing new people in the organization. Maybe your organization has skewed a little bit older, but now you have a bunch of younger people. So what the older people like the younger people don’t like or maybe it was vice versa. So consider the environment how the environment has changed, and see what other ideas people have, like there’s all kinds of new things are always constantly popping up. Doing the same thing over and over may feel easy because you can set And then forget it. But then people start kind of getting, this just gets old, right? And they just like, Yeah, I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I want to do something different. And then in that way, get more people involved in helping the planet. If they like, something different, they want to try something new. It’s like, great. Why don’t you go plan that for the organization, you don’t have to take it all on on yourself. And just think about it, are there new ways of really adjusting to the way that you actually approach your everyday work and every day engagement that also could be skewing or maybe changing the way that everybody behaves? So the biggest example, we’ve seen, obviously, in the last couple of years has been COVID, and how people are working from home, the culture that exhibited when everybody was in the workplace is dramatically different than the culture of working from home, you may not be in a hybrid environment, you might be having more people working from home than not working from home. These are times where well you need to consider Okay, are there new tools, new methods, new ways of communicating that are going to help bring everything together? And then you have to kind of see where people are resisting? Yep. I mean, that’s, that’s really the the biggest evidence that something’s not quite going, right. If they’re really resisting something, either, the words aren’t happening, they don’t believe you. Something’s happening in the system that’s breaking down. And this is where it’s really, really important, especially as leaders that you know, you’re not going to be perfect, either. There’s going to be times where you’re going to slip and you’re going to know that you slip, you need to address that. So people get oh, yeah, okay, so they actually did recognize and they do realize that they slipped, or if you make a decision that is contrary to what what the values are that you think is going to call into question the integrity of that value, you need to be very forthright, and being in that to the group and saying, Hey, listen, I noticed the value. And that’s typically how I do the work. I’m making this decision differently than what you might expect. And this is a reason why you don’t have to give them every single little detail and the insider knowledge of every little thing that’s going on, but have some respect for the organization. And know they’re watching.

April Martini 52:04
Yeah, I think it’s it’s huge. And as you were talking, especially that last point, I was thinking about transparency, and then also not getting lazy. You know, I think it’s really easy to build a momentum in the beginning, because it’s new, and it’s shiny, and they’ve not seen it before. And there’s a whole lot of momentum behind it. And suddenly leadership seen all over the place, you know, all the best practices should become best practices in a dimmer way, you have to go back to doing the work of the work, right. But I think that if things feel like they’re starting to get stale, or your point about resisting is huge. This is why people end up in situations where the culture goes bad, it’s because they don’t take the time to really figure out what’s behind the behavior that’s happening. And so then, and then they’re surprised when they end up in a bad spot where it’s like, well, if you took a little time to investigate why so and so was pushing back, or this team didn’t want to do this project or whatever. And even sometimes, it’s just hearing them out. But sometimes there is a deeper thing going on. And I think that the other piece about this that is really important is the same way that a brand evolves, the values are part of that, too. So when you talk about, you know, I’m going to do this this different way, or we’re shifting this or we’re entering a new market, or all of those things they apply at the brand level, they also apply at the values level. And so you have to be thinking about the decisions you’re making for the business, how those are going to affect the values and the subsequent culture of the organization and use that as that lens and ensure that you’re, you’re committed, actually very committed to this and making sure that it continues to work really hard for you. Because I think with everything else that goes on, you can get to a point where it’s like, well, you know, of course, it’s not as exciting or, you know, the monthly thing, the attendance has fallen off. So maybe we just forego that, I think those are more of the inclinations. We don’t need that anymore. Those types of things instead of taking the time to reinvent. And you’re right, the new people that come into the organization can be hugely helpful in that because they’re bringing a different lens to what’s going on. They also may be changing the culture slightly. Yeah, and I think that’s those are all really good points. Because I remember when one way of building culture is like, well, we’re going to do Happy Hour every Thursday at a be that like 530 Yeah, right. So

Anne Candido 54:33
at the first week, it was like 20 or 30. By the second week, it was like half that by the third week. It was even less than that one even for the people who like to go to happy hour can afford to go to happy hour has the time to go to happy hour, likes to drink things. I mean even that wait for those that group and when you ask people like why don’t you go it’s like I have to go pick up my kids I have after work commitments. I don’t like to drink. Frankly, I don’t like to stand around it a BS and just like, shoot the shit like, so you have to get a bit more creative and being able to encompass more people in order to have things that aren’t alienating certain people just because this group of people likes to do these certain things. Golf is another one. Yeah, but guys would go play golf all the time. None of the girls are invited to play golf. I’m actually a pretty decent golfer. Yeah, but why? Because it’s a guy thing to go do well, right. And I’m gonna say, No, you can’t go do things with certain groups. But if you’re trying to build culture, you have to be very mindful about how those things show up and not to shut them down. But just to maybe think about, okay, what is something else that we can do to make sure there’s a comparable thing? Or the you know, we’re pulling in more interest from more people? Yep. So

April Martini 55:45
yep. And sometimes it can be as simple as we need to do a reintroduction. Yeah. Even if people go through training, as part of, you know, like, the value should be part of your training is I guess what I’m trying to first start out with, but to internalize that and reinvigorate it. I mean, we did a couple of those two, I think like, oh, maybe six months in or so yeah, a lot new, a lot of new people. And so we did a second round of events, and they were less elaborate, and all of that, but we still did them in order to make sure that we were leveling the playing field, but also reminding people of why we did this in the first place. Yep. That’s a great idea. All right. And our third and final segment is where we highlight companies or brands that may or may not be using their marketing smarts and may or may not have anything to do with today’s episode. And this has nothing to do with today’s episode. So I like to pull from my own personal experience. I think by now most of you know that we have a puppy in the house. Her name is Vinny, she doesn’t look like a puppy anymore. She does not she’s a ginormous dog. We actually, as an aside, had some hysterical situations as we went back to school, where people had met her at the end of school when she was like five pounds, and then have seen her since at school drop off or soccer games or whatever, and have actually come up multiple people and asked me if it’s the same dog. So anyway, that’s all massive she’s become. But as part of adopting her and you know, buying into one of the cultural trends that exists today, we decided we wanted to know what she is. And so we originally if you looked at her mom, and a lot of people have said this Oh, she’s boxer in ER, and I think that that’s probably pretty true. But there’s a lot of behaviors, but also the look of her has changed pretty substantially in her face. And the way her snout is and all of that, that indicates that she’s something else as well. And the trend, like I said, is to participate in these DNA things and try to figure out what they are. And I was pushed over the hump. We went to Dayton a few weeks ago, and this couple next to me, he was speculating what is she you know, whatever, whatever all we did a DNA test with our dog, you know, you should try it, whatever. So I did. So we got the embark one, I understand that there are millions of them, I just kind of went off of what did my phone recommend after that conversation, quite frankly, what popped up, I did look at a couple of them. But this one Embark is pretty highly ranked from accuracy, but then also ease of like walking you through the process. And I would just say that I absolutely reiterate that. So it was supposed to be here within 10 days, and it didn’t show up. And I was kind of like, well, that stinks. Now I already have had a bad experience, right. But for some reason, even though it did have our current new address on it, it got returned to the facility. So I got a phone call and an email saying, we’d love to resend this to you. We’re hoping it was mistake, whatever I’m like, Yes, I had been waiting for this thing to come to my house. So they overnighted it. So we had it the next day, I opened up this package and I’m a sucker for packaging. But it was completely intuitive. It was basically like a flat box. And I opened it up and it had like the three steps of what I needed to do and like the container for the swab, and walked me through and things that were imperative were bolded and highlighted. And then you had to like refer to that and you in order to even do the step basically. So it was like it must be in their mouth for 30 to 60 seconds. And then it was like and you want to get in there and the jowls and you want to make sure it’s totally saturated, like things that I’m like, Okay, I know how to do this, right? Like I can kind of check it off. And then it also had this code that I was able to put in that then Vinnies in the system, and I get updates every time something’s happening. So we have an update on Vinnie. Here’s the next thing that’s going to happen it reached our facility now we’re in the testing phase it’ll be back out to you in a week to three weeks you’ll learn what she is but regular communication that is exciting and not invasive and very on tone with this brand. And there’s just like a, the excitement we feel about figuring out what she is is mirrored by the experience with this brand is what I would say. And so we haven’t gotten the results as I just said yet but I’m getting text updates I was able to opt in so that I didn’t have to automatically get those. And this morning I got another one with the we’re in the middle of testing for her. So anyway, I just thought like this is supposed to be a fun thing. Yeah. And so often in life we You go to buy something or do something, or airlines are always my example, the bad like, I want to get there. But I have to go through this to get there, right. And this one was just a pleasure. And it was easy. And in the middle of all the other things going on. At first, when I opened the box, it was a little bit with trepidation of like, Do I really have time to do this? I mean, it took like five minutes it was in the mailbox and on its way, so really good on them.

Anne Candido 1:00:21
I mean, I think they totally understand the emotional connection that people have with Yes, their dogs and finding this out. So if they had been anything other than what they proclaim to be in the packaging, or in the communication, it kind of would have broken down because it’s a very emotional thing. It’s not a transactional thing. Yes. And they didn’t treat it like a transactional thing, which I think really speaks to embracing the brand love or the human connection or human nature associated with making your brand have an impact that has emotional value that carries emotional value, versus just like, hey, I’m doing you a thing. I’m doing you a service, right? Yes,

April Martini 1:01:00
exactly, exactly. So more to come on that and I’ll let everyone know at some point what Vinnie is I can’t wait. I’m looking forward to it. All right, so back to the point of the episode just to recap how to effectively roll out company values. Number one, nominate the right cultural and departmental representatives limit the group. This is not decision by committee. But make sure you have the right people in the room for the conversations, and the process number to involve as many people as possible in that process. This is the opposite of what we said in the previous point. The more people that are brought along the way the less likely you’re going to get unreasonable pushback and resistance. Number three, create an engaging launch strategy, find the best ways to build momentum and excitement and then deliver on that. And finally, number four, develop a post launch strategy and evaluation process you have to continue to evaluate and then introduce new ways of keeping the values fresh and front and center for your people. And with that, we will say go and exercise your Marketing Smarts! Still need help in growing your marketing smarts? Contact us through our website: ForthRight-People.com We can help you become a savvier marketer through coaching or training you and your team or doing the work on your behalf. Please also help us grow the podcast by rating and reviewing on your player of choice and sharing with at least one person. Now go show off your Marketing Smarts!