Vision statements and a list of values on the office wall where no one really understands what they mean are worse than no vision and values at all. Too many times the Values and Vision of companies are developed in isolation by the board or the CEO, so they do not capture the inherent values and feelings of the organisation they have been developed for.

Another problem is when the Vision and Values come across as too formal and corporate. They need to be the hallmarks of your imagery and part of your DNA – the authentic family/connection, or a real ‘can do’ attitude.

The absence of Vision and Values means lost opportunities as far as attracting and retaining talent goes, and culture becomes varied and inconsistent.

It does not matter if you have the most impressive strategic plan from Harvard; if you don’t have a strong engaged culture the plan will fail! It is your people who will deliver your strategy and they need to be engaged and passionate about why you do what you do and inspired to help you deliver with clear vision and behaviours (values).

Brannigans are fortunate to have a leadership team of experts who have significant Vision and Values experience through their senior management roles with notable companies like Mars Corporation (who were rated as one of the World’s best multinational work places in 2015 and 2016).  Brannigans has worked with many New Zealand companies assisting them to identify, articulate and develop their Vision and Values for a more engaging and attractive culture.

If you are wanting to create a more engaging and attractive culture and would like to have a no obligation discussion with a member of our Leadership team, please feel free to contact David Ferrand.

There are tangible benefits that a well balanced Board can, and does, have on decision making and consequently organisational performance.

In 2012, the Human Rights Commission predicted New Zealand would not achieve gender balanced Boards until 2046.

A number of recent initiatives such as mentoring programmes, targets championed by business leaders and politicians, and NZX disclosure and reporting have seen some success. However, this progress has been slow.

Some might argue that there needs to be more rules and quotas, but quotas can undermine merit based appointments, resulting in less effective Boards. Rather than quotas, we need to continue with initiatives such as mentoring and talent development, and focus on creating a merit based culture that supports inclusion and diversity.

Concurrently, we also need to tackle getting skill diversity on Boards, as this will throw open the talent net and by default lead to gender diversity.

Another way to create an inclusive and diverse culture is to address unconscious bias, as this can contribute to poor decision making in the Board room through phenomena such as group think. Bias can come in different forms, for example we can stereotype, or tend to gravitate towards those who are similar to us and to favour those who we like.

A lack of Board diversity can indicate unconscious bias influencing decision making about Board appointments. This could mean the composition of the Board may not actually be based on what the company needs, and therefore not be as effective as it could be.

The challenge is to overcome our biases, both conscious and unconscious. If we harness all our talent through inclusion and diversity of skill, then organisational competitive advantage can follow.

For more information about Governance Appointments with Brannigans, click here, or feel free to contact Nick Carter.