Would you write “Walk my talk” on your calendar?

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Value of the Month programs in the workplace. Case in point: Value Your Month to Value Your Life.

I like them because of their dipping effect: They dip workplaces into a constant swirl of value immersion, where anything and everything can be looked at with values-colored glasses, allowed into our front-and-center attentions to beg us for more alignment — “Let’s walk the talk, shall we?”

When we have a Value of the Month program, we examine the values we claim, and we savor our convictions to those values in sensible, real-work context.

What we bank on in a Value of the Month program, is that we’ll dip in, and we won’t get back out. These programs keep values fresh, relevant, and in play: We rotate our value attentions (this month may be about MAHALO appreciations, and next month might be about the NĀNĀ I KE KUMU recharging, a terrific choice for December) but we stay all-in. We get completely drenched in what we say we stand for, wallowing in the value immersion of our choosing.

What I sometimes hear, however, is a battle of the calendar, where we allow scheduling to trump common sense and better responsiveness: If you need to have a KULEANA conversation right now, about the work at hand, or an ‘OHANA conversation in tomorrow’s meeting (you read the agenda), by all means, have those conversations!

Working in alignment with your values is a constant. You either do it, or you don’t. And if you don’t, you can’t say you are an Alaka‘i Manager learning to practice Managing with Aloha.

A Value of the Month program should be thought of as a cool-and-sexy extra that actually gets the stars in Providence to align for you — it’s like that power boost you opt for in that healthy smoothie you order from Jamba Juice. However the fact of the matter is that value alignment — simply defined as walking the talk of the values you stand for — is a constant, everyday matter: It is simply what you do as an Alaka‘i Manager.

It’s not dictated by “when time allows” on your calendar. If you want it there, write it in on every day of the year, and in every time slot.

Footnote:

Value Alignment (site category) is the subject of my third book, Value Your Month to Value Your Life: I wrote it to guide Alaka‘i Managers through the what, how, and why of Value of the Month programs conducted in the workplace. In my view, these programs are pure gold as a Managing with Aloha jumpstart, for you choose your own values and begin your culture-building in a personalized way as you learn more about the MWA philosophy as a whole.

From the book’s synopsis: “Value mapping is a way that good begets good, beginning with the good which already resides within you in the form of your personal values. To illustrate, we’ll cover two workplace how-to’s: The Value of the Month program, and Value Steering for Projects, both which help foster healthy business cultures.” You can buy VYLVYM on Kindle and on Smashwords.

See the Table of Contents here.