New Tool For Aligning Employee Behavior With Values
I recently had the privilege of exploring some pretty cool software from Novareté, a NC-based firm that provides the tools to bring an organization’s values to life.
The folks at this company speak my language about values!
What Novareté (pronounced “nova-rhett-eh”) offers businesses leaders is the opportunity to engage and align employees around their company values, combining a brilliant mix of software with a solid understanding of human behavior. The promised outcome is a stronger culture and improved performance.
That’s a tall order. But based on what I’ve observed so far, it appears Novareté can deliver on this promise.
A Look Inside
When I sat down with Becky Horn, the head of marketing for Novareté, she walked me through various modules of their solution. She also showed me some well-crafted scenarios (called Dilemmas) that challenge employees in a way they’d want to respond, and thereby provide valuable insights that would benefit any organization that cares about strengthening its culture and improving performance.
When I work with clients to identify and define their core values, one of the first next steps is to plan the communication of the values – from launch to ongoing reminders. I also try to ensure there is some kind of reward and recognition program so that these values remain at the forefront of all decisions. But I must rely on the leadership of the company to ensure it’s implemented and maintained, which is where it often breaks down.
Novareté has created an ingenious way to make this easy, engaging, affordable, and most importantly ongoing. It’s the natural next step for any leader to implement, once they have defined their values.
In addition, Novareté supports an important concept I promote: peer-to-peer accountability. This is where employees keep each other accountable to the values and don’t just leave it in the hands of leadership. What Novareté has done is make it seamless and simple for employees to think about the values and talk about them, just like checking in on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest.
Lastly, there’s also detailed analytics available that provide leaders with a quick and clear understanding of employee usage and alignment.
8 Ways to Reinforce Values
As I looked at the way the Novareté solution worked, I was impressed with how many different learning techniques were incorporated. As highlight on their website, they’ve smartly woven 8 ways to reinforce a company’s values.
- Repetition – Values are repeatedly emphasized, in a variety of contexts, through the different dilemmas posed.
- Engagement – Employee interaction is created in the same way it happens through social media (like Facebook), providing affirmation through kudos (a great model of recognition!) and even peer-to-peer correction if something is not right.
- Debate – Healthy discussions, online and offline, occur naturally that force a deeper understanding of what a company’s values really mean.
- Curiosity – There’s a subtle, quiet draw (reward stimulus) that causes employees to seek out information and explore what it means.
- Feedback – Smartly, gamification has been built in allowing employees to measure their progress, receive regular feedback, work as teams and solve challenging problems, all while unconsciously learning about the values.
- Recognition – Feeling valued by ones peers provides an invaluable boost. This not only heightens personal commitment, it can improve morale and performance. And maybe most importantly, it’s not just for managers. Recognition can come from anyone, which is worth even more.
- Competition – Through benchmarking and a point system, a company’s values are not only reinforced, employees can have some competitive fun too.
- Anonymity – Wisely, the system provides a safe way for employees to voice their viewpoints while avoiding direct confrontation. This then increases the willingness to participate in discussions, and thereby learn more.
Bottom line: Novareté is a great tool to consider for engaging employees through interactive participation. It nicely works in conjunction with daily activities that help develop and reinforce a company’s core values. It’s definitely a solution I’ll be recommending my clients to consider.
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Special offer: if you’re interested in getting a tour of Novareté’s solution, let me know. I’d be delighted to set this up!
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