If you want a key overarching value to become immersed into your workplace, such as safety, innovation or customer service, focus in on these three broad goals:

 

1. VISIBILITY: You need to remind people on an on-going, day-to-day basis of how important this value is so that it's top of mind and it becomes second nature. Create a short, fun, catchy slogan and then use it everywhere: on posters, in your meeting rooms, on badges, on paycheck stubs, on e-mail signatures, on t-shirts, on stickers, on bumper stickers and on the back doors of washroom cubicles. Create a mascot that reminds people of the value. Make it the first thing people see when they fire up their computers.   

 

2. COMMUNICATION:  As you've heard me say a gazillion times, everything is communication and communication is everything. Encourage conversations around your keystone value. Open every meeting with a "value moment."  Ask challenging questions. Create a regular feature on your weekly/monthly e-mail messages. Create a special section ion your intranet site. Create a forum where employees can continually share success stories, from both within and outside your organization, so that people stay inspired through real-life examples. 

 

3. RECOGNITION:  You get the attitudes and behaviors you reward and recognize. To keep the message alive and to keep people inspired celebrate milestones and successes. Create a "Going the Extra Inch" award to honor ideas that are easily doable on a regular basis with very little added cost or time; a "Going the Extra Mile" award to recognize those heroic, once-every-few-months actions that someone took to go above and beyond the call of duty.