Core Values as a Safety Issue

Dur­ing a recent ses­sion for a local, fast-grow­ing com­pa­ny in the con­struc­tion indus­try, I had an insight about core values.

After a con­ver­sa­tion about safe­ty (a big focus for this com­pa­ny in the con­struc­tion indus­try), the top­ic turned to core val­ues. And it came to me, as we were speak­ing, that when there is a core val­ues vio­la­tion in the com­pa­ny it’s equiv­a­lent to a safe­ty violation.

“The safe­ty of the peo­ple shall be the high­est law.” — Mar­cus Tul­lius Cicero, Roman statesman

The vision and cul­ture of a com­pa­ny are defined, shaped, and sup­port­ed by core val­ues. Essen­tial­ly, they pro­vide a ​‘safe’ and reward­ing envi­ron­ment in which busi­ness gets done. Any vio­la­tion needs to be tak­en very seri­ous­ly and, ide­al­ly, very clear­ly com­mu­ni­cat­ed to the per­son who made the vio­la­tion. This will help pre­vent it from hap­pen­ing again.

Com­pa­nies with a focus on safe­ty are very good at this. They will write peo­ple up, have con­ver­sa­tions, give writ­ten notices and warn­ings (like giv­ing a traf­fic ticket).

When it comes to core val­ues vio­la­tions, some­times we don’t take it as seri­ous­ly. as a result, bad behav­iour grows – just like lack­adaisi­cal safe­ty practices.

The Chal­lenge

• Do you treat core val­ues in your com­pa­ny as seri­ous­ly as a con­struc­tion com­pa­ny would treat safe­ty practices?