“One of the crucial findings from Built To Last research…was that a key underlying factor that allows a company to go from Good to Great…and stay there (not just get there)…is that they have an underlying set of Core Values that DO NOT change.”  Jim Collins

A few weeks ago I wrote about  Performance Controls‘ focus on strengthening their Core Values this year and the employee survey that they conducted to find out how well they were doing…

So what did they find out???

“Turns out we’re above the national norms in all but one category,”  Perry Walraven, the CEO shares.  “But that’s still not good enough.  And – there were pockets in the company where we didn’t score as high we would like.”

Although “averages” indicate that most of their people like what they are doing,some of the individual (anonymous) responses were troubling to Perry because of what they might indicate.  For example out of 44 people survey, 8 strongly disagreed with the statement “The environment at Performance Controls (PCI) encourages high morale.” 13 disagreed with the statement that “It’s okay to state negative opinions”.

“I’m not okay with a culture of fear,” says Perry.  “It’s not okay that people are afraid to come and talk to us about what’s not working for them.”

On the other hand, Perry wants to recognize the positive comments that were made and not assume too much.  For the statement “PCI shows concern for the safety of its employees”, all 44 agree.  For the statement “My supervisor cares about me as a person” and “My supervisor treats employees fairly” 41 and 39 (out of 44) agree respectively.

So what’s next?

Well, Perry is planning on having conversation with people to dig a little deeper and understand better the feedback that they’ve gotten on the survey.  They had an all hands meeting in July to talk about the results and get input from employees about what would be appropriate next steps.

“We definitely have work to do before we can state with conviction that our culture completely embraces positive, productive and can do attitudes as well as respect for each other and the contributions we each make to our success,” says Perry.

Not one to rest on his laurels…but no good company (or CEO) ever does.  I’ll be checking back in with them to see how they’re progressing and keep you up to date.

BTW – to listen to an audio “snippet” of Jim Collins talking about Core Values, click here and and scroll down to “It Really Matters that You Have Core Values”.  For more info on the Q12 and how you can use them to drive growth and profitability, click here.

And look for my upcoming series on “The Mistakes CEO’s Make”…starting in August!

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