-David Robinson
I just watched Michael Moore’s film, Sicko. It’s about health care – or the lack of health care - in the United States. Among the many salient points made in the film, I was reminded that one need only look at the incentive structures of a system to see the actual values (as opposed to the espoused values) of the system. For instance, Moore makes the point that doctors in France are offered incentives according to the number of people they help, where as doctors in the United States are offered incentives according to the amount of money they save insurance companies. Simply put, in France, the money is used in support of the people and in the United States the people are used in support of the money. Values betray themselves in actions. Incentives are nothing more than values in actions.
When I was a graduate student I had the opportunity to assist a great theatre director named Bob Moss. One day at lunch I asked him for the single best bit of advice he could give me if I wanted to be successful in the theatre. His answer was immediate, “Oh, that’s easy,” he said, “if you want to be successful in anything, simply do what you say you can do.” Sage advice.
I think of Bob Moss every time I enter a company and read their value statements. Generally, The Circle Project is hired because there is a gap between the stated value of a company and how it is being expressed (or not) in the actions of the company. When an organization says, “we value team,” but the reward structure is based on individual merit, then there is a gap. When the company says diversity is a core value but evidence of diversity disappears the higher up the ladder you climb, then there is a gap.
Gaps are not always indictments. Sometimes they are incentives. Because they betray what we really value as opposed to what we say we value, gaps present opportunities to either align our actions with our words or to change our words. They provide the opportunity for us to not only do what we say we can do, but more importantly, be what we say we are.
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