Kay:
All right, next up we’re talking about how values play out in business and how maybe if you’re a leader, they can play out in your team.
Shi:
Now, I think when most people hear the word values, they traditionally associate it immediately with family and personal values. But for us, we are from an entrepreneurial family and a small business family, so it was more applicable for us at first in the business setting, which is where we were most comfortable talking about values for a long time. We have a lot of experience with values in the business realm. And we brought the concept early on into our restaurant business. They’ve evolved a lot over time and that process has been really rewarding, both in a fulfillment sense and in a bottom line sense.
Kay:
So Shi the first time that these values were created was actually at a format, right?
Shi:
Mm-hmm.
Kay:
So in our company, we’ve got once a year–we don’t like to call them retreats–but advances where we take everybody to a remote location and we do some leadership training. We work together, and at this particular format, where were you guys?
Shi:
I think we were up in South Lake Tahoe. And we were talking about bringing in values into the restaurant. And what we did was talk about all the things that are the standards of behavior, the standards of the experience within the restaurant walls. And then, as you know, having fun family memories, signing the walls, delicious food, great service, feels like home. As we were taking all of these things that everyone was saying, we distilled them down to four, beautiful essences of exactly what the standard of behavior and experience is at the Squeeze In. And one thing that was really important to us during this values exercise was to make sure that we worded all of these values in the verb tense. In other words, using action words, words that end in ‘-ing,’ right? Why was this important? Because these are things that can be demonstrated. If something is a verb, then we know that we can observe it. If something is noun, it’s a thing, it’s a concept, right? If you value vision, that can be really hard to demonstrate and to point to, and if you want values to be something that you use decisions out of, you’ve gotta make them action words that you can demonstrate.
Kay:
I love it because really what we’re demonstrating is those standards of behavior, just like the definition says, and when you put it into the verb tense, you’re able to clearly put the two things up to each other. Do the actions match the standard of behavior at which we brought forward? So the values for Squeeze In are, “Live to serve. Show the love. Provide an experience. And grow.” And these four values act as–what we like to call–a decision making matrix for our teams to then execute on. And because this was cultivated from an exercise of people who came together, who loved Squeeze In, who knew Squeeze In, who were steeped in it every single day, that it is able to now be true for many more years to come. And I imagine, at some point, that they will shift.
Shi:
And, you know, a more recent example as well. You know, we’re partners with Joseph McClendon III, a dear human being and an incredibly well-accomplished, well-educated individual in Neuroscience and Neuropsychology. We have co-founded the Neuroencoding Institute with him, and we brought forward this idea of values, and putting them into the verb tense as we formed the Institute. Actually, as we were coming into almost our first year, but brought out same thing, brought all of our instructors together, got Joseph together, got our key team members together, and talked about what were the things that were the essence of the Neuroencoding Institute. And then how do we turn them into verbs so that we can see them demonstrated, use them to dictate the decisions that we make and use them in our marketing and as our foundations for the cornerstones of what we offer. And since doing that, even just six months ago, the placement of these values in this organization has been transformational.
Kay:
It’s been incredible to see the way that people have embraced the values for themselves, that we’ve been able to use the values in communicating what it is that’s different and special about the community. And it’s been really incredible. These are values like, “Assassinate complexity.” We totally took “grow.”
Shi:
I think that for us, that is a core DNA. “Grow” is always going to be in there.
Kay:
We’ve brought it over. We’ve got “Embrace the proven process.”
Shi:
We’ve got “Champion celebration.”
Kay:
Well, I think that’s my favorite one.
Shi:
Well, I like “Activate.”
Kay:
Oh, that’s a yeah.
Shi:
And then “Grow.”
Kay:
Absolutely.
Shi:
So those are our five values for the Neuroencoding Institute. And as you can hear them, you can feel the energy of the Institute, right? Don’t mind our notification in the background there, but what you should mind is this teaching on values and how they can be applied to a business setting and help so tremendously.
Kay:
So if you are a leader of any kind, we highly encourage you to work on reverse engineering your values. Look at the actions that are demonstrated by the team that’s in place. Take what’s good, what’s special, what works, and move it into a value sense that everyone can rally around, that everyone can act upon. And remember, it’s best if they’re in verb form.
Shi:
All right, next up, we’re gonna talk about other kinds of values. They come in quite the variety and we’ll see you there.
