Values influence behaviour when people’s everyday experience makes those values believable. If what gets rewarded, tolerated or ignored points elsewhere, employees can learn unwritten expectations that contradict the official message.
A leader can explain respect beautifully at a conference and still undermine it in the next meeting. If interruptions go unchallenged, a powerful colleague is allowed to humiliate others, or the person raising a concern becomes the problem, people have evidence about how respect works in practice. A better poster will struggle against that evidence.
Look at the lesson people are learning
UGRs®—Unwritten Ground Rules—are people’s perceptions of “this is the way we do things around here”. They give leaders a practical way to explore the gap between a stated value and daily experience. The question becomes: what do people believe they need to do to get on, stay safe or avoid trouble here?
Consider a workplace that promotes collaboration while rewarding managers entirely for their own team’s results. If helping another area repeatedly means missing your target, people may learn that cooperation is welcome only when it costs nothing. That example is illustrative, but the question it raises is worth asking: do the arrangements around the work support the behaviour being requested?
Turn an abstract value into a specific conversation
Choose one value and one situation where it matters. For respect, that might be how a meeting handles disagreement. For accountability, it might be what happens after a commitment is missed. Ask people what they have experienced and what they expect would happen next time.
Listen before explaining the organisation’s intentions. A response such as “That shouldn’t happen here” may be understandable, but it does little to reveal why someone believes it does. Ask what experiences led to the perception and whether the pattern differs across teams.
Change the evidence, then check again
Agree a small number of visible changes. A leader might stop interruptions consistently, explain difficult decisions more openly or follow up missed commitments in a fair and predictable way. Employees need a role in deciding what better practice looks like and in recognising when it happens.
Return to the conversation after people have had time to experience the changes. Ask what is different, what remains inconsistent and what leaders still need to address. Values become credible through repeated experience. The work is to make that experience match the promise.
For a fuller explanation and examples, read the practical guide to UGRs. To explore a structured assessment, see the Stock Take methodology or contact Steve.
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