If you want to create an adult-to-adult, self responsible, high trust culture, the way you communicate values matters. Use the WAY you share the values to demonstrate the values themselves.

1. How to embed values without
telling people to
“live the values”

2. Top of most company’s
People Agenda
1. We want every
employee to…

3. a) proactively take
responsibility for achieving the
company strategy
b) live out the values
c) drive their own performance
and career
d) collaborate, innovate,
create…

4. And they’re
busting a gut
to try and
make it
happen

5. Employer brand

6. At the heart of culture
change are the values.
The problem – as you know
– is that it doesn’t work to
TELL people to live the
values 

7. Did you know…
The way most companies are
communicating values is probably
undermining their very
message?

8. THE
WORDS
SAY ONE
THING

9. Everything else about the way values
are communicated says…
…the company is telling
me how I should behave.
They’re basically the
parent, I’m the child.

10. (let’s assume for now that
the values are the right ones
– or they can’t be changed
right now and so…)

11. The message is
technically
correct, but how
do you make sure
the vehicle isn’t
parent/child?

12. • Louder, brighter to capture attention
• Play up the positive, ignore the reality
• Sanitised message and imagery
• Shared later rather than sooner
• Communicated top down or in
controlled bottom up spaces
We can start by recognising what the
parent/child vehicle looks like

13. And remember that though this is the easy way to tell people
what the values are….

14. This is actually what tells us what the values are
What leaders say and do.
How and what information is shared and how it’s framed.
How we interact with customers.
How our manager interacts with us.
How we treat people in our team. And other teams.
What promises / expectations are met and which are not
What we challenge, what we walk past.
What decisions are made and how.
What happens when we are under pressure.
The level of risk the company takes to live a value

15. We all basically ‘get’
this… so HOW can we
change it?

16. First… let’s understand
the science bit

17. child
adult
parent
What’s going on under
the bonnet?
There are 3 ‘roles’ from
which we can
communicate
(in life, not just at work)
1.
2.
3.

18. child
adult
parent1.
2.
3.
Sharing what people ‘should’ know,
restricting information, telling,
carrot/stick, spinning difficult info,
protecting, rescuing, jargon, retaining
control
Transparency, sharing facts neutrally,
opening up the detail, allowing, accepting,
sharing the responsibility.
Complying, rebelling, gossiping,
that’s-not-my-job, blaming, not taking
responsibility.

19. parent
child
THE PROBLEM IS
…employees will almost
always respond in ‘child’
If the company
communicates in ‘parent’…

20. 1. Compliance
..basically doing what they are told and
looking for someone higher up to give them
the ‘right answer’. Implication – no
accountability.
child
which means either

21. 2. Rebellion
…finding a way to get around the rules or not
wanting to participate in something because
it’s a directive that has come from ’above’
child
or

22. it serves to magnify the
divide and undermine
the very culture they’re
trying to create.
child
either way
parent

23. The new you
communicate can
instead be adult-to-
adult.
wa
y

24. And invite an
self-responsible response…
adult

25. That’s what
Onefish Twofish is so
flippin’ passionate about.
We are
‘not-the-employee-
comms-agency’

26. We have spent the last
years
delivering -to-adult
comms ‘campaigns’ for
business.
ten
adult

27. Think in the widest
sense of the word.
Think evolving the dynamic
not delivering the assets for a
clever campaign.
comms

28. What does -to-adult
look like in practice?
adult

29. First, expose the right values.
Values can’t be taught, only expressed and
clarified. Modern ‘tribal’ leadership involves
letting go of the reins. What matters is fit.
“If your values match ours, you’ll be happy, if they don’t, you will always struggle.”

30. Then lead authentically.
Most leaders and companies are not in the right
headspace (yet) for the level of scrutiny and
transparency required for Adult-To-Adult to be
an option.

31. And communicate real not
projected culture
Don’t gloss over failure or challenges. Hold
them up, then ask people to play a role in fixing
them. And good people want to fix problems.
“Everything is
awesome!”

32. We’d love to help you evolve the way
you communicate to ‘adult’:
1. Working with you right NOW on what needs to be launched
immediately
(that includes discovering, thinking, articulating, exploring, planning, writing, designing, creating, filming)
2. Then, taking your values into a completely different dynamic with
employees – co-owned.
3. Working with your leaders to evolve how they communicate and operate
to shift to an A2A dynamic
4. Moving on from ‘consultative’ culture to truly collaborative

33. Here is an example of
what we do
A European division of Kraft
Foods…
• Needed to reinvent itself,
reinvigorate tired products and
transform its P&L
• Came to Onefish Twofish out of
energy for more ‘EVERYTHING IS
AWESOME!’, keen to tell a more real
story that acknowledged where it was
right now and needed to be.
• Not sure how – and how to take its
traditional leaders along
What we did
• Worked with them to create a
brand new ‘conference’ – based on
Open Space – totally empowered and
outside their comfort zone
• Wrote and shared an actual
storybook about their journey so far,
acknowledging successes and failures
• Allowed 300 managers to build
their confidence in returning to
innovation and sales in a deep
experience offsite

34. Who are we again?
We’re 12 business comms game changers
including TEDx speakers and ex-heads
of comms from companies like
PizzaExpress.
We’re fresh. We say and do things
differently. We’re not on a sales mission
and we sometimes have a waiting list.

35. We’ve run the most piercing employee
engagement conferences in the UK:
Brand Talent 2012
Values with texture and teeth 2013
Spark Action 2014
“I am BUZZING
with ideas – I
know exactly what
I’m going to do
next”

36. Our people have skills in
• Marketing strategy and campaign execution
• Business psychology
• Agile and lean start up
• Storytelling
• Organisational design
• Entrepreneurship
• Leadership development

37. Kraft Foods said:
‘you are a guiding light to an
organisation trying to find
its way in a changing world’

38. Thanks for reading
What do you think?
Onefish Twofish
www.onefishtwofish.co.uk |www.cleancomms.co.uk | hello@onefishtwofish.co.uk