From shaping our values to making them real: our ongoing journey, by Hendrika Santer Bream

In my last article, I shared how we developed our new organisational values at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust: We are Caring, Ambitious, Inclusive.

It was primarily a process of engagement, involving over 2,000 people to ensure our values authentically reflect who we are, how we work, and who we want to become. Of course, developing values is just the beginning. The real challenge, and opportunity, lies in embedding them into everyday practice. In this article, I bring an update on what we’ve done so far, and share some early successes. I will also explain the benefit of having four colours of lanyard.

Why engagement matters from the start

We launched the values in September 2024. Engaging staff in the values, however, cannot start once they are agreed. It must begin much earlier. When we involved staff, patients, and stakeholders in shaping our values, we were not only gathering input. We were already fostering ownership and alignment. The process itself not only made it more likely the values would be meaningful and relevant, but generated momentum for their adoption.

This early engagement has had a lasting impact. The results of our most recent staff survey (conducted between September and November 2024) show significant improvements across almost all areas, including staff engagement and morale. While other factors certainly helped, such as a more stable year operationally, a key driver of this positive shift has been our sustained commitment to involving staff in shaping and embedding our new strategy and values.

Making values more than words

Patrick Lencioni reminds us that values must be lived, or they’re not worth having at all. (“Make Your Values Mean Something, Harvard Business Review, 2002.) If there is dissonance between our stated values and what people experience day-to-day, we would have been better off not having them. This is why we have been focused on turning our values into something tangible and practical at every level of the organisation.

As the late Dr Mee-Yan Cheung-Judge, a great influence on my work, often said: effective culture change requires work at multiple levels. In embedding our values, we have focused on three in particular:

1. Individual level – engaging staff in the development of the values, giving them the tools to reflect on their own alignment with the values and handing out plenty of lanyards!

2. Team level – equipping managers to lead meaningful discussions – during the development, at launch and, now to embed values in their teams’ ways of working.

3. Organisational level – making sure the values are visible and are reinforced in our policies, systems and formal processes.

What have we done since launch?

Since our values were introduced, we have taken several steps to bring them to life:

• Held 'Big Conversations' – managers led team discussions about the values and the Trust strategy: what they mean in practice, how teams already embody them, and how they can bring them to life even more.
• Created a self-assessment tool – staff can reflect on how well they embody the values, identify strengths, and pinpoint areas for growth.
• Designed and launched manager workshops – these have been rolled out, with overwhelmingly positive feedback. Most participants rate them 10/10 and leave with clear actions to embed the values within their teams.
• Developed resources for managers – a pack full of ideas and guidance on using the values in everything from recruitment and induction, to team meetings and performance management.
• Developed new communications materials – posters, flyers, lanyards and other resources have been distributed to teams across the Trust, reinforcing our shared commitment to these values.
• Embedded the values into the PDR process – by integrating the values into our performance and development reviews, we underline the importance of our values to us, and make sure that these conversations are happening regularly and reflect what matters most.

Continuing the work of culture change

Embedding values is not a one-off initiative – it is an ongoing effort. Organisational culture is shaped every day, in every interaction. By continuing to work at multiple levels, we can ensure that our values are not just something we say, but something we live.

And what is the benefit of having four colours of lanyard?  It means that when you are promoting the values and handing out materials, staff stop to ponder which colour to choose, and while they ponder, the conversation has already started.

Read more about our values: https://www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk/about-us/our-strategy-and-values/our-values