There’s no room for a “but” in values
Have you seen the Spanish government commercial against gambling?
You choose how to enjoy your Proactive Break:
Listen to it (in Catalan)
Watch it (with subtitles)
Read it
The ad, with a pretty sticky song, talks us about the excuses we make to do what we shouldn't by using the conjunction “but.”
As the saying goes, any sentence followed by a “but” is false, so what the ad is saying is that statements like "I'm in control, but..." mean that I'm not in control.
This campaign achieves what it wants (putting in doubt certain behaviours) but doesn't seem to realize that the same government sells and/or promote other games such as the “loteria”, the “quiniela” o the ONCE one.
Therefore, a brilliant commercial happens to have a big “but” that invalidates the entire message: “as a government, we’re against gambling, but not ours.”
Values are the principles that govern the behavior of a person, organization or community. That's why it's so important in business not to get carried away by nice phrases on the wall, such as "the team comes first", if we're going to accept that an unjustified complaint from a customer ends up making an employee work after hours.
There’s no room for a “but” in values.
It’s energizing to follow the verbiage of social media and its motivational messages, but it's no use if you don't lead by example.
Ask yourself: what values do your business have? Is there any “but”?
© Oriol López 2022