Blackpool Rock Shows The Way

These days we all meant to have a big story, based on big goals, big values and a perfectly poised sense of exactly who we are and where we are going.

Sociologists call it Hypernormality - a sense that just being part of the crowd is no longer enough, a demand that each and every one of us is centre stage and comfortable both in the glare of public observation and within our own ambitious and solid personalities.

The precise relevance of these kind of frameworks of living was brought home to me again yesterday. I was delivering a corporate culture introduction seminar at the excellent and vibrant Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. It's one of those places whose own culture feels powerful and enthusing.

As ever, we got to talking about values - and, as ever, that is a much more difficult subject for people to get their heads around than is commonly acknowledged.

We constantly are told that in business we must live up to our values, that we must put our values into practice. The problem is that most people have never even explored what may be valuable to themselves personally, or important to their business foundations.

We don't talk much about values at all. The only encounter with values and the only framework of values with which we are generally familiar is the law of the land. When it comes to what things like integrity, trustworthiness, decency and fairness actually look like in action, we have usually precious little experience.

So I am going to share with you a very powerful technique that I use to help people start to think about these vital matters - all talk of corporate culture, best practice and corporate responsibility falls utterly flat unless you can identify, justify and articulate a solid personal base of reliable and enacted values.

Just think about your backbone, the thickness of your spine as it runs from the base of your skull solidly right down the length of your back.

Imagine it is like a stick of Blackpool rock, with lettering running the full length. Unlike the rock, though, your spine's lettering doesn't spell "Blackpool" - it actually spells out the core value or self-image that you want to place right at the heart of your business activities.

This can be quite a shock at first. You might see nothing for a moment - but things that can be alarmingly derogatory can quite easily emerge and grow! I've known many people to see things written in their spine that they normally would only think about their worst enemies. And that is because we often are our own worst enemies when it comes to self-image, self-esteem, authenticity and publicly not sticking to a set of values to which we might aspire but which we forever fight shy of actually embedding.

It takes hard work to develop higher values and self-images which are effective, resonate and inspire both yourself and others throughout your business relationships. It comes not through flimsy acting, it can only come through method acting - which is a drama term for actually living the role.

Think very carefully through the potential of Blackpool Rocking yourself. This may be the first time you have ever been offered a methodology that can actually take you into the heart of beliefs and how they may be developed.

What exactly do you want to be and to be seen to be. I see "Shapeshifter" down my spine - I try to make new things happen; I am always challenging and always looking for new possibilities. I try never to let things go stale. And if I look from another angle I can see "Go Player" - I relentlessly develop and grow my activities; I don't rest on any laurels, even when we achieve our next objective - in the next moment there is a fresh opportunity to innovate and to add value......and then the next moment......and then the next.  Both of my identities aim high - but they rely on forever doing to become real, not on sitting back with anything ever finished.

Write some brilliance into your spine. Others will sense the new glow in you.

- Malcolm Evans is a business ethics and corporate culture specialist.