People who are setting out to change a culture often talk first about changing the set of values. That’s the wrong focus. Values—fundamental principles and standards, such as integrity or respect for the customer or in GE’s case boundarylessness—may need to be reinforced, but they rarely need changing. When people, especially those at the highest levels of the company, violate one of the company’s basic values, the leader must step forth to publicly condemn those violations. Anything less is interpreted as a lack of emotional fortitude.
