Why now? This is the question that Anne Seidel and Birgit Macele have regularly been asked by colleagues since they were commissioned by Kerstin Kamphaus, VTG’s Chief People & Culture Officer, to lead the development of new corporate values in workshops. Anne and Birgit openly admit that they were also skeptical at first. Until they realized: Now is the right and important time.

“VTG is in a state of upheaval and everyone can feel it,” says Birgit, who, like Anne, is responsible for People, Organization and Culture Development. “A new structure, a new strategy – if we want to be successful in the future, we need something that binds us together,” she says. “And that can only come from a shared understanding of values.”

Setting the course together

The main goal of the workshops, which began at the end of June and are expected to last until early fall, is therefore to set the course for this new way of working together. “In the workshops, we want to jointly develop concrete indicators that promote our behavior towards each other and successful collaboration,” says Anne. “A compass, so to speak, that will give us orientation and stability during the transformation and beyond.”

And this is precisely why the workshop format is so suitable. “Where do we stand when it comes to collaboration? How do we envision working together in the future? And what do we need for this? All of this is difficult to find out through surveys or interviews,” explains Birgit. Anne adds: “We need an active exchange with our colleagues so that our new values don’t become empty words, but are filled with life from the very beginning.”

From Young Talent to VTG veteran

To make this a success, there will be a total of ten workshops with 12 participants each, who will be invited by Anne and Birgit to work together on this topic. It is important to the organizers to create a relaxed atmosphere for an open exchange – “without showing off, without pushing”, as Birgit explains.

When selecting the participants, Anne and Birgit paid particular attention to creating a representative sample of the workforce. “We will invite employees from different countries and from different areas and hierarchical levels,” says Anne. “This will ensure that different perspectives and experiences are represented in the workshops.”

In addition to reflecting diversity, the moderation of the workshops should also ensure that all participants are actively involved. “We use methods that ensure every voice is heard,” says Anne. “Clear rules for respectful and equal communication are particularly important to us.”

A balanced result

Following the workshops, the results are then evaluated by Anne and Birgit and prepared in a report. “This report is presented to the members of the Executive Board, who can then discuss the values developed by their colleagues and link them to their vision of the new values. “, explains Anne and Birgit adds: “This is how we ensure that we achieve a match between the ideas and wishes of the employees and the ideas of the Executive Board.”

Proven principles and new insights

“We then plan to communicate the new values step by step and integrate them into the corporate culture and aim to complete this initial process by the end of the year,” explains Birgit.

So everything is new at VTG? “Of course, we don’t want to simply shelve our existing values,” explains Birgit. Rather, they will be incorporated into the development process – together with the results from the culture camps, previous interviews and findings from exit interviews, for example – and will be further developed together with new ideas and perspectives. The end result will be a new foundation of values – which, as Anne sums up, “will combine both proven principles and new insights.”

Anne and Birgit tell you how this foundation of values is created in the workshops in the follow-up article in ON TRACK!