GORDON LIGHTFOOT | Culture
STRONG ALIGNMENT ENERGY
A newly installed Team Values poster in a central Wellington office is expected to become completely invisible to staff by the end of next week, despite being printed in full colour and placed directly above the coffee machine.
The laminated A2 poster, unveiled during a brief but meaningful morning tea at Disrupt on Monday, outlines five core principles including “Be Courageous”, “Own The Outcome” and “Bring Your Whole Self”.
Project coordinator Liam Barker said the poster represents “a genuine shift”.
“It’s about alignment,” Barker said. “If we can all just glance at it once or twice a day, you know, it starts to sink in subconsciously.”
Barker confirmed he personally chose a sunset gradient background to make the values feel “warm but still accountable”.
“You don’t want it too corporate. You want people to feel something when they look at it.”
Staff member Anita Rao said she noticed the poster immediately on Monday but could already feel her brain adjusting.
“It was quite bright at first,” Rao said. “Now it’s sort of blending in with the fire evacuation diagram and the roster for emptying the dishwasher.”
Rao confirmed she fully supports the values and looks forward to continuing to embody them without thinking about them ever again.
Organisational psychologist Megan Field said the phenomenon is common in modern workplaces.
“Human beings are very good at filtering out anything they consider not relevant,” Field said. “Especially if it’s in Helvetica and uses words like ‘journey’.”
Field predicts the poster will eventually become part of the wall itself, only noticeable when a new starter asks what the values are and somebody says “I think they’re on a poster somewhere”.
More to come.
