Develop vision & values that resonate with employees

Employees don't respond to corporate-speak and an uninspiring vision. Monica Silva, team lead of internal communications at Phillips 66, talks about developing a vision and values that actually resonate with employees during her company's spin-off from ConocoPhillips.

Robin: Hello, and welcome to this edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies. I’m Robin Tooms, Vice President of Strategy at Savage, and my guest today is Monica Silva, Team Lead for Internal Communications at Phillips 66. So Monica, welcome back to Brandonomics.

Monica: Thanks, Robin.

Robin: Well, I know your team was in charge of creating the internal messaging around the vision and values for Phillips 66 after the spin-off of Conoco-Phillips. So tell me how you started that process.

Monica: So first, we made some objectives. You know we wanted our vision and values to be inspiring and true and then after doing some benchmarking of our peers, we really decided that it needed to be non-corporate speak. Something very concise and that employees would feel connected to. When we did our benchmarking process, and I looked around at what our peers were saying about themselves, it reminded me of what the adults sound like on the Peanuts cartoons: “Wah wah wah wah wah wah.” It was about delivering strategy, safely and to their stakeholders and it was just corporate speak all over the place. So we decided that’s not what we wanted our Phillips 66 vision and values to be like.

Robin: So tell me how did you define the culture and direction of this new messaging, then?

Monica: So, after doing the benchmarking, setting our objectives, doing some trial and error and testing with employees, we finally settled on our vision of the company being: We are Phillips 66. Providing energy, improving lives and our corporate values are safety, honor, and commitment.

Robin: Well, I would say that you were very successful in achieving your objectives, then.

Monica: Good, thank you.

Robin: Great. Thank you for sharing.

Monica: Absolutely.

Robin: This has been another edition of Brandonomics, an inside look at top brands and their marketing strategies.

 

Phillips 66, created through the repositioning of ConocoPhillips, is one of the world’s largest independent downstream companies. The company operates three segment-leading businesses: refining & marketing, midstream and chemicals. The team of more than 13,500 employees are providing energy and improving lives daily. https://www.phillips66.com/