Barclays boss tells staff to sign up to five key values - respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship.

I've blogged about the culture of the banking industry and about Barclays, before.  On a couple of occasions:

The big banks - customer complain every seven seconds - 4th September 2012

Has there been any change in UK banking culture - 7th December 2012

I was therefore really interested to read today about the briefing boss Antony Jenkins delivered to staff about changing "the bank's increasingly aggressive work culture of the previous 20 years, which, he said, focused too much on making a quick buck instead of upholding the values and long-term reputation of the bank."

He also introduced five new values: respect, integrity, service, excellence and stewardship and indicated that buying in to them was not optional.

The first four of the values are common and might be expressed by any number of organisations.  But it's the first time I've heard 'stewardship' included as a value.

Stewardship: "the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving." 

That's different.  And it communicates a sense of responsibility that seems to have been lacking in banking culture in recent years.  It's the clearest indication to date that a leader of one of the big five banks has grasped the problem and is taking positive action to address it.

Whether it causes genuine and lasting change really depends on what happens from now but it's a very good start.  It needs to be supported by:

1. A clear articulation of the behaviours that bring the value to life in the organisation, and those that don't;
2. Support for people to change behaviour.  Every employee must:
   - have a clear understanding of how they should (and shouldn't) behave in their role
   - be willing to change
   - have the ability to change
   And this doesn't just happen.  People need to be supported through the changes they'll need to make personally.
3. Policies, procedures, ways of working, working environment etc, all being aligned.

It won't happen overnight.  It will need to be a long term commitment.  But I'm certainly more hopeful (and more optimistic) than previously that genuine change might be starting at Barclays.

It's going to be fascinating watching their progress over the next couple of years....

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