Creating Values: A How to Guide

If you read our post about the Value of Values, you know we are big believers in defining company values and living them (as well as big fans of Hamilton). Company values serve multiple purposes: they let your employees know what to expect, how to engage, and they reinforce positive behaviors.  Shared principles can also attract and retain talent, especially for individuals whose values align with the company’s. Additionally, values are incredibly useful for decision-making, especially when there’s no clear right answer. 

If you haven’t written your company values yet, don't stress.  You’re here now, and that’s what matters.  In that previous post, we listed a handful of tips to consider when creating company values.  To go a step further, we created  a “3 P” practical guide to help you get started.

A Values How-to-Guide

Participation

• Early-stage startups: Involve everyone. Giving the whole team a voice helps build collective ownership of your culture from the ground up.

• Mid-sized teams: A full-team exercise may be too unwieldy. Instead, create a cross-functional committee or invite groups like ERGs to develop proposals. What matters most is representation  and ensuring every voice has a path to be heard.

Process

There are several ways to go about defining your principles.  When we set our values at Kindred Works, this is the process that worked for us.  We’re happy if you can use this format but you should feel free to adapt it to your company’s size and culture.  

Step 1:  Provide a shared starting point.

We curated a list of sample values.  This list gives people a reference and keeps the process grounded in a  shared language.  We can certainly provide our list if you are interested in partnering with us for this exercise. 

Step 2: Create a collection system.  

The key is to avoid groupthink. We used a simple Google Form prompting people to submit. This lets everyone reflect individually, and (optionally) respond anonymously.  We're a small team of three so when we submitted our proposed values, we felt comfortable being identified during the process.

Step 3:  Identify the overlaps.

Have your team select five values that resonate to them professionally and submit them via the form. Look for exact overlaps and also for similar themes.  For us, “Empathy” was a value on each of our lists.  These overlapping values should be pulled directly into a “strong consideration” bucket.  

Values that are similar in sentiment should be grouped together and placed into that same “strong consideration”  bucket.  For example, we felt that “Integrity,” “Honesty,” and “Trust” could all be grouped together as “Integrity.”

Step 4:  Define what each value means.

You can do this as independent work, or as a group.  With a team of three, we defined the values we had up for consideration independently.  Have each person (or the group) write a short description of each value, using language that ties it to your company’s context.  Consider starting with “We believe…” to keep it collective and aspirational.

Step 5:  Decide on your final core values.

There’s no magic number.  We landed on five.  Ten felt like too many for our size.  The goal is to choose values that represent who you are as a company and what you want to aspire to as a business.  These should also reflect what you can live up to in the long term. 

Practice

Once you’ve defined your values, they need to live in your organization, not just on your About page.

• Revisit your policies and processes. Do they reflect your values?

• Create rituals or reminders that reinforce your principles.  From onboarding to all-hands, communicating your values everywhere shows just how valuable they are.

• Leadership should hold themselves and the team accountable to these values. But the team should be encouraged to hold each other accountable as well.

At a former company, “Inclusivity” was a core value.  One way we operationalized it was through an “Inclusive Meetings” policy — with shared responsibility for ensuring it was upheld.

Values must be lived, not just listed.

If you’re still stuck, or don’t have the bandwidth to take this on alone – you don’t have to!  Kindred Works can help.  Lets connect.