How to Implement Company Values
Many companies have values, which they have decided upon.
In some companies they were decided upon by the founders even before starting the company, in others they decided to have them when the company reached a certain size and it got more and more noticeable that different parts have different subcultures.
These values either represent how we behave and guide us in making decisions, or inspire us in the desired direction as we’re not there yet.
Some companies clearly differentiate between their core and aspired values and leadership ones.
Some examples:
- Impact
- Integrity
- Boldness
- Frugality
- Transparency
- Honesty
- Inclusion
- Trust
- Accountability
- Wowing customers
- Passion
- Fun
- Teamwork
- Innovation
Regardless of how they came to life, it is not enough to have them merely as words on a wall, that is, literally a sign on one wall that captures the values.
We need to do much more than that in order to cultivate the desired behavior.
In essence, the values, or culture, is the behavior we punish, tolerate and promote in the organization.
Following are some ideas I saw that were effective.
Documentation
Whether you’re using google docs, Confluence, Notion or any other tool for documentation, capture the company values and make them easily searchable. Reduce the friction for new joiners to find them.
Give examples of each value and why it is important.
Website
Have the values on your website. Users, customers, partners and job seekers will know what to expect from you. For example, there is a big difference between “we move fast and break things” and “we move slow and cautiously”.
Job Ad
Repeat the values in each job ad, make it easy for job seekers to have all the information in a single place. This will filter candidates that would not be a culture fit. For example, if you have a value of “teamwork”, candidates who prefer working alone will ideally not even apply.
Interview
Prepare behavioral questions for each of the company values (or the main ones in case you have a lot). This means asking the candidate for a concrete example.
It can go like this: “Here at Acme, we have the value of healthy conflict. Can you please share an example where you engaged in a healthy conflict?”
If the candidate gives a generic answer, such as “it’s always good to talk about opinions and come to a solution”, you can thank them for the advice and insist on a specific example. The reason is — past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Candidates are also less likely to give a text-book answer they think we’d like to hear.
Onboarding
As part of the onboarding process, make sure there is time dedicated for explaining the expected and desired behavior, i.e. the values. This has bigger effect than onboarding that merely focuses on administrative tasks.
All-hands
Many companies hold a recurring all-hands or town-hall meetings with all employees. These are a great opportunity to repeat the company values (yes, every time), and not only for new joiners — for any employee to be able to repeat them if you wake them in the middle of the night.
Stories
Whether in all-hands, team meetings or social events, tell stories that demonstrate behaving according to the company values. Apart from the fact that humans remember stories better than facts, they can see how the values are still celebrated, as sort of a proof that they are valuable.
Feedback, Performance reviews
When managers give constant and timely feedback to their directs, it has a tremendous impact on their performance. Tie some of the feedback, whether positive or negative, to the company values, in order to get more of the desired behavior and less of the undesired one.
Same goes for performance reviews. In addition to all the dimensions for which you evaluate the direct, make sure to evaluate also against the company values, with explanations and concrete examples.
Initiatives
When you come up with OKRs, quarterly plans, ideas and initiatives (e.g. product or tech) you can assess how much they are inline with the values. For example, a company that is customer focused will prefer initiatives that benefit its customers. A company that is revenue focused will prefer initiatives that maximize its revenue.
When it comes to planning and executing the elected initiatives, you can decide on guidelines that match the values, such as the famous “move fast and break things”.
High-five / shout-out
There are many ways to allow colleagues to praise each other for great work or achievements, e.g., on Slack or designated tools.
You could make it mandatory to choose one of the company values when giving such praise. This puts a lot of focus on the values, especially as this praising is done voluntarily. Optionally, these praises could be read and celebrated in all-hands.
Antipatterns
Employees can easily detect violations of the values, and then they become cynical about them, and understand that they are worthless, and there is another implicit culture that is promoted.
Here are some examples:
- Transparency but management rarely shares information, e.g., about the main KPIs and metrics of the company or the financial situation
- Integrity but management avoids hard questions and telling the truth
- Innovation but new ideas are often shut down with “we always did it this way”
- Learning but there are no post-mortems or time dedicated for learning and knowledge sharing
- Teamwork but all performance evaluation and incentives are individual
- Boldness but every failure is punished
It’s better to not have any values than having ones that are violated and ridiculed.
As Drucker said “culture eats strategy for breakfast”. Behavior matters and it takes deliberate efforts to cultivate them.
When successful, they help employees to make decisions and have expectations and a basic common culture among the inevitable subcultures.
