The Right Way to Write Company Values
Values are important, but usually poorly-written & hard to use
Values are important, but usually poorly-written & hard to use.
I became more aware of this via First Round Capital’s Blog on the value of actually-useful Values. This helped me think about how to write values that help employees make day-to-day decisions, and better yet, help managers guide and correct them using simple and clear values, examples, and meaning.
The main problem is that most values are broad, simple, and things we can all agree with, such as Honesty, Hard Work, Quality, Support, and so on. All good, but mean so much that they have no actual meaning, especially when an employee tries to apply it (or not) to a given situation.
This is even harder for managers to manage to, as their ideas of the value’s practical meaning is often different from any given employee, and since there was no clarity when the employee was hired or trained, it’s hard to use it for corrective or disciplinary action later.
This is worse across cultures, languages, and geography where even basic words have a variety of meanings, nuances, and applicability to daily working situations.
How do we fix it ?
We need to write clear, actionable values with examples or clarifying statements that are easy to understand and very practical. This is key because if these cover most types of situations, it’s very easy to teach, reference, and talk about.
In particular. this approach allows us to directly address likely conflicts with the right guidance, such as sales revenue vs. customers’ interests, or quality vs. speed, and so on.
Note that the goal is not just long lists, but three element levels. First, create the 5–10 key values. Second, add by sub-values or situations or key components that illustrate trade-offs, real-world use, and expectations. Finally include with a brief sentence or two on why this is important or how to apply it.
This results in a long but powerful and most importantly, useful, set of Values everyone can understand, use, and be managed by.
See our values on our dedicated Values Site.
Click here for our Chinese Version.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn.