Making the Leap from Company Values to Company Virtues

Here at Animoto, we believe that strong values are an integral part of company culture. For over a decade, we’ve used company values to bring our team together.

In 2017, we decided to refresh our values to better reflect our growing team. And now, in 2020, we’ve decided to take it to the next level and start referring to our values as “virtues.” In this article, I’ll share some background and explain why we’re taking this leap.

Betterfication, Humbletude, and Oomphosity

Before I get into why I decided to make the leap from values to virtues, I thought I’d share a little background on what our virtues are — Betterfication, Humbletude, and Oomphosity — and how we came up with them.

As I mentioned, back in 2017 we introduced our current Animoto values. Before that, our values had been a list of aspirational phrases on a poster — things like “Transparency on all levels” and “Measure, Learn, Improve.”

The executive team decided it was time for a refresh after reading Patrick Lencioni’s book, The Advantage. In The Advantage, Lencioni talks about the difference between “core values” and “aspirational values.” He explains this difference in a Harvard Business Review article:

“Core values are the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company’s actions; they serve as its cultural cornerstones… They are the source of a company’s distinctiveness and must be maintained at all costs.

“Aspirational values are those that a company needs to succeed in the future but currently lacks. A company may need to develop a new value to support a new strategy, for example, or to meet the requirements of a changing market or industry.”

As an executive team, we realized that our old values were simply an aspirational list of traits on the wall. We wanted our values to truly represent the culture at Animoto. So we brought together the Animoto Management Team for a values brainstorm.

Each manager was asked to think about the best qualities of specific people on their teams and write them down on sticky notes — humility, creativity, problem solving attitude, etc. Once all the sticky notes were written, we reviewed them all and looked for themes. Then, we molded those themes into values that are unique to Animoto:

Betterfication

Betterfication refers to a can-do attitude that’s always searching for solutions, not problems. How can we make things better? How can we improve a process? How can we deliver more value to our customers? As a team, we’re constantly striving to “betterfy” — a word you hear quite frequently in meetings and around our office!

Humbletude

Humbletude refers to our blend of humility and confidence. We take pride in the quality of our work and are confident in our talents — but we’re not jerks about it! Animoto is made up of a team of immensely talented people, but talent and skill are only part of the equation. We’re not precious about our ideas, we’re open to feedback, and we’re constantly learning from each other.

Oomphosity

Last but not least, oomphosity refers to our commitment to living life with that extra gear. When hiring, we don’t look for a certain type of person, and we don’t try to mold people into a certain type. Rather, we embrace differences and genuinely value and celebrate individuals. It’s the collection of diverse talents, personalities, and qualities that make the Animoto culture and product so unique.

Values vs. Virtues

The move from aspirational values to core values has been a game changer. For the last three years, the Animoto team has been living these new core values. Betterfication, Humbletude, and Oomphosity have become ingrained in everything we do, including our hiring process.

But something had been weighing on me. Betterfication, Humbletude, and Oomphosity have become such a strong part of our culture that the word values feels too generic. Then, I read Ben Horowitz’s new book, What You Do Is Who You Are, and it clicked.

In his book, he talks a lot about culture, values, and virtues. He credits the Japanese samurai culture with saying, “Virtues are what you do, whereas values are merely what you believe.”

That hit me really hard. The reality is that Humbletude, Betterfication, and Oomphosity have become what we do at Animoto — they are our code of conduct. These three traits are deeper than just our values. They’re our virtues that we live each and every day at work.

The leap to virtues

In December, at our company’s all hands event in NYC, I shared my intention to start referring to our values as virtues. There’s a deep rationale for why the change makes perfect sense: we don’t just believe in Humbletude, Betterfication, and Oomphosity — we actually live by them. They are our virtues.

I acknowledged that saying they are our virtues instead of our values goes against convention, so it might feel a little uncomfortable and unfamiliar. It will likely feel a little weird, a little strange — dare I say, a little oomphtastic! ;)

And when we talk about our “virtues” outside the walls of Animoto, it may require a deeper conversation and more explanation about what we mean. But that’s good! That’s exactly why I think this is an important change. I want us to each internalize exactly what our company virtues mean to us. We don’t just believe in the ideas of Humbletude, Betterfication, and Oomphosity; we choose to actively live by them here at Animoto. Referring to them as virtues helps cement their importance in our minds.

What are your company’s virtues?

In conclusion, I challenge you to think about your company values. Are they just a list of words on the wall? Are they aspirational traits or does your team actually live by them? If you had to come up with a list of virtues for your team, what would they be? Drop a comment below and let me know!

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