Week 16, 2019
Core Values: Recognize, Juxtapose, and Manifest
Each week I share three ideas for how to make work better. This week, I’d like to focus on Core Values: what they are, why they’re important, and how to not make them sound like meaningless platitudes.
Let’s dig in.
1. Recognize
Core Values (also called Company Values) are fundamental beliefs derived from your Purpose, Mission, and Vision (see w152019). They’re about stewardship; the guiding principles that you believe are necessary to realize your vision. At first, they might be unspoken truths shared amongst founding members. But as the organization grows, so does the need to codify and commit them to organizational lore. That’s why most organizations define their values mid-stream. MAQE was no different. It took us four years to realize that our values of Purpose, Humility, Growth, and Freedom deserved official recognition. They were there all along. We just didn’t recognize them until much later.
2. Juxtapose
Core values shape culture. They are culture; they’re the reason “people like us do things like this”. On the one hand, they’re the glue that holds us together. On the other, they’re the stuff that separates us from the herd. That’s why I recommend values be juxtaposed with other positive traits. “Honesty” is a popular value. But it means nothing in and of itself. It’s something everyone can (hopefully) ascribe too. “Honesty over Politeness” on the other hand, now that’s a statement! Core values should make you think. At MAQE, we value Purpose over Profit, Humility over Authority, Growth over Perfection, and Freedom over Structure. We know that these are terms not everyone can agree to. And that’s precisely the point.
3. Manifest
Defined and soon forgotten. That’s the unfortunate destiny that most core values face. Some get pinned to the office wall while others are relegated to the employee handbook. Precious few actually make a difference. And that’s where Key Behaviors come in. Introduced to me by Robert Bluett at People Plus Systems, KBs are what your core values look like in real life; their physical manifestation. They’re what you hire, fire, and promote for. Take Growth over Perfection as an example. At MAQE, you see it in action when a QA cross-trains as a PM, or when an engineer adds coaching to their development plan. We do value depth of knowledge. But we also want to encourage everyone to go broad, experiment, and try new things.
Purpose, Mission, Vision, Core Values, and Key Behaviors. It’s an awful lot of stuff. Do you really need all of them? No, I don’t think you do. But you should, at the very least, given each one a bit of thought. As Gandhi wrote:
“Your beliefs become your thoughts, your thoughts become your words, your words become your actions, your actions become your habits, your habits become your values, and your values become your destiny.”
You’ve got a toolkit at your disposal. Which tool you end up using will depend on timing and circumstances. But you do need something. Being everything to everyone is the same as being nothing to no one. So take a stance. Be something rather than nothing.
That’s all for this week.
Time to get back to work.
/Andreas
