A long and important tweet by Michael Girdley – read below for the full content…
Many companies have wonderful Core Values on the wall:
– “Be Nice”
– “Be Bold”
– “Own It”
But are packed with bad bosses and toxic culture. Why? The answer is Core Values suck.
There’s a better way…
Here’s the problem with core values.
• Not actionable (of course “honesty” is important)
• Not specific (if I’m honest, how transparent do I be?)
• Not complete (only 3-5 values describe our whole culture?!)
They say nothing about your actual culture.
My buddy Andrew Himoff runs @StaffingVip
Two years ago… Andrew was frustrated by the usual way of doing Core Values. So, he introduced something called “Core Behaviors”:
Core Behaviors fix the 3 big problems with the classic Core Value approach:
• Actionable • Specific
• Complete Core Behaviors aren’t vague concepts.
They define the specific actions special to a culture — And, as such, define who we are as an organization.
So, how do you put them into practice? Andrew followed a 4-step process:
1. Define the Behaviors
2. Introduce the Behaviors
3. Reinforce the Behaviors
4. Revise the Behaviors
Let’s dig into each step…
1. Define the Behaviors Most Core Values creation has everyone come to a consensus. Which explains why they’re often worthless! In Core Behaviors, the CEO writes the first version of them.
2. Introduce the Behaviors For 18 weeks, Andrew emailed the entire company every Monday. He’d talk about what one of those Behaviors meant to him. And how he was trying to live it personally.
3. Reinforce the Behaviors Then, members of the team took turns doing the same thing. One would write that week’s email to the whole company. Saying what that week’s Core Behavior means to them. On the 18th week, they repeat the cycle.
4. Revising the Core Behaviors Andrew maintains that list of Core Behaviors as CEO. He revises the Behaviors based on input from everyone. Sometimes adding, subtracting, and changing. The Behaviors continue to evolve with the company, people, and times.
Andrew has seen great success after two years: The culture is now being driven bottom-up. It has defined a common identity. Teammates don’t tolerate when they see people not living the behaviors. Pretty great as an actionable way to define and reinforce company culture.
tl;dr: Stop doing Core Values like we always have. They’re stupid! Instead, define 15-20 Core Behaviors of your company. Then, build your culture using a 4-step process:
1. Define the Behaviors
2. Introduce the Behaviors
3. Reinforce the Behaviors
4. Revise the Behaviors
