Just Words On a Wall: Why Most Company Values Fail, and How To Avoid It

A 7-Step Blueprint To Launching Values That Stick

Ever worked somewhere where the values just felt completely empty? meaningless?

Words like Integrity, Transparency, Customer-Obsessed… Trust.

You’ve seen them. We all have.

The truth is, I spend ALOT of time working with HR & Leadership teams on this topic and the large majority are all in the same place.

They’ve done the work to pick some values, in some cases including their team in the process (mini-fist bump) but then they stop. Job Done. Apparently.

The truth is this is where most companies go wrong. The words take on different meaning to different people, and others don’t understand how they’re meant to live them.

Result? There’s a blinding chasm between those words and the day-to-day actions you see. They feel meaningless, and in 12 months time some genius exec has the wonderful idea of doing a values refresh. Rinse & repeat.

Here’s how we think about this differently at Open Org…

7-Step Values Evolution Blueprint

TL;DR..

1️⃣Communicate
2️⃣Survey
3️⃣Aggregate & Analyse
4️⃣Playback
5️⃣Unpack in Workshops
6️⃣Publish V1
7️⃣Publish Roadmap for Operationalising

Let’s dive deeper…

1. Org wide comms

📝 Message: why are we doing this, why now, how we will avoid this being words on a wall

👉 Craft the comms, e.g. Example Slack Comms:

You also want something you can send out pre-survey too:

2. Concise Powerful Survey

📝 Content: focusing on behaviours and collaboration, what is holding us back, what should we protect

👉 Design typeform survey and comms (slack + email)

Sample Typeform here

Core questions (blend EVP and Values Design):

Think of someone on your team you’ve admired recently.

• What made you think of them?

• What words would you use to describe how they work?

What day-to-day behaviours on your team inspire you?

What behaviours don’t work well here?

When have we done our best work together?

• What made it possible?

When have we not done our best work together?

• What got in the way?

3. Data aggregation and synthesis

👉 Aggregate the qualitative and quantitative survey results into a clear and concise summary - notion page / deck

Example from recent client values design project

4. Playback to whole org with findings

📝 Content: share summary from previous step with whole org and tee up inviting folks to join sense-making workshops to unpack and help shape the future values

5. Miro board and/or face to face group workshops to unpack (facilitation)

📝 Content: 2-5 x 10 person facilitated workshops to unpack survey findings and zero in on target value themes, stories and behaviours.

👉 Miro board prep, facilitation support of the group workshops

Full Facilitation guide here you can access to riff with

Example from recent client values design project

6. Publish version 1 for feedback

📝 Content: share the first draft org-wide and engage Heads of to encourage team to feedback. We would be aiming for something in this format (inspired by Runa):

The format that we think works best as final output.

👉 Initial word-smith of values statements, ‘do’s and don’ts’ collate feedback shared from broader team and revise into final draft.

7. Publish roadmap for operationalising

📝 Content: People team share update of this piece of work to whole org and signal what’s next (e.g. how we are going to operationalise this)

👉Comms, sequencing and prioritisation.

• The ‘Everything roadmap’
  This is purely to illustrate a lot of the different ways you CAN operationalise your core values. Hopefully some inspo. Don’t try and do it all :)

🚀 People Roadmap: Operationalising Core Values

• 📌 Recruitment & Hiring

  ✅ 📋 Values-Based Hiring Scorecard – Ensures interviewers assess candidates on alignment with company values, leading to better culture fit and lower attrition.

  ✅ 💬 Structured Interview Question Bank – Standardised, values-driven behavioural interview questions to reduce bias and improve hiring consistency.

  ✅ 🎯 Hiring Manager Training on Values Alignment – Enables hiring managers to identify, attract, and assess candidates who align with company values.

  ✅ 👥 Candidate Experience Guide – Ensures candidates experience company values from first touchpoint, improving employer brand and offer acceptance rates.

  📈 Performance & Retention

  ✅ 📊 Values-Embedded Performance Review Templates – Employees are evaluated not just on outcomes, but on how they achieve results in alignment with values.

  ✅ 🚀 Promotion & Career Progression Criteria – Clearly defines how demonstrating core values impacts advancement opportunities.

  ✅ 🏆 Employee Recognition & Reward Program – Celebrates employees who consistently demonstrate company values, increasing engagement.

  ✅ 📖 Manager Playbook for Coaching & Feedback – Guides managers on how to reinforce values in everyday coaching and performance conversations.

  🎓 Leadership & Development

  ✅ 📢 Manager & Leadership Training on Living the Values – Equips leaders with tools to model and reinforce values in their teams.

  ✅ 🧭 Values-Driven Decision-Making Framework – Helps teams navigate tough decisions by referencing core values as a guiding principle.

  ✅ 🆕 Onboarding Program Reinforcing Core Values – Ensures new hires understand and integrate values into their daily work from day one.

  🏢 Culture & Employee Engagement

  ✅ 📊 Quarterly Values Pulse Survey – Measures how well values are understood and lived across the organisation.

  ✅ 🎙️ All-Hands & Town Hall Integration – Leadership ties business updates to core values, reinforcing their importance.

  ✅ 📢 Internal Communications & Values Messaging – Regular storytelling around values in action (e.g., newsletters, Slack channels).