Values, used wisely, are essential heuristics for making any company function at peak performance. This is a values workshop that can be done as an individual, as a remote part of a group or in person.
Introduction
In this self-guided workshop, you will explore and define a unique set of values for you and your company. These values will act as guiding principles to aid in everything from marketing to personal job satisfaction, conflict resolution, brand identity, and daily practices. By aligning personal and company values, you create a cohesive and effective organizational culture. Teams who share resonant values amplify their efforts whereas dissonant values tend to cancel each other’s efforts out.
Preparation
Before starting the workshop, prepare the following:
- List of Personal Values: Reflect on your personal values and make a list of at least three core values.
- 2. List of Company Values: Consider the values you believe your company currently embodies or aspires to. List at least three values.
Please scroll down to the end and scan the long list of 128 values to assist in inspiring you. You are free to select from these and / or create your own unique value words and phrases. Pick things that call to you and then ask; “can I live without this?” And if the answer is “no I can’t” then it’s likely you have hit on a core value or one that resonates deeply with one of your core values!
Workshop Steps
Step 1: Reflect on Personal Values
Take a few minutes to reflect on your personal values. Write down at least three to five core values that resonate with you the most.
Step 2: Identify Company Values
Reflect on the values you believe your company embodies and or aspires to. Write down at least three to five values that you feel represent the company’s ethos.
Step 3: Combine and Refine Values
- List The Values: Write down your personal values and the perceived company values side by side.
- 2. Find Common Themes: Look for common themes or resonant values between your personal and company lists. Note these down.
- 3. Combine Values: If any values can be combined into a phrase or more comprehensive value, do so. For example, if you have “kindness” and “compassion,” you might combine them into “compassionate kindness.”
Step 4: Weighing Values
As an individual exercise, simulate the voting process by ranking your combined list of values. Assign a score to each value based on its importance to you and the company. Use a scale of 1–5, where 1 is least important and 5 is most important.
If you can share the results and discuss.
Step 5: Create a Values Statement
Using the top values from your ranked list, craft a concise and compelling values statement for your company. Aim to use as many of the top-ranked values as possible while keeping the statement clear and powerful. Note having too many values is like having too many masters and will end up as word salad. Less is often more!
Example:
“Our company values compassion, decisiveness, and relentless productivity, striving to always lead with compassion to achieve outsized results.”
Step 6: Review and Finalize
- Review Your Statement: Ensure your values statement is aligned with both personal and company values.
- 2. Test the Statement: Reflect on how this statement can be applied in daily practices, decision-making, and interactions within the company.
- 3. Refine as Necessary: Make any necessary adjustments to ensure the statement is both aspirational and practical. Iterate until the language gets you and you and others immediately get it!
Step 7: Implementation
- Adopt and Live the Values: Begin integrating these values into your daily work life. Reflect on how you can embody these values in your role.
- 2. Share! Present your values statement to others including senior leadership for consideration and potential adoption as your company’s official values statement.
- 3. Don’t settle: Too often great values are diluted into meaningless gibberish by attempting to reach a consensus. Getting people to put aside their egos and desire to be the one to provide the “right” words is critical. Also if some people are left out then that actually may be a sign they need to find a team to work with that has values that resonate with their own rather than stay. Or out may be a huge opportunity for personal growth!
Conclusion
By following this workshop, you have taken a significant step toward aligning your personal values with those of your company. This alignment can lead to greater job satisfaction, a stronger organizational culture, and a more unified approach to achieving the company’s goals and purpose.
Example Values to Reflect Upon
- Accountability
- - Accuracy
- - Achievement
- - Adventurousness
- - Altruism
- - Ambition
- - Assertiveness
- - Audacity
- - Balance
- - Being best
- - Belonging
- - Boldness
- - Calmness
- - Carefulness
- - Cheerfulness
- - Clear-mindedness
- - Commitment
- - Community
- - Compassion
- - Competitiveness
- - Contentment
- - Continuous Improvement
- - Contribution
- - Cooperation
- - Courtesy
- - Creativity
- - Curiosity
- - Decisiveness
- - Dependability
- - Determination
- - Diligence
- - Discipline
- - Discretion
- - Diversity
- - Dynamism
- - Economy
- - Effectiveness
- - Efficiency
- - Elegance
- - Empathy
- - Enjoyment
- - Enthusiasm
- - Equality
- - Excellence
- - Excitement
- - Expertise
- - Exploration
- - Expressiveness
- - Family-orientedness
- - Fidelity
- - Focus
- - Freedom
- - Fun
- - Generosity
- - Getting shit done
- - Goodness
- - Grace
- - Gratitude
- - Growth
- - Happiness
- - Hard Work
- - Health
- - Honesty
- - Honor
- - Humility
- - Independence
- - Ingenuity
- - Inner Harmony
- - Inquisitiveness
- - Insightfulness
- - Intelligence
- - Joy
- - Kindness
- - Leadership
- - Love
- - Loyalty
- - Making a difference
- - Mastery
- - Openness
- - Originality
- - Positivity
- - Practicality
- - Preparedness
- - Professionalism
- - Prudence
- - Reliability
- - Resourcefulness
- - Results
- - Rigor
- - Security
- - Self-actualization
- - Selflessness
- - Self-reliance
- - Self-sovereignty
- - Sensitivity
- - Serenity
- - Service
- - Shrewdness
- - Simplicity
- - Soundness
- - Speed
- - Spontaneity
- - Structure
- - Success
- - Support
- - Tenacity
- - Teamwork
- - Temperance
- - Thoroughness
- - Thoughtfulness
- - Timeliness
- - Tolerance
- - Trustworthiness
- - Truth-seeking
- - Understanding
- - Uniqueness
- - Unity
- - Usefulness
- - Vision
- - Veracity
- - Vitality
