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If you're unwilling to ever say what your cultural values are, then your only cultural value is "do what thou wilt". Anything anybody does is automatically your

If you're unwilling to ever say what your cultural values are, then your only cultural value is "do what thou wilt". Anything anybody does is automatically your culture, if it's defined in actions only. Somebody brings their dog into the office, your culture is now dog-friendly. And for anybody who hasn't seen your history of actions – like new hires – your culture doesn't exist at all. The benefit of defining your values is not descriptive, but aspirational. Your values are not "here is how all of us will infallably behave at all times"; it's "here's how we want to be, even when it's hard, because we think it's right and because we need to rely on each other to keep ourselves honest about them." Shitty people will still manipulate or ignore those values at their convenience, but if you're working with shitty people it'll never matter what systems or values or rules you have.

reureu 8y ago
I think this idea of explicitly stating corporate values is relatively new, but maybe there's a longer history there than I'm giving credit. I definitely hear you that a company can have implicit values, and that's going to happen regardless of if you make them explicit or not, so you might as well make aspirational, explicit values. I disagree that lacking stated values creates a Wild West environment: if your office building doesn't allow dogs, then it's not a dog friendly environment even if someone brings their dog to work (i.e., bad or improper behavior will be rectified). The example of a candidate or new hires is a good one. Having aspirational values feels like it could be misleading to the new or potential employee. What happens if they come in to an environment that has stated values of "radical transparency", but finds the realized values are "passive aggressiveness" and "backstabbing"? I don't mean to come off so cynical, but I think as well intentioned as stated corporate values are, they can very quickly become traps or weapons. This is particularly true in silicon valley, where a growing number of people have figured out that hip values can be used to manipulate employees.

reureu 8y ago

I think this idea of explicitly stating corporate values is relatively new, but maybe there's a longer history there than I'm giving credit. I definitely hear you that a company can have implicit values, and that's going to happen regardless of if you make them explicit or not, so you might as well make aspirational, explicit values. I disagree that lacking stated values creates a Wild West environment: if your office building doesn't allow dogs, then it's not a dog friendly environment even if someone brings their dog to work (i.e., bad or improper behavior will be rectified). The example of a candidate or new hires is a good one. Having aspirational values feels like it could be misleading to the new or potential employee. What happens if they come in to an environment that has stated values of "radical transparency", but finds the realized values are "passive aggressiveness" and "backstabbing"? I don't mean to come off so cynical, but I think as well intentioned as stated corporate values are, they can very quickly become traps or weapons. This is particularly true in silicon valley, where a growing number of people have figured out that hip values can be used to manipulate employees.