During your career you’ve probably seen lists of organisational values, you may even have some in your own company. But why are they important?

Setting values helps to influence behaviour, decision-making, and the overall culture of an organisation. They can enhance employee engagement by aligning personal and organisational values and ensure consistency across various teams, particularly in large or diverse companies. Clearly defined and upheld values can ultimately contribute to the long-term success and sustainability of an organisation. So how do you set your organisation’s values?

If you’ve ever Googled “How To Set Values in an Organisation” you probably came across blog posts and articles that lead you to believe it's a really simple process. All you need is to gather a bunch of people together, decide what your values are, communicate them to your entire staff and the job is done.

And in reality that couldn't be further from the truth. The return on investment from setting values this way will be almost zero. Organisational values are a key aspect of culture in organisations, and without making them into specific tangible behaviours they are just words. They need to be embedded into your organisation. Your team needs to understand them and live and breathe them. Your values need to seep into everything you do. So how do you actually embed values into your organisation? How do you make them come to life?

We once worked with an organisation that had invested heavily in crafting five core values with the help of an external consultant. These values were impressive on paper—words that any professional would be proud to stand behind. But when we brought 40 managers together for a lunchtime session to explore what the values actually meant, every single person had a different interpretation of what the values meant in practice. For example, what did “excellence” truly mean? Some thought it meant doing their best every day, others thought that it meant every piece of work created had to be outstanding.

The irony was clear when, just outside our meeting room, these values were etched on a glass panel across from the elevators. Despite their prominent display, no one could explain what these values meant in day-to-day operations. We think we know what we mean by keywords - but the reality is we all mean different things.

When discussing values, we often use the analogy of a bridge. When we ask people to visualise a bridge and describe it, we receive a wide range of answers—from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to a quaint stone footbridge near the person’s home. Some people even think of the bridge in your mouth when you’ve lost teeth. One word can evoke vastly different images and meanings for different people. This is exactly what happens with organisational values. Without clear definitions and examples, each employee might be walking a different path, albeit under the same banner.

When investing in the creation of organisational values, it’s best to take the extra step to embed them in terms of behaviours. You need to be clear and concise about which behaviours are in alignment with those values and which behaviours are not, then communicate with your team how those look in practice.

Below are some steps to help you embed values into your organisation:

1. Define the Behaviours: Clearly outline with your team which behaviours align with each value. If we’re using “excellence” as an example, what does that look like? Is it always performing to the best of your ability? Is it never settling for work that is sub-par? What’s okay and what’s not okay?

2. Integrate into All Processes: Whether it's hiring, onboarding, day-to-day management, or client dealings, ensure that your values are at the core of all processes.

3. Regular Communication: Communicating values shouldn't be a one-time event. It’s best to be an ongoing conversation, with regular check-ins and refreshers to make sure they’re top of mind.

4. Lead By Example: If the leaders are embodying, exemplifying the values and making it explicit that they’re doing things in alignment with the values, it encourages others to follow suit.

5. Feedback and Adaptation: Be open to feedback about how these values are manifested in the workplace. Adapt them as your company grows and evolves and encourage your team to be part of the conversation.

For values to be truly embedded in the organisation it’s best to make every employee, from the CEO to the interns, not only aware of what the values mean but also equipped and motivated to live them out every day. Values can be the guiding stars for your organisation, provided they are translated correctly into the real actions and decisions that define your organisation.