Having a great company culture means you can attract better talent, customers have a better experience, employees work harder, and everyone has more fun.

Great culture is not about snacks or massages or swag (though I have enjoyed all of those perks immensely!).

Every great company culture starts with Core Values.

Core Values are the uniting principles of the company.

• How do we act?

• What do we care about?

• What do we look for in others and ourselves?

• What do we all agree on?

When you have clear, defined Core Values, you can move at super speed with greater cohesion even when growing quickly, facing challenges, or both!

A few examples:

• It’s a natural vetting mechanism in the hiring process (the right people are attracted to your Values, the wrong people self select out)

• Employees can make decisions faster using the Core Values as a guide — even when facing new or unknown challenges

• The team is aligned on what is important and what behavior is desirable

• Core Values instill a sense of pride and ownership among your team!

Here is the real story — with a step-by-step breakdown, of course — of how we defined our Core Values at Rigor.

(Originally posted on the Atlanta Ventures blog in 2018!)

Like all startup projects, it was relatively simple, low/no cost, and speedy. No consultants or multi-month timelines here!

In 2015, Rigor wanted to clarify its Core Values. We used the Atlanta Ventures values of Positive, Supportive, and Self-Starting for several years. These values were still true but we had evolved a unique personality all our own. With 20 people, our company identity was taking shape and we wanted to put words to it. Here are the 6 steps we took to uncover our Core Values, plus protips and lessons learned for anyone thinking about this process for their own company!

6 Steps To Uncover Your Company’s Core Values

1. Company-Wide Core Value Survey

Send a company-wide survey asking about personal and professional values. What matters to people? What are their personal values?

WHY?
The survey triggered reflection on the topic of Core Values and we started to articulate what mattered to us.

2. Share Answers

Share the survey responses (without names).

WHY?
This generated awareness among Rigorians about what themes mattered to teammates. Keep it anonymous to prevent any bias and maintain privacy.

Again, you’re getting the wheels turning. Seeing other people’s responses starts to generate ideas for the next step of the process…

3. Small Group Activity

Meet in small, cross-functional groups.

Each group generates a proposal of 3-5 Core Values with short explanations for each.

(~1 hour meeting, follow up via Slack or email on final details, submit within 1-2 days. If there’s not full consensus, that’s okay. Send in the broader list of ideas with context of where people agreed/disagreed.)

“Cross-functional” means a mix of roles, company tenure, personalities, and background.

WHY?
You now have several lists of employee-generated Core Values that resonate with and embody your team. Small groups mean it’s easier to reach agreement. The team has done the “heavy lifting” on the wordsmithing and definitions. Cross-functional means that there’s alignment regardless of role, background, or tenure.

Bonus: It’s an amazing team-building activity!

4. CEO Review & Edit

The CEO reviews all proposed Core Values and edits to 5-8 “finalists” including tweaking language or explanations.

WHY?
The CEO must wholeheartedly agree with the Core Values and feel ownership since they will be driving adoption and leading by example.

If you founded the company, you want the Core Values to be inspirational to you and aligned with your own beliefs!

SPOILER ALERT: Most companies’ culture naturally aligns with the CEO’s personality.

5. CEO Shares “Finalists” & Asks For Feedback

The CEO sends the Core Value “finalists” to the company and asks for 1:1 feedback via email. (No company wide nastygrams please!)

Agree, disagree, favorites, what would you change?

They can also solicit feedback from trusted advisors and company leaders.

WHY?
Sanity check and final feedback. Fine tuning. Letting everyone feel heard.

• Do these proposed values truly resonate with the team?

• Did we miss or misinterpret something important?

This step gives your most passionate, invested employees a chance to have a say in the final product. The majority of employees will be happy with any of the 5-7 proposed values but it’s important to listen at every step.

David Cummings did this when deciding Core Values for the Atlanta Tech Village.

6. Announce Core Values!

The CEO announces the final 3-5 Core Values via email, at a company meeting, in person, everywhere.

It’s important to have a sentence or two explaining each value and what it means since a short phase could be open to interpretation.

When you share them in person, include a story or two of someone exemplifying that value!

WHY?
Announce them multiple times across multiple channels. It’s a big deal! You want to remind people, burn them into their brain, emphasize the importance, share them in a way that will resonate for different personalities. Repeating them early and often is the first step of…#7 👇👇

Last but not least…

Defining your Core Values is only the first step. You need to incorporate them into the fabric of the company in a way that feels natural. It takes work and intention to start…then the fly wheel gets going and Core Values reinforce themselves!

More on this in an upcoming post! 😉

#PROTIPS

• Use your most organized leader to facilitate the process. (**Kathryn raises her hand 🙋‍♀️**)

• Explain the full process before starting. Clear communication about the process is critical to success!

• Pre-plan the cross-functional groups. Hopefully there are no mortal enemies on your team but now is not the time to make them work together. It should be a positive experience!

• Make your Core Values as action-oriented as possible. Core Values like “Own Your Work” or “Use Resources Wisely” are things you “do” rather than be. Encourage measurable actions not inherent qualities.

• Action-oriented values also provide a framework for decision-making. They help answer questions like, “What should I do in this client situation?”

• Create a documented version of the Core Values with explanations and definitions. It will be referenced often as you grow. New employees will need context on the Values and it creates one source of truth in case existing employees have different interpretations.

• Keep ‘em short.

• Less is more. Rigor had 7 Core Values. We felt strongly about all of them but in a perfect world, it would be no more than 5.

Why It Works

• Every person in the company participates

• Trends naturally emerge; no forcing or digging for your Core Values

• No large group debates (rarely productive) or voting (majority doesn’t mean best overall product)

• CEO has final say

• When the values are announced, everyone sees several of “their” values

• Lots of ideas from lots of places

• Many ways for someone to contribute within their strengths (email, small group, survey)

• Pre-work encourages reflection and thoughtfulness

• Your quietest and loudest employee will both have opportunities to be heard

Fun Surprises

We learned some fun things through this process at Rigor:

• There were common themes - a lot of folks had similar or overlapping values. In hindsight, it makes sense. We were hiring for certain qualities, we had good team chemistry, we had spoken or unspoken expectations about how to treat customers, each other, the work, etc.

• Most companies are a reflection of the founder’s personality — especially in the early days. Founders hire people they like who have qualities they respect and value.

• Everyone enjoyed the process and felt heard!

We were worried that “retrofitting” Core Values could create problems of someone feeling like the Values were “forced” or they didn’t align with the Values. Instead, the opposite was true. We realized that we did have an aligned culture, we just hadn’t put words to it yet!

It quickly became a strength — attracting the right hires, guiding us through decisions, and offering a positive environment with clear expectations!

What are your startup’s Core Values? How did you decide what the Values were? Any lessons to share or advice for other founders?