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March 17, 2023 10 mins

Defining your company core values is one of the critical steps in building a successful workplace culture. This episodes walks leaders through a process to identify these values and help build employee support around them. 

For more information on building a successful V.A.L.U.E. Culture in the workplace, join the waitlist for the book (arrive late April 2023) at chelliephillips.com/waitlist 

Thanks for listening. Grab the book the podcast is based on at https://mybook.to/culturesecrets . Check out my website www.chelliephillips.com for more great content. Follow me on LinkedIn.

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Episode Transcript

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Unknown (00:06):
If workplace culture is your jam, you're in the right
place. Check out this episode ofculture secrets, the podcast
dedicated to creating workplacesfor both employees and the
company's thrive.
Welcome to today's podcast, I'myour host Chellie Phillips. As I
was researching for my newestbook culture secrets, I came

(00:27):
across so much information aboutbuilding strong people centered
workplace cultures that Icouldn't fit it all. In the
book. I believe all successfulcultures share a set of building
blocks, and they are vision,accountability, leadership, the
uniqueness of employees andengagement. In other words, a
value culture. As a leader,setting core values for your
organization is an essentialstep in creating a culture that

(00:50):
reflects your vision andmission. But how do you develop
a list of core values thatreflects the culture you want to
create? In this episode, we'lldiscuss how leaders can develop
a list of core values thatreflect that culture in the
workplace and the importance ofinvolving your whole team in the
process. Let's get theconversation started and talk
about vision. Your visionstatement should be the

(01:12):
foundation for your core values.
They should reflect the overallpurpose and goals of your
organization. A strong visionprovides a clear direction for
the company and helps to alignemployees towards shared goals.
As a leader it's important todevelop a vision that reflects
your values, and goals for thecompany. Start by reviewing your
mission and vision statement andconsider the values that are

(01:32):
essential to achieving thosegoals. For example, if your
vision is to be a leadinginnovator in your industry, you
might want to include valuessuch as creativity, risk taking,
and continuous learning.
Let's explore some exercisesthat can help you develop a
vision that is aligned with theculture you want to create. One

(01:54):
of the most effective exercisesfor developing that is
visualization. Close your eyesand imagine what you want your
company to look like in thefuture. Think about what your
company stands for and whatvalues it represents. Consider
how your company can create apositive impact on society. Once
you have a clear picture of yourvision, write it down and share

(02:14):
it with your team. This exercisecan help create a shared vision
that everyone can work towards.
Another useful exercise forcreating a vision is a SWOT
analysis. This involvesidentifying your company's
strengths, weaknesses,opportunities and threats. By
analyzing these factors, you canidentify areas for improvement,
and determine the direction youwant your company to take. us

(02:34):
the results of your SWOTanalysis develop a vision that
reflects your company'sstrengths, and addresses its
weaknesses. This exercise canalso help to create shared
understanding of the challengesthe company may be facing right
now. Finally, brainstorming is agreat exercise for developing
provision. Gather your team andask them to share their ideas
about what they think thecompany should be like in the

(02:56):
future. Encourage them to thinkbig to share any ideas they
have, no matter how crazy theymay see. This exercise can lead
to a lot of creative ideas andcan help to create a shared
vision for the company. It canalso help to create a sense of
collaboration and sharedownership of the company's
vision. Next is a time toinvolve your team. As a leader,

(03:17):
it's important to set values foryour organizations that reflect
the culture you want to create.
However, the values that youchoose should not be imposed on
your employees from the topdown. Involving employees and
setting company values can leadto more buy in and commitment to
these values. It's important toinvolve your team in the process
of developing core values. Thiscan help ensure that the values

(03:39):
you choose are aligned with theneeds and aspirations of your
employees. When employees areinvolved in the process of
setting up the values. They feelmore invested in these values,
and they're more likely to livethem out in their daily work.
Additionally, involvingemployees in the process can
help to ensure that the valuesare aligned with the
organization's goals and theneeds of the employees. There

(04:00):
are many ways to involveemployees in the process of
setting values. One approach isto create a values committee
made up employees from acrossthe organization. The committee
can be tasked with identifyingthe values that are the most
important to the organization,and development plan for how
these values can be implementedand reinforced. Let's look at a
few more ways you can work thisdiscussion into your next

(04:21):
workshop or staff meeting. Oneway to begin identifying core
values is through the one wordactivity. In this activity, each
team member is giving a fewminutes to think of one word
that represents the team and thevalues they want to embody. This
activity allows each team memberto think about what is important
to them and what they believethe team should prioritize. Once

(04:42):
everyone has come up with theirword, take some time to share
and discuss the words you mayfind that some words are similar
and can be combined or that somewords can be expanded upon to
create a more specific corevalue. Another activity that can
be used to help identify corevalues is the storytelling
activity andIn this activity, each team
member shares a personal storyabout a time they experienced a

(05:02):
situation where a particularvalue was important to them. For
example, if one of the corevalues is teamwork, a team
member may share a story about atime they worked on a project
with a team, and how the team'scollaboration was crucial for
the success. This activityallows team members to connect
personal experiences to corevalues, and it helps the team

(05:23):
identify values that areimportant to them. The last
activity is a team surveyactivity. In this activity, each
team member is given a survey toask questions about the team's
current culture, and what valuesare important to them. This
activity allows team members toreflect on their own experience
on the team and identify areaswhere the team can improve. It
can also help the team leaderunderstand what values are

(05:46):
important to each team member,and what values the team should
prioritize. The reason this workis simple, you're asking them
what they believe are essentialvalues for the organization, and
why they believe these valuesare important that shows you
value their input. Remember, youdon't have to reinvent the
wheel, look to other successfulorganizations and see what's

(06:08):
working for them. In my bookculture secrets, I share stories
from a number of successfulcompanies of all sizes and from
all industries. While thecultures all contained some of
the same core attributes. Eachone reflects the uniqueness of
the company it lives in. Takeinspiration from other
successful organizations thathave values aligned with the
culture you want to create,study their core values and

(06:31):
identify those that are mostrelevant to your organization.
You can also look to yourindustry or sector for guidance
on the values that are mostimportant to the success of your
company. Now as to dedicate timeto identify the behaviors that
reflect your values. These arethe specific behaviors that you
want employees to model in theirday to day work life values are
only meaningful if they arelived out in the workplace.

(06:53):
Identify the specific behaviorsthat reflect each of your core
values. For example, if one ofyour core values is
accountability, you mightidentify behaviors such as
taking ownership and mistakes,following through on commitments
and being open to feedback. It'simportant you keep your core
values simple, your core valuesshould be easy to remember and

(07:13):
communicate. Avoid creating along list of values that are
difficult to remember orimplement. Aim to identify three
to five core values that areessential to your organization's
success. Once you've identifiedyour core values, test them by
using them to make decisions inyour organization. Ask yourself
if these values are reflected inyour hiring practices, your

(07:33):
decision making processes, andin the way that you reward and
recognize your employees. Nowlet's recap what we've talked
about before you go. Developinga list of core values that
reflects the culture you want tocreate in the workplace takes
time and effort. By startingwith your vision involving your
team. Looking to othersuccessful organizations,
identifying behaviors, keepingit simple and testing your

(07:56):
values, you can create a list ofcore values that reflects your
organization's goals andaspirations. These values will
serve as a guide for decisionmaking and will help to create a
positive and productive culturein your workplace. Involving
employees and setting companyvalues is an important step in
providing a positive andproductive culture. By giving
employees a voice in theprocess, they become more

(08:18):
invested in the values and aremore likely to live them out in
their daily work. Thanks forlistening today's episode. I
hope you found this podcastinformative and useful. If you
have any questions or comment,please feel free to reach out to
me. If you like what you heardtoday, please subscribe, drop me
a rating and share a link with afriend. If you want to learn
more or perhaps have me comelead a workshop or discussion

(08:40):
with your organization. Visit mywebsite at WWW dot Chellie
phillips.com. That's C H E L L IE P h i ll IPs. You can also get
on the waitlist for the culturesecret book. It's going to be
arriving in late April 2023. Itcontains even more tips and
strategies for building a strongworkplace culture. Simply go to

(09:03):
Chellie phillips.com backslashwaitlist and fill out the
information and you'll benotified as soon as the book is
available at major retailers.
Remember, building a valueculture is your competitive
advantage and the backbone ofany successful organization.
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