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💡 This post is part of our larger Team Dynamics: Become a More Effective Leader & Communicator training program that we offer member companies.

Why Defining your Shared Values Matters So Much:

This might sound obvious, but your company is almost certainly comprised of people.

It's worth stating because those people are not machines. They arrive with a rich history of knowledge, skills, and most importantly for this conversation, values.

As much as you might just want to point them in a certain direction and have them get the work done that you need done, the people in your organization have needs. Those needs include:

• A need to understand why your company exists (your Vision). What's the dent in the Universe you're all going to make together? Why should they wake up every morning and come to work for you vs. making 2x as much from a FAANG (or now MAGMA!) company?
• A need to understand how your company will make that dent in the Universe (your Mission)
• A need to understand the specific Strategy you're using to unpack that MIssion
• A need to understand the specific execution of that strategy your company is using this quarter — and importantly what role they should play in that strategy (your OKRs)

These are a lot of needs! And that's just on the intellectual side of things.

The humans in your company are much more than their intellect and logic. They come packaged up with a set of deep-rooted Needs and Values which drive their behavior, and they use Feelings & Judgments as conduits to those Needs & Values.

💡 We more fully describe the connection between Feelings & Needs in our PDF reference guide. Highly recommend printing it out and keeping it on your desk!

This is why your Values matter so much: When you hire humans into your company with a different set of Values than you have, friction will ensue.

Try thinking through these kinds of questions:

• Do you build something fast, or do you build it right?
• Do you make decisions based on gut and opinion, or based on data?
• Do you design based on user surveys and user feedback groups, or based on your team's intuition?
• How transparent are you with your internal information? Do you share company metrics like revenue data with your employees? With the world? What about salary data? Etc.

There is no single right answer for these decisions. Large, successful companies look very different. Apple highly prioritizes individual user privacy while Facebook's entire business is built on monetizing individuals' data.

What matters is that you have alignment around your Values with the humans in your company.

"When there's tension, humans step into their values." - Sue Odio

The more alignment you have, the less friction you'll have around topics like Do we ship it now, or keep working on it until it's ready? and many, many other similar topics.

Step 1: Accept this fact about people: They only change their values slowly — if at all

💡 Don't think about getting your Values right. Instead, think about how you'll get the people right. How will you identify, attract, hire and retain the people who share your company's Values?

You can't force your humans to change their core Needs & Values, only they can. Humans only change their underlying core Needs & Values over time — and even then, only if they really choose to put deep, intentional self-work into the process.

One of the most effective thing you can do to reduce friction inside your company is hire the people who share your Values.

⚠️ Very important: Finding people with shared Values is very, very different from creating a homogeneous company without diversity. You absolutely must value and hire for diversity (and especially cognitive diversity) in order to create a successful company. That's why we always say Hire for cultural addition, not cultural fit. There is no 1:1 mapping of values <—> diversity. People from all backgrounds, genders, ethnicities, familial statuses, work histories, etc. can share your Values. You just have to make it a priority to identify & hire them. More on diversity at On Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

Step 2: Define your Shared Values

In order to identify, screen and hire candidates that share your Values, you need to have defined them. We have tips on doing this here: Using "Even Over" Statements to crystalize shared values in your company

Step 3: Hire the People with those Values

We recommend creating a Values panel as your very first interview panel. If candidates don't pass the Values panel, they don't continue in the interview process.

• Why spend time interviewing a candidate for their skills and competence if they don't share your company's Values? If you truly care about creating aligned Values, you're wasting everyone's time by not starting the interview there.

Step 4: Live your Shared Values

Your Values won't do you any good if you're not living them. A great way to do this is to recognize the employees living your Values in your All Hands, as per this post on creating a Collaborative All Hands structure.

About FounderCulture: Only 1 of every 200 seed-funded startups make it to a $1Bn valuation. FounderCulture exists to improve those odds for Founders worldwide by removing the friction of founding and scaling venture-backed companies. We are building a trusted community to share knowledge with authenticity and vulnerability among Founders. FounderCulture is created by Founders, for Founders. Learn more about FounderCulture:

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