Defining organizational values is a deliberate process that involves input from key stakeholders across the organization. The process typically begins with assembling a team of senior leaders or a dedicated values committee who have a deep understanding of the organization’s culture, history, and goals.

Decide who will collaborate on setting up the organizational values. Will it be done individually by the owner or will the whole board or management team be involved?

Some organizations decide to include heads of specific departments, even if they are not part of the top level management team, because they have valuable views that can contribute. Other organizations decide to include all employees in the discussion and selection.

Smaller, carefully selected groups are better to avoid the “democracy” challenge mentioned earlier and to avoid ending up with generalized values that don’t inspire anyone.

The process requires a space large enough for all participants to sit in a circle or around a conference table, with the cards displayed in the middle randomly. The steps outlined below usually take one working day but that depends on the number of participants. If there is a small group of people (5-10) working on defining values, the whole group can work with one set of Garden of Value cards. If the group is bigger, it should be divided into smaller groups and each smaller group should work with their own, separate, full set of Garden of Values cards, following steps from 1 to 7.

Each participant chooses and describes one past project (from their entire life or career path, not necessarily within this organization), where they felt the project was successful, the people were connected and where, in hindsight, everything seemed to have run optimally and smoothly. These are the projects you feel proudest of. Each participant should describe, as vividly as possible, different elements of their past experience.

Look for ideal scenarios, stories “set in the stars” as legends written in the history books. Each should be representative of the culture you liked. It might be a project that ran smoothly or a project that went wrong, but people with certain values were able to solve it.

When listening to the examples, try to find common themes. What shows up again and again? You don't have to be picky about specific words yet. Each group should have one person noting down the themes and experiences to create a pool of all examples from which you will draw your values.

The first step is to examine horizontally, meaning that you’re widening the list of experiences, examples, and themes.

From the whole set of cards, pick the ones that were representative of the elements and themes you have discussed. Here we're starting to narrow the selection. Set aside the cards that were not represented in the examples and work only with the representative ones from this point forward.

GROUP INTO MACRO-PATTERNS

Try to combine different cards into groups by their connected topics. Put together similar values in a specific pile. Try to limit yourself to 3-7 piles.

In each group of cards, identify one value that represents that pile best. If there is no card that expresses exactly what you want to have as a core value, then find or establish your own. It can also be a superscript of all the value cards you have in the group.

GAZE AT YOUR SELECTION

Now that you have the names of specific groups of cards, review them and see whether they truly represent your values: can you actually stand behind them and say “This is how we do things around here.” or “This clearly articulates what we stand for."

Go through the cards that you have set aside and see whether there is a value that should be included, but which hasn’t yet been presented in any of the examples you shared. If you find one that needs to be included in the final list, include it.

If you worked in groups, each group should present their top list. See the commonalities and review the discrepancies. As a group, select the final list of organizational values.

Should you go through the process and identify words for values that resonate more with you than the pre-written choices, five blank cards are additionally included. With them, you can enrich your deck, customizing it to your world, by writing your own values on them.

Allow yourself to enter into a deep discussion and avoid accepting the final set of values to cover everyone’s entire wish-list just for the sake of keeping peace or completing the task. Everyone involved in the process of defining values should be able to stand behind the selected values with pride and be a role model for the entire set of values.

MAKE VALUES SHINE

Brainstorm ways to articulate and present your values:

• Will you have only “title” words for values, or will they be written out in complete sentences?

• Will each value have an explanation of what it actually means for you in practice? If so, then take the cards that were in the same group and for each one create a sentence that you can use as the description of this value.

• Will the value titles or descriptions need to be rephrased in order to be more inspirational?

• What will your strategy be for presenting the chosen values to employees? What will your implementation and maintenance initiatives look like? What resources will you invest in the execution?

Once you have all the details, compile the values and their explanations into a single document. Take some time to review them individually. If, upon receiving additional feedback, adjustments should be made, include them.

Ensure that the values:

• Capture the core values of the organization (Is this really what's important to us?)

• Will inspire people (Is this the organization I want to work in?)

• Can be explained and demonstrated to employees through everyday activities

After the final review, your values are ready for implementation and presentation to the entire organization.