What are your authentic core values?

Core values are something that every organisation needs but it can be hard to get past the usual suspects that seem to populate just about every corporate values set. You know them well – integrity; trust; teamwork; innovation; honesty; quality; and on and on.

And if you have ever been part of a workshop trying to come up with the list you will also know the allure of the aspirational value – something you’d like to try to become and sounds great, but don’t currently hold, can be hard to resist.

Both of these things present huge obstacles to coming up with authentic core values that are truly representative of the organisation’s beliefs.

Next time core values come up from discussion try this question – which of them would be non-negotiable? Which are the things that you wouldn’t trade on no matter what, that you would continue to hold even if they were a competitive disadvantage?

Anything that doesn’t make the cut just isn’t a core value. A principle of business maybe, something useful for the stage and environment of the business as it stands, probably. But not a value.

Unless they are non-negotiable the business won’t care enough about them to align around them and deliver them consistently. And without that, there is no way for a strong brand to follow.

Here are some value sets that avoid the usual suspects and structure:

• Atlassian – What we value
• Zappos – Code of Conduct
• Patagonia – Our Reason for Being
• Gore (makers of Gore Tex) – Our Culture
• Google – The things we know to be true

So look outside of the usual “single word” with “explanation” structure and instead explore and talk about what your non-negotiables are and talk about those.

See you next week.

Michel Hogan is a Brand Advocate. Through her work with Brandology here in Australia and in the United States, she helps organisations recognise who they are and align that with what they do and say, to build more authentic and sustainable brands. She also publishes the Brand thought leadership blog – Brand Alignment.