When Tony Hsieh, founder of Zappos, was asked what he’d do differently if he could restart his company from scratch, he responded with this: “If I could go back and do Zappos all over again I would actually come up with our values from day one.”
How to Establish Values on a Small Team
Include everyone’s perspective.
April 13, 2018
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Summary.
Developing your corporate values early in your company’s history can have a lasting and positive effect on your organization and its culture, and it’s easier to do when your team is small. Whether you’re running a startup or a small business, it’s important to follow a process that allows everyone to contribute. Start by including everyone — this is the advantage to doing this when your company is small. Ask people to reflect individually on what’s important to them and what the company values now. Then come together, put everyone’s ideas on the table (or whiteboard), and come up with a short list. Through discussion, land on a list of values that everyone cane commit to. Next, be sure to talk about how each of those values will be interpreted and applied. Be specific about what each value means, what it looks like in action, and how you’ll evaluate adherence to it. Lastly, develop a plan for integrating the values into everyday work, including what changes you need to make or practices you need to introduce to make sure you are living the values you’ve worked hard to identify.