More than a list of values

When a software company asked us to help put its values into words, it looked like a contained piece of work: a few workshops, a handful of clear sentences, maybe a page for the website. What came out of it was bigger than the brief, and it changed the way we think about what building a brand actually involves.

a company built around one instinct

The company had always defined itself by pushing boundaries and challenging what its market took as the norm. Its CEO is technical, someone who understands the product down to its smallest details, and the culture had grown around that instinct for years without anyone putting it into words. Everyone could feel it, but nobody could point to it.

The CEO's drive also shaped how the team grew. Hiring followed the same instinct, so people were brought in for their talent and their appetite for hard problems, while the question of how they would fit the culture of the company rarely came up, mostly because that culture had never been described clearly enough to ask it.

the workshops ended up being about goals, not words

We ran a series of workshops with the management team, and above all with the CEO. They were the same branding workshops we run with every client, because a brand that isn't rooted in what a company truly values has nothing solid to stand on. They were never meant to look for faults in the culture, but by asking the leadership to name what they believed, they naturally brought to light the places where the company and its culture had drifted apart. Very quickly the conversation stopped being about which words sounded right and turned into a conversation about what kind of company they actually wanted to build, a question most leadership teams rarely find the time to ask out loud.

By the end, the values were no longer a list. They were clear in the minds of the people running the company, clear enough that they knew which ones to lean on and where, in how they set priorities, how they reviewed work and what kind of effort they chose to recognise.

the part nobody planned

Then something happened that none of us had aimed for. As the values became visible in everyday decisions, the people who didn't recognise themselves in that direction gradually moved on, on their own, while the ones who did found themselves pulling together more naturally than before.

Nobody pushed for it and it was never the point of the work. It was simply what happens when a company reconnects with what it set out to do, and the people around it can finally see that direction clearly enough to decide whether it is also theirs.

what it taught us about brand

We went into that project thinking of values as one part of a brand strategy, a section in a document. We came out understanding that a brand is also the place people return to when they have to decide something, and that its most important audience is sometimes the team itself.

A brand that is clear on the inside doesn't need to be enforced. People recognise it and choose it, or they choose something else, and either way the company becomes more honest about who it is.

questions that bring a team back to what it wants

• What were we trying to build when we started, and is it still what we want?
• Which of our values do we already live without having to think about them?
• When two good options pull in different directions, which of our values helps us choose?
• Would someone joining next month understand what we care about from the way we work, rather than from a slide?

where a brand actually starts

Values are usually treated as one chapter in a strategy document, somewhere between the positioning and the tone of voice. That project showed us they sit much closer to the beginning, as the part that has to be true inside the company before anything it says outside can be believed.

If your leadership team hasn't had that conversation in a while, it is usually the most useful place to begin.

The last article in this series turns back to the market, and to what happens when marketing and brand pull in different directions.