How to Roll Out New Core Values (Without the Eye-Rolls)

The short version

Most values launches fail at the all-hands. Draft with the people who do the work, test against real decisions, launch small, then embed the values in hiring, promotion and rituals over 90 days.

Employees do not roll their eyes at values. They roll their eyes at the gap between values and what happens on Monday. A launch that arrives with posters, a video and a branded hashtag — followed by the same promotions, the same meetings and the same tolerated behavior — teaches people that the values are marketing.

The fix is to change the order. Do the hard, quiet work of defining and testing the values first. Make the launch small. Then spend ninety days wiring them into the systems people already watch: who gets hired, who gets promoted, what gets recognized, and what happens when someone senior ignores them.

Phase 1: Draft with the people who do the work

Values written by an executive offsite tend to describe the culture leaders wish they had. Values drafted with input from across the organization describe the culture people are willing to defend.

Interview ten to twenty people at different levels: "Tell me about a time someone here did exactly the right thing when it was hard." The behaviors in those stories are your raw material.
Cluster the stories into themes, then name each theme with the plainest word you can. Our core values library is a useful vocabulary check.
Limit yourself to three to five values. More than that and nobody can use them in the moment.
For each value, write three observable behaviors and two anti-patterns. If you cannot, the value is not ready.

Phase 2: Test against real decisions

Before anything is announced, run the draft against reality.

1Pick five recent hard decisions — a promotion, a customer escalation, a missed deadline, a cost cut, a hire. Would the values have pointed to a clear answer?
2Ask: which senior person would currently fall short on each value? If the honest answer is uncomfortable, decide now whether that will change. Launching values that leaders visibly violate is the single fastest path to cynicism.
3Ask a skeptical group of employees to try to break the values. Where they find loopholes or contradictions, tighten the definitions.
4Check that values do not conflict silently. If two values often collide — speed and quality, candor and respect — write down how the tension is resolved.

Phase 3: Launch small and specific

Replace the big reveal with a short, concrete explanation. Leaders should say what is changing, not just what the words are.

Explain the process: who was interviewed, what stories shaped the values, and what was cut.
For each value, share one real story from inside the organization and the behaviors that define it.
Name one thing leadership will do differently starting this month — for example, a new interview question or a change to how promotions are explained.
Say what will not change, and why. It builds more trust than pretending everything will.
Skip the merchandise. Posters arrive after the behavior, not before.

Phase 4: Embed in hiring, promotion and rituals

Hiring

Add one behavioral interview question per value with a scoring guide. "Do you value accountability?" has only one answer. "Tell me about a commitment you missed and what you did before anyone noticed" reveals the behavior.

Promotion

Add a short values section to promotion packets that requires specific evidence, not adjectives. Explain promotions in behavioral terms. People believe the criteria they watch being applied, not the criteria they are handed.

Rituals

Give each value a recurring moment: a two-minute recognition slot that names the value and the behavior, a monthly decision debrief that asks which value shaped a trade-off, a retrospective question about where a value was hard to live. Keep each ritual cheap and give it an owner.

Consequences

Decide in advance what happens when a high performer repeatedly violates a value. The first time it is enforced against someone senior is the moment the organization learns whether the values are real.

The 30/60/90-day plan

Window	Focus	Done when
Days 1–30	Launch and translate	Every team has discussed what each value looks like in its own work; one interview question per value is live; leaders have shared one story each.
Days 31–60	Embed in systems	Promotion packets include values evidence; one recognition ritual per team names values and behaviors; managers have practiced values-based feedback.
Days 61–90	Review and enforce	A pulse check asks whether people see the values in decisions; at least one hard trade-off has been explained publicly in values terms; definitions are revised where they did not hold up.

Handling skeptics

Some cynicism is earned. If a previous values launch faded, people are right to wait and see. Do not argue with skeptics; recruit them. Invite the most skeptical people into the testing phase and ask them to find where the values break. Their objections usually point to the exact place where leaders' behavior and stated values diverge — which is the most valuable information you can get before launch.

Acknowledge history: "We have launched values before and they did not change much. Here is what is different this time."
Show, don't promise: share the interview question or promotion change that is already live.
Invite challenge: give people a clear channel to flag where a decision contradicted a value, and respond publicly.
Report back: at day 90, share what worked, what did not, and what was revised.

A manager's script for the first team conversation

Managers carry most of the rollout. Give them a short, structured conversation to run with their team in the first two weeks, rather than a slide deck to present.

1Read one value and its behaviors aloud.
2Ask: "Where in our work does this value matter most?" Collect two or three specific moments.
3Ask: "Where would living this value be hardest for us?" Write down the honest answers.
4Agree on one small change the team will try for the next month.
5Repeat for the remaining values over the next few weeks — one value per team meeting is plenty.

The output is a short list of team-specific behaviors that translate company values into local practice. That translation is what makes values feel real rather than imposed.

Signs it is working

People use the values language unprompted in meetings and reviews.
Interview notes contain behavioral evidence rather than "culture fit."
Someone can name a decision that went differently because of a value.
Recognition reaches people in quiet, preventive roles, not only visible wins.
A senior person has faced a consequence for ignoring a value.

Rollout checklist

1Values drafted from employee stories, three to five in total.
2Each value has three behaviors and two anti-patterns.
3Tested against five real decisions and a skeptical group.
4Leadership has named one concrete change for launch month.
5Interview questions and scoring guides written.
6Promotion criteria updated with evidence requirements.
7One ritual per value, each with an owner.
8Consequence for repeated violations agreed in advance.
9Day-90 review scheduled.

For a detailed example of one value being lived across hiring, prioritization, feedback, customer decisions and recognition, read our guide From Poster to Practice.

Related resource

Core Values Library

172 core values, each with a definition, observable behaviors, anti-patterns and ways to reinforce it.

Get the Core Values Library