Dakota Beerman

Core values identify your people.

They define the type of people that make up your organization.

The organization becomes these core values.

It’s important to define them. Who do you bring in? Who do you kick off your team?

Here is what worked for me

1. Pick the best 3-5 members of the team. Is it the founder? a crafts person? or another member of the team that you look at and think, “I want for of those guys / gals”?
2. Define their values. Are they hard working? Are they kind? Are they compassionate? Are they strategic? Are they analytical? Fill a list until the well runs dry of observations. Try for 15-20 values in each person.
3. Find the intersection. Where are the values duplicated?
4. Combine and Kill. Kill the non intersecting and combine the ones that repeat. You may have a list of 10, you may have a list of 3, but you should have a clear picture of your organization. (I recommend 3-5 repeated values)
5. Get creative. Use sticky words that make the value easier to remember.

An example from Alluring Glass:

I noticed that my three key guys all looked to get better. But I hated the way “Get Better” sounded, so I talked to friend. We work-shopped it for a half hour and landed on “Training for Tomorrow”. It flows, kind of rhymes, and is way easier to remember.