{"id":7826,"date":"2017-12-01T17:04:29","date_gmt":"2017-12-01T16:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/?p=7826"},"modified":"2017-12-01T17:04:29","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T16:04:29","slug":"changing-company-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/blog\/changing-company-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Don’t be afraid to change your company values"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clear company values help create an identity and a focus for your company. How do you work together? And more importantly, does your way of working get you where you want to go?<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you treat your company values as if they\u2019ve been chiseled in stone, and are therefore untouchable? Or do you view them as fluid (yet still defining) aspects of your company\u2019s culture?<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Katelin Holloway<\/a>, VP of People at Reddit<\/a>, company values should be \u201cyour guiding light of expected behaviors\u201d. But organizations often aren\u2019t able to apply values to daily work. On top of that, outdated values often stick around too long and become irrelevant and confusing. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the Reddit People and Culture team periodically undergoes a rigorous account of their values in order to address the company\u2019s current situation. Here are their five evergreen strategies for not only creating meaningful values, but how to interact with them and, if necessary, say goodbye to them. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t have competing company values<\/b><\/h2>\n

Your company values need to be able to coexist \u2013 otherwise, your employees will be confused about their priorities when the values are translated into guidelines.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot have values that say, \u201cwe produce very, very quickly\u201d and \u201cwe produce things that are top quality\u201d and \u201cwe do it all while being mindful of the bottom line,\u201d Holloway says. \u201cThose three things cannot exist in one place together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Values instead should be complementary, addressing different aspects of what\u2019s crucial to your business<\/a>. For example, a few of Reddit\u2019s current values are Remember the Human, Evolve, and Act Like An Owner, which address their customer\/audience, philosophical positioning, and internal behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

Values should live in the present<\/b><\/h2>\n

One question to ask yourself as an HR manager: do your values scale<\/a>? A particular value might work fine for a company of 80 people, but will it have the same relevance when you\u2019ve tripled in size?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the biggest mistakes people make is thinking that values are going to live for the next 50 years,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cBut the reality is that\u2019s not what a company needs. A company may not even be around that long. So start identifying values that are for the now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t mean you need to be planning to throw out your values on a yearly basis. But it\u2019s worth thinking about if a value that was instilled in the early days of the company \u2013 say, \u201cTreat coworkers like family\u201d \u2013 still holds relevant for your team\u2019s current needs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Know when it\u2019s time to say goodbye<\/b><\/h2>\n

Purging a value that has defined your company\u2019s existence can be an emotional experience. But when it comes time to tell employees that a previous value has gone off to live on a big farm in the countryside, don\u2019t be shy. It\u2019s actually a good thing \u2013 once a value becomes so ingrained and a fixture in your company\u2019s daily practices, it\u2019s a good time to think about shelving it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Holloway relayed Reddit\u2019s experience with \u201cListen. Debate. Ship.\u201d, which had been implemented because the company wanted to streamline its decision-making process. They reinforced it regularly, until they realized they no longer needed to.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProcess becomes culture. It wasn\u2019t part of our language anymore,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cWe evolved out of it. We established the pattern of behavior that we wanted to see so we put it on the shelf.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But because Reddit makes a point to use their values as a tool for execution, they were able to explain the reasoning behind sunsetting the old value by showing that the team had internalized it into their culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Communicate new values clearly<\/b><\/h2>\n

Employees don\u2019t want to feel as if the goalposts are constantly being moved on them. Beyond retiring a past value, it\u2019s important to make the process of setting a new value as transparent as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n

Holloway admitted she feels lucky that Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is so invested.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a huge champion in ensuring that they remain a tool and guiding light for us,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

And when a new value is implemented, he\u2019ll hold 1:1 meetings<\/a> on the topic so that any employee with questions is free to question or challenge his reasoning. Feedback is solicited at every level of the organization \u2013 this not only helps with wide-spread adoption but also gets employees invested in the change.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is that it\u2019s a fun process,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s identifying the current behavioral challenge, the way in which you want to interact and the way you want to communicate with your team and what you actually think is most important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Changing Values Is Easier Than You Think<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While changing values can seem daunting, with clear communication and buy-in from company leadership, it\u2019s a way to make values much more timely and applicable to the entire company.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s also worth remembering that every company <\/span>has<\/span><\/i> values, whether they are written down or not. The unspoken culture and collective behavior says a lot about a workplace \u2013 which is a good thing, because it means you have clear alignment on what matters. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important to establish explicitly what those values really are. Narrowing values down and defining them helps everyone focus and guide each behavior more concisely. <\/span><\/p>\n

And if you need to change your values, give yourself permission to do that if it\u2019s what\u2019s best for your organization. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be scared to do it. It\u2019s easier than you think,\u201d Holloway said. \u201cAnd if you do it well it\u2019s incredibly effective.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A company value should reflect your identity, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be timeless. Our friends at Reddit share their tips on how companies can best grow and evolve. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":7828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-company-culture","category-rethinking-hr"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.small-improvements.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}