More Than Words on a Wall

Creating the Conditions to Live Your Values

We’ve all seen it before: the framed values poster in the boardroom, the company all-hands where someone recites the latest acronym-laced manifesto, the onboarding slide deck that introduces the “core values” page with all the enthusiasm of a fire drill. Yet for many organizations, that’s where it ends.

Words.

Recently, during a feedback conversation with a new hire, I was struck by something simple yet profound. She remarked that while onboarding was helpful, what really stood out was how the people she was now working with embodied the company’s values. It wasn’t just talk, it was behavior. She could feel it. Observe it. Experience it.

Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash

And that’s the point, isn’t it? Values are meaningless unless they’re lived.

The Difference Between Stated and Lived Values

There’s a critical difference between having values and enabling people to live them. The former is an intellectual exercise. The latter is a cultural achievement. Too often, companies treat values as static declarations: set once, laminated, and largely ignored. But lived values are dynamic. They shape decisions, interactions, and even how people show up for each other day-to-day.

This employee’s feedback reminded me: it’s not about what we say we value, it’s about what we reward, recognize, and model. When values show up in real behavior, they create alignment without micromanagement, clarity without rigidity, and belonging without conformity.

Creating Conditions Where Values Come Alive

So how do organizations move from values-as-slogans to values-as-practice? It doesn’t happen by accident. It takes deliberate design. Here are four levers I believe we need to focus on:

1. Recruit for Cultural Contribution, Not Just Fit

Hiring isn’t just about skills, it’s about signals. We need to look for people who not only align with our values but will amplify them. This means probing for lived experiences, not rehearsed answers. It means valuing the diverse perspectives that stretch our values into new spaces.

2. Tell Stories That Showcase Values in Action

People learn through narrative. That’s why onboarding should go beyond introducing the values slide. It should include real stories of how those values have shaped decisions or changed outcomes. These stories create emotional connection and show that values are not abstract, they’re operational.

3. Ensure Leaders Model the Invisible

Employees watch what leaders do far more than what they say. Every decision, every meeting, every trade-off is a moment of truth. Do our actions reinforce the values we claim to hold? Are we calling out courage, curiosity, or candor when we see it?

4. Make Values the Backbone of Everyday Rituals

Whether it’s how we run retros, recognize peers, or design promotions, values must be embedded into everyday moments. Not as an overlay, but as the spine. This is what turns values into norms, and norms into culture.

The Role of Leadership: Cultivators, Not Enforcers

Our job as leaders is not to enforce values like rules. It’s to create the psychological and organizational conditions for them to be expressed. This means creating safety for disagreement when integrity is on the line. It means making space for experimentation when curiosity is a value. And it means accepting slower consensus when inclusion matters more than speed.

When we do this well, new hires don’t just learn about our values, they feel them. They experience them in team behaviors, leadership choices, and how decisions are made. And when they tell us, unprompted, that the values are real, that’s not just feedback.

That’s the culture speaking.