You can cook up a set of values in the boardroom and paint them on the wall, but if your values are not embedded in your culture, they will never work for your brand.

To find and define brand values that influence how our organisations work and are perceived, we have to sketch the problem clearly and engage our teams in uncovering the values that drive their behaviour and decision-making on a day-to-day basis.

WHAT ARE BRAND VALUES?

People are driven by values and principles instilled in us through our families, societies and culture from when we are young. Like people, organisations and brands have values, whether or not they are explicitly (or accurately) stated.

Brand values are the fundamental beliefs and principles that will guide and define its identity and behaviour. They serve as the foundation for how a brand presents itself to the world and interacts internally with its team and externally with its audiences and other stakeholders.

Brand values are often the most consistent aspect of a brand’s nature because they are essential in shaping its reputation and building trust with audiences.

Organisations with strong values also tend to perform better because their values provide a compass for the future, making it easier for them to make decisions.

How do I find my brand values?

Brand Values have a bit of a bad reputation in the world, but if you look beyond the rotten apples who set lofty values and don’t live up to them, there is a lot that unique and well-defined values can do for any team. Capturing beliefs is not easy, and neither is the process of getting the list down to a few that truly matter. 

If an authentic personality finds an organisation, their values usually trickle down into its culture and organically make their way into each team member’s belief system. In this case, these values must be made explicit to ensure that the organisation makes the right choices.

In cases where the founders’ values do not take the lead, the values game is a great exercise of self-reflection to find and define your brand values.

the values game: a collaborative exercise to find your brand values

I love playing the Values Game, one of the 23 tools and exercises from Brand The Change, the Guidebook.

Defining your values requires you to turn on your bullshit radar and answer some difficult questions.

• Why does the organization exist beyond making a profit?

• What universal principles and beliefs are fundamental to you?

• What are the organization's mission and vision?

• How does the organization want to impact the world?

These are not quick questions to answer, so to keep the conversation from going into a long debate, some playful rules are helpful guard rails.

Although playing games and using other creative formats is a little outside my comfort zone, I've found this exercise gets good results, so that gives me the courage to do it. 

WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY THE VALUES GAME

• Get a few team members together for the game. Two or more colleagues and preferably people who hold the brand close.

• You will need about 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on the depth of your debate. .

• Get some writing materials like sticky notes, paper, or virtual and get ready to play.

Below is an example from a client workshop with a baking goods company that gives people with a criminal record a second chance at work (and life). 

Round 1 - list six values

Co-founders Clarissa and Peter each list the six values that they think underpin their work. You'll see some overlap on particular topics between them (quality - excellence, honesty, and integrity). 

What are examples of brand values?

Do your colleagues or clients find it hard to list any values at all?

There is a Values Cheat Sheet on page 72 of Brand The Change that you can keep handy in case people need something to start with.

Do they find it hard to say which values are truly unique to them?

This is my 'Joker' question that I pull if all else fails. 

"What was the last time you had to make a difficult decision?"

I believe we find the brand values that truly matter to us when we look for a situation where we have to make a (difficult) decision. Where you had to choose one thing over the other, and the value prevailed over other benefits. 

For Clarissa and Peter, the words forgiveness and reciprocity were pulled from a debate they had a few months ago about an employee who crossed a line and ended up getting fired. It raised questions about how far they should go in giving people that they employ a second chance. If they forgive and keep forgiving, that goes against the culture of excellence that they want to create. Reciprocity ("We give you a second chance at work, but you then need to step up and take the opportunity in full") was considered really important. 

So, give the questions a try. "What was the last time you had to make a difficult decision?" could give you lots of great information on what truly matters to them. Maybe they had to fire a team member for a certain type of behaviour. They had to say no to an investor because of a difference in world views. Most likely, there is a brand value that was at stake. 

Round 2 - Merging and challenging

Clarissa challenged diversity when she asked how it impacted the hiring policy. Peter realised that their concept of open hiring was more important than the ethnic/cultural/religious background of the people they hired, and together, they decided it was not a guiding principle.

Peter noticed a lot of terms overlapping - though Clarissa saw a distinguishing feature of each of the values. She gave Peter the benefit of the doubt, and they tried to merge these terms. 

Round 3 - Final vote

After another round of merging and debating, a list of four values emerged. 

Second chances - less patronizing than forgiveness and less formal and generic than justice or reciprocity, the term Second Chances was embraced. However, with their joint understanding that this does not mean "and third, and fourth, and fifth..."

Excellence - to ensure the company's financial sustainability, the products need to exceed market standards. They don't want to be a charity. This is a balancing factor to 'Second Chances.'

Integrity is an important reminder for everyone that no matter what your past is, you are building towards a better future by behaving with integrity today. 

Yes! To Work is a unique phrase, not written like a value, but verbalizes the importance of valuing hard work over injustice on one side and voluntary handouts on the other. To those who say yes to work, this company says, Yes, you are welcome back. 

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