Most organisational values are easy to agree with… and even easier to ignore.
Can your team actually name your values? If not, you are not alone. Only about 38% of HR leaders think employees can recall them. If they are not remembered, they are not shaping anything.
We do not have a values problem. We have a believability problem.
On paper, values look great. Integrity. Respect. Excellence. Collaboration. Tick, tick, tick, tick. No one is disagreeing with those.
But they could belong to almost any organisation, which is the problem. Values are not meant to just sound good. They are meant to define what it actually feels like to work there, and how people show up day to day. And most just… do not.
And even if they did… there is another issue.
They are not designed to stick. You cannot remember what does not “pop”. A list of generic, expected words is never going to cut through. Honesty. Integrity. Accountability.
That is baseline behaviour, not culture. No amount of posters, screensavers, or leadership shoutouts will fix that.
The shift: from sounding good to actually saying something
This is where contemporary values break away from the usual script. They drop the safe, polished words and start getting a bit more real. More specific, more human, a little less “corporate poster”. They sound like something your people would actually say. Or more importantly, something they recognise in how the organisation operates.
If your values sound like everyone else’s, they are not telling anyone anything.
Less matters more.
Another common trap is volume. Most organisations have too many values for them to be practical. The reality is that people can only hold onto a small number at once, usually around four. Values are not there to cover everything. They are there to highlight what matters most.
Values should shape culture, not just describe it.
Good values do not just sit in the background.
They create clarity on:
- What matters here.
- What good looks like.
- What we prioritise when things compete.
They also bring consistency. When values are clear and lived, people make decisions with a shared lens. When they are not, culture defaults to habit, hierarchy, or whoever speaks the loudest in the room.
So what is the case for contemporary values?
It is not about rewriting them for the sake of it.
It is about making them:
- Memorable
- Human
- Distinct
- Grounded in how people actually work
Values are not what you say in a strategy deck. They are what your people reach for when things are unclear, pressured, or a little uncomfortable.
When values are done well, they do not just describe your culture, they actively shape it.
A quick reality check
If you are reading this thinking, “ours might be a bit copy–paste,” you are not alone. Most organisations are sitting on a set of values that sound right and do very little.
This is the kind of thing Zest unpacks through our HR Health Check. No big reset. No fluffy workshops. Just a clear view of what is working, what is not, and where things might be drifting. And ideally, values people can actually remember this time.
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