Real Thoughts on Organizational Values

There’s a moment that happens during almost every values conversation.

It doesn’t always happen right away. I usually first experience curiosity and people lean in. They want to hear what’s being proposed.

But eventually someone asks the question that’s sitting quietly in the room. Sometimes they ask it out loud, sometimes they say it with their behavior, or sometimes they just say it with a look.

The question is simple: Will these values even make a difference?

Because many people have lived through this before. A new framework is introduced. Great words are chosen. A launch happens. And then a month or so later, the posters are still there, but the conversations have moved on.

So, when teams start talking about values, people naturally wonder: Is this real or temporary?

Resistance Isn’t the Enemy

One of the most interesting parts of culture work is watching those early reactions. Some people are energized. And some people are understandably cautious.

They’re wondering:

• Is this going to add more work?

• Will leadership actually use this?

• Will anything really change?

I don’t see those reactions as resistance. I see them as experience. People have learned to wait and see what happens after the launch. Because culture isn’t shaped by what organizations say. It’s shaped by what leaders and teams actually do next.

When the Conversation Starts to Change

Recently I had the privilege of working alongside Columbus Recreation & Parks Department during the development of their B.O.L.D. values and I was fortunate to watch that shift happen over time.

Early in the process, the questions were exactly what you might expect.

• How will this work?

• What does this mean for our teams?

• Is this going to create more expectations?

All fair questions. But as the work progressed through conversations, engagement sessions, and leadership alignment, something interesting started to happen.

The tone began to change. Instead of asking whether the values would matter, people began talking about how they could show up in everyday work. That’s a powerful turning point in culture work. Because that’s when values start moving from an idea to a tool.

Culture Lives in the Small Actions

Culture rarely shifts because of big announcements. It shifts because of small actions repeated over time.

• A leader referencing a value when making a decision.

• A teammate recognizing someone who stepped up for the team.

• A meeting where a team pauses and asks, Which values are currently showing up in this conversation?

Individually, those moments may seem small. But together, they create the habits of an organization. And those habits shape how people experience their work every day.

The Long Game

One of the things I respect most about the leaders and teams involved in this type of work is that they understand something important. Culture is not a one-year initiative.

It’s a long game.

The real success of organizational values won’t be measured in launch events or presentations. It will be measured in the thousands of everyday decisions over the next 5, 10, even 20 years where people choose to bring those values into how they communicate, collaborate, and lead.

That’s how culture becomes real. Not through the words themselves. But through the small actions that keep those words alive long after the launch is over.

To learn more about the collaboration between Columbus Recreation & Parks Department and Creating Community, check out the case study (link is just above the video on the linked page) describing a bit more about how we developed CRPD’s B.O.L.D. values.