Values Are Not Just Statements. They Are Design Criteria.

Last fall, I was sitting in a meeting at a conference when I heard a leadership coach say something like, “Values are the worst. I’m so sick of hearing about values. No one cares about them. They’re just fluff. We need to focus on getting the real work done.”

My heart sank.

Not because I thought they were completely wrong. Actually, there was truth in what they were saying.

Too often, values are treated like a branding exercise. They are polished, printed, posted, and then disconnected from the actual experience of working inside the organization.

At best, they become aspirational language.

At worst, they become a kind of dishonesty: a promise that draws people in, only for them to discover that the culture they were sold is not the culture they are living.

So yes, I understand the frustration.

But I do not think the problem is values.

I think the problem is that the power of values is deeply underutilized.

Over the years, values have become increasingly important to me, personally and professionally.

Deeply knowing my personal values has helped me stay anchored in how I want to move through the world as a person, leader, parent, partner, friend, and colleague.

And when my behavior starts to drift away from those values, I know it is time to slow down and look more closely at my environment and its effect on my behavior.

One of my personal values is continuous learning. I believe there is always something to learn, even from very difficult situations. So when I notice myself becoming less curious and more certain, or quick to jump to a solution before I have really explored what is happening, I take that seriously.

It usually means I am overwhelmed, overly stressed, or moving too quickly to look for the opportunity to grow, stretch, or understand something more deeply.

My values are not just words I like. They anchor me. They help me make decisions, notice patterns, and return to who I want to be when pressure, urgency, or stress pull me away from it.

That is what values are supposed to do.

And I think the same is true for organizations.

Values seem pointless when they are only words.

They become powerful when they shape how the work actually gets done.

Because the same job can be done many different ways.

Values help clarify the how.

They should influence who you hire, how you onboard, what you reward, how feedback is given, how meetings are run, how priorities are set, how conflict is handled, how clients are treated, and how people interact with one another every day.

In other words, values are not separate from the real work.

They help the real work happen with more alignment, clarity, and flow.

That is why I think of organizational values as design criteria.

If an organization says it values collaboration, then collaboration should be supported by how roles are defined, meetings are structured, information is shared, and shared work is reinforced.

If an organization says it values empowerment, then people need more than encouragement. They need clarity, authority, support, feedback, and room to act.

If an organization says it values accountability, then accountability should not depend on blame, pressure, or heroic follow-up from a few leaders. It should be built into expectations, ownership, communication loops, and systems for noticing when something is off track.

This is where many organizations unintentionally drift.

The values may be clear in language, but not in practice.

People may be able to name them. Leaders may have communicated them. But they are not consistently reflected in how work is organized, supported, measured, or reinforced.

People may still care deeply. They may still be working hard. They may still believe in the mission.

But without a shared understanding of how the work should be done, people are left to interpret “the right way” on their own.

And when everyone is doing their best from different assumptions about what matters most, the work gets heavier than it needs to be.

That is when alignment starts to drift.

From my lens as a behavior analyst, this is where the work gets interesting.

I am not just listening for what an organization says it values. I am looking at what the environment supports.

• What behaviors are being reinforced?

• What barriers are getting in the way?

• What business pressures are shaping what gets reinforced, prioritized, or avoided?

• Where are systems working against values-aligned behavior?

This is why values work cannot stop at wordsmithing.

The words only matter if they become useful.

Useful values help people know how to do the work.

They guide tradeoffs. They shape roles, routines, expectations, feedback, priorities, and measures of success.

They show up when the work is easy, and they matter even more when the work gets hard.

For me, this is where alignment begins.

A Thought to Explore

If someone watched how work actually gets done in your organization, what values would they see?

Not the ones written on your website.

The ones reinforced through hiring, onboarding, meetings, feedback, priorities, client interactions, tradeoffs, and how people respond under pressure.

Every organization has values in practice.

The question is whether they are the ones you intended.

One Place to Start

Choose one stated value and one routine.

For example, take a value like collaboration, empowerment, accountability, quality, or compassion, and look at one place where work happens every week: a team meeting, supervision conversation, hiring process, client interaction, project handoff, or feedback loop.

Then ask:

• How should this value shape how we do this work?

• What behaviors would we expect to see if this value were truly guiding the routine?

• What does the current system make easier or harder?

• What small adjustment would make values-consistent behavior more likely?

Alignment does not always begin with a full redesign.

Sometimes it begins by noticing the gap between what we value and what our systems actually support.