Musings on Values and Tactics

Values should be persistent, tactics for striving for those values should change as circumstances change.

Company values serve as your northstar, constantly guiding you in decisions large and small. Keeping them consistent is critically important to maintaining clear direction, consistent culture, and in many ways, success. Changing values often renders them ineffective, because they cannot be trusted as the long term vision, and a culture cannot be built on top of something that is always changing.

However, while values should remain consistent, the tactics a company takes in striving for those values don’t need to be consistent. The tactics must be selected in the full context of the situation, such as the size and individuals at the company, the strengths and weaknesses of the organization, and the existing processes and structures they have in place, which will almost certainly change as the teams grow and different needs arise. If a company were to just keep doing things the way they always have in this situation, it is likely that they will run into challenges, make mistakes, and maybe even end up achieving the opposite of the value for which they were striving.

For example, a company may have “Agility” as a value. In the beginning, they may have strove for this value by being anti-process, letting teams work organically without clear structure. With a small, aligned team, this can work very well. However, as this team grows, maintaining this tactic may cause them to resist the processes and structure that would actually make them more agile. Same tactic, same value, different situation, opposite result.

Some tactics may always work well, and those are the ones companies should keep around. However, it is critical to always reflect on what will best help the organization on its never-ending quest to achieve the core value. What worked today, may not work tomorrow.