Patrick Lencioni’s ideas on company core values have influenced many companies and business operating systems. In this article, we look at Lencioni’s ideas from the book, The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else in Business as well as his Harvard Business Review Article, “Make Your Values Mean Something,” and his excellent talk available on YouTube.

Lencioni’s decisions offer distinctions that you can use to transform company core values from vague, superficial statements into actionable guides for employee behavior, and true cornerstones of company culture. The key idea: company core values need to be more than just words - they must shape and drive the real-world actions and behaviors of everyone in the organization, and thereby the organization itself.

How Patrick Lencioni Defines Company Core Values

Lencioni says company core values are the fundamental principles that guide the actions of the people within a company - and so they guide the company's actions and define its culture. They are “true.” They are behaviors that are never, ever compromised.

“Core values are the deeply ingrained principles that guide all of a company's actions; they serve as its cultural cornerstones” – Patrick Lencioni

Distinguish Different Kinds Company Core Values.

Lencioni strongly recommends thinking of different kinds of company core values you should avoid, in order to choose ones that will get results:

• “Aspirational company core values” are company core values a company needs or wants, but currently lacks. In other words, a company aspires to embody them.

• “Permission-to-play company core values” are minimum behavioral standards. They are expected of any employee. Things like “honesty” and “integrity” should be considered permission-to-play company core values. 

• “Accidental company core values” emerge spontaneously from the employees without being cultivated intentionally.

These types of company core values are different from meaningful company core values, and should be avoided. Meaningful company core values can guide and be tied to all of the company’s actions. They are things that are already true - thus, they are not aspirations; and to mean something, they must be more than permission-to-play company core values. To guide the company, they cannot be accidental. 

Tips For Choosing and Creating Meaningful Company Core Values

To make core values truly meaningful, Lencioni advises:

1. Be aggressively authentic - Make your company core values embody real behaviors and choices. Don’t shy away from making them  tough or controversial, so  long as they accurately reflect the organization's identity. 

2. Own the process - Don't make developing company core values a consensus exercise with all employees. It should be driven by a small team including the CEO and key leaders who impose the values.

3. Weave your company core values into everything - They must be part of all employee processes, including  hiring, performance reviews, promotions, rewards, and dismissals so they permeate the culture.  Side note - Business Operating Systems like EOS draw heavily on this idea.

4. Constantly promote your company core values - Repeat and reinforce the core values through stories, and daily interactions. so employees internalize them (at ResultMaps, and in ResultMaps software, we use high fives).

The keys to building culture include creating an authentic, actionable set of company core values that makes the design of company culture intentional. Then, leaders must relentlessly ensure those values drive all behaviors and practices within the organization.

More on company core values from ResultMaps:

📚 How to choose your company core values
📚 Checklist for creating action-focused company core values