Core values sometimes get a bad rap. There are plenty of companies who treat them merely as an item to check off the list. Once written, they go by the wayside, collecting dust in an annual report somewhere.

But they can be an incredibly useful tool for communicating desired behaviors and guiding your entire team. How do you transform values from organizational wall paper to a meaningful and guiding force?

Limit the number of values.

Having more than a few core values will make them difficult to remember. We ask employees to hold a lot in their heads: our vision, our goals, and all of the day-to-day aspects of their work. What can you expect if you cram eight values on top of that? That’s tough to remember, let alone to use as inspiration as you go about your day. Keep it simple. If you have more than five, how could you pare it down to what is essential and unique to your organization?

Show your values.

I know I just poked fun at the dusty annual report, but having values show up visually can help keep them top of mind. You can get pretty creative with this. What if each of your core values had its own mascot or icon? What if the first thing you see when you walk in your physical space is a piece of 50 foot wall art telling the story of your values? There are so many ways to get visual: t-shirts or other wearables, employee handbooks, a page on your website.

Values talk.

Make it part of your organizational rhythm to talk values. They should be part of all kinds of conversations: formal and informal, group and individual. Make it part of the agenda for team meetings to share stories or “values moments” that show desirable behaviors in action. In one-on-ones, praise value-related successes.

Show and tell.

And of course you can combine the show and tell. One of our clients, Student Connections, wanted creative ways to make their values more present in their space. After brainstorming [see the sticky notes with concept sketches in the header image], one of several projects we chose was to create some fun forms and a bulletin board for employees to share kudos and values stories. It’s one of the first things you see when you walk in their office.

Design employee experiences around values.

These can be signature events that happen once a year, or practices and work styles baked into how you do business. Imagine you have a value of openness. A good practice might be a blog series where you share your work behind the scenes. Or, let’s say you have a value of excellence. You could back that up by supporting ambitious personal development plans. Values experiences are a way to show employees through actions what you mean when you say collaboration, or empathy, or [fill in the blank].

Are your values as a guiding force?

Think about your values for a moment. Are they the advice you want to give yourself daily? Do they represent behaviors that you routinely see in your team? If you are struggling to bring them to life, it might be time for a reset. It could be that they weren’t right in the first place, or maybe things have changed. Over time, organizational personalities and needs change, just as people do.

Have you seen great examples of a company bringing their values to life?