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How to define your company's core values

Write, organize, and publish your organization's core values with behavioral examples your team can actually use.

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Core values only do work when they're specific enough that your team can point to real behavior and say "yes, that's us" or "no, that isn't." Bayou & Co. spent two years posting a laminated values poster before their operations lead Mei Lin finally added concrete examples to each value in SPLX OS — and suddenly new hires stopped asking what "integrity" meant in practice.

Here's how to do the same.

Before you start

  • The Strategy module must be enabled for your workspace. Go to Settings → Modules, find Strategy in the list, and toggle it on. Only owners and admins can enable modules.
  • You need admin (or owner) role in the workspace to create, edit, or delete values. Viewers and members can read all values without any special setup.

Once Strategy is enabled, navigate to Strategy → Vision, Mission, Values in the sidebar.

Step 1: Open the Values section

The Vision, Mission, Values page has three sections. Scroll past Vision and Mission to reach Values at the bottom of the page.

Click Edit at the top-right corner of the Values section. The section enters edit mode: each existing value card gains a grip handle for reordering, and pencil and trash icons for editing or deleting. A new-value form appears at the bottom of the list.

Step 2: Add your first value

In the new-value form at the bottom of the list, fill in:

  • Name (required) — keep it short and distinctive. Bayou & Co. uses "Own it fully" rather than just "Accountability."
  • Definition (optional) — one or two sentences explaining what the value means to your organization.

Click Add to save the value. It appears as a card in the list.

Step 3: Add behavioral examples

Vague values erode trust; specific behavioral examples make them actionable. After saving the value, click the pencil icon on the card to open the edit dialog. Here you can add:

  • We look like this — up to 10 short phrases (max 280 characters each) describing positive behavior. For Bayou & Co.'s "Own it fully" value: "We surface problems as soon as we see them" and "We close the loop without being asked."
  • We don't look like this — the same format, negative examples. "We wait for someone else to flag it" and "We say 'that's not my job.'"

Adding both sides is optional but strongly recommended — the contrast is where teams learn the fastest.

Click Save to commit the examples.

Step 4: Add remaining values

Repeat steps 2–3 for each value. Most organizations settle on 3–7 values; fewer is usually better. You can reorder them at any time using the grip handles on the left edge of each card while in edit mode.

Step 5: Exit edit mode

Click Done at the top-right corner of the Values section when you're finished. The values are published and visible to all workspace members immediately.

Known limitations

Duplicate names are silently rejected. If you try to save a value with a name already used by another value, the save dialog stays open with no feedback. If Save appears to do nothing, check whether another value already uses that name and rename one of them.

There is no confirmation before deleting a value. Clicking the trash icon immediately removes the value and all its examples. If you need to audit changes, check Settings → Audit Log.

Next steps