My Thoughts

Why Your Company's Values Are Just Wall Decorations

The laminated poster in your company's reception area probably lists five to seven carefully crafted "core values." Innovation. Integrity. Excellence. Customer Focus. Teamwork. Sound familiar?

I've spent the last eighteen years helping Australian businesses transform their workplace cultures, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that 89% of company values statements are about as meaningful as a chocolate teapot. They're decorative. Pretty. Completely useless when the heat's on.

Here's what happened last month that made me want to write this piece. I was running a workshop for a mid-sized logistics company in Brisbane – they had "Honesty" painted in bold letters across their conference room wall. Beautiful font, corporate blue, very professional. During the session, their operations manager bragged about how they routinely tell customers their shipments are "on track" when they're actually three days behind schedule.

The cognitive dissonance was staggering.

The Problem With Generic Values

Most companies approach values like they're ordering from a corporate buffet. "I'll take some integrity, a serving of innovation, and could you super-size the customer focus?" They pick words that sound impressive in annual reports but have zero connection to how business actually gets done.

Let me be blunt: if your values could apply to any company in any industry, they're worthless.

When I worked for a major consultancy firm in Sydney back in 2009, we had "Excellence" as our number one value. What did that mean? Nobody knew. Excellence in what? At what cost? Measured how? It was so vague it became meaningless. We had consultants billing 80-hour weeks, burning out left and right, but hey – we were "excellent."

The real kicker? That same firm now has completely different values. Funny how your core beliefs can change with a rebrand, isn't it?

When Values Actually Work

Now, before you think I'm completely cynical about this stuff, let me share what proper values look like in action. I've seen companies get this right, and when they do, it's transformative.

Atlassian, the Sydney-based software company, has a value called "Don't #@!% the customer." Crude? Maybe. Clear? Absolutely. Every employee knows exactly what this means and how to apply it. There's no ambiguity, no corporate speak, no room for interpretation.

Compare that to "Customer Focus" – which could mean anything from answering phones quickly to offering loyalty discounts to simply not hanging up on people.

The Real Test

Here's my litmus test for whether your values are genuine or just expensive wall art: Can your newest employee explain what each value means in practice within their first week?

If the answer is no, you've failed.

Real values are demonstrated, not declared. They show up in your hiring decisions, your promotion criteria, your budget allocations, and most importantly, your difficult conversations. When there's a choice between profit and principle, which wins? That's your actual value system right there.

I remember working with a manufacturing company in Adelaide whose stated value was "Safety First." Sounded great until I discovered they'd been pressuring workers to skip safety protocols to meet deadlines. Their real value? "Deadlines First, Safety When Convenient."

The Australian Context

Australian workplace culture has some unique characteristics that make generic values particularly problematic. We value straight talk, fairness, and having a go. Yet somehow our corporate values sound like they were written by American MBA students who've never set foot in a pub.

Why don't we see values like "Fair Dinkum Dealing" or "No Bull Communication"? Because we're too worried about sounding unprofessional. Meanwhile, our actual workplace behaviour is refreshingly direct compared to other countries.

I've worked with Aboriginal-owned businesses whose values centre around connection to country and community responsibility. These aren't generic – they're specific, meaningful, and drive real decision-making. They wouldn't work for every company, and that's exactly the point.

The Performance Connection

Here's something that might surprise you: companies with genuine, lived values consistently outperform those with decorative ones. Not because the values themselves are magic, but because clarity drives consistency, and consistency builds trust.

When your team knows what you actually stand for – not what you say you stand for – they can make better decisions independently. They don't need to escalate every choice to management because they understand the framework.

I once facilitated a team development session where the CEO admitted their "Innovation" value was nonsense because they consistently chose safe, proven solutions over creative risks. The honesty was refreshing, and it led to a complete overhaul of how they approached new ideas.

Getting It Right

If you're serious about fixing this, start by looking at your last ten significant business decisions. What values actually drove those choices? Not what you wish had driven them – what actually did.

That's your real value system.

Maybe it's "Profit Above All" or "Growth Through Acquisition" or "Protect Existing Relationships." These might not sound as noble as "Excellence" or "Innovation," but they're honest. And honesty is the foundation of meaningful change.

The best communication training programs I've delivered have been with companies that first got honest about their actual values before trying to implement their aspirational ones.

The Wall Decoration Problem

The fundamental issue isn't that companies have values – it's that they treat them like interior design rather than operating instructions.

Values should be uncomfortable sometimes. They should create tension. They should force difficult conversations and hard choices. If your values never cost you anything, they're not values – they're wishful thinking.

I've seen companies lose customers because they stuck to their principles, and you know what? Those companies are stronger for it. They've clarified who they are and who they serve. That clarity pays dividends in employee engagement, customer loyalty, and long-term sustainability.

What This Means for You

If you're a leader reading this, take a hard look at what's on your walls. Do those words drive decisions, or do they just look nice in the annual report?

If you're an employee, pay attention to what your company actually rewards and punishes. That's their real value system, regardless of what the poster says.

And if you're thinking about joining a company, ask about specific examples of how their values influenced recent decisions. If they can't give you concrete examples, you've learned something valuable about their culture.

The companies that get this right don't just perform better – they're more resilient, more innovative, and frankly, more enjoyable places to work. But it starts with honesty about where you actually are, not where you wish you were.

Your values should be a compass, not a decoration. The question is: are you brave enough to use them?

After nearly two decades in workplace consulting across Australia, I've learned that the companies with the courage to be specific about their values are the ones that actually transform their industries. The rest just redecorate their conference rooms.