As I sit here staring at the ocean I can’t help but recall something that happened in class last week. I was talking about PMI’s Code of Ethics and Professional Responsibility and how it is built on four values; fairness, honesty, respect, and responsibility. I mentioned to the students that having a set of corporate values was very important for building a strong corporate culture (a lesson that I learned from Tony Hsieh, thanks to his excellent book “Delivering Happiness”). One of the students asked me if Braintrust has corporate values. I said “Of course we do” and then my mind went blank. Rather than admit that I couldn’t remember them I grabbed one of our sales kits and pointed to them in the back.
What good are corporate values if you can’t remember them? In my mind they are useless. Trying to recall what was going through my mind when we created them I remember the following… we wanted them to sound “big company”, to project an image larger than ourselves. Then the marketing company had some input (they are awesome by the way, no offense to The Modern Brand for this comment). In the end I am left with some words on paper that I can’t even remember. Time for change…
After a year into owning my own business I think it is time to just be me. I have been working with Cassidy Cash on becoming more informal in my Blog posts and now I think that my corporate values need some tweaking. As I spend the week contemplating the future for Braintrust I will work on what values most represent me. It’s time to be real folks, time to have values that I live every day, values that I wouldn’t forget no matter how many ocean-side beers I get in me.
