In a past blog post “Too Many Core Values”, I wrote about one of the biggest issues that I see when companies (or individuals) create their core values – they have too many.

Too many core values mean they aren’t core. Sure, they may be values, but they aren’t CORE to your business. That’s why I call core values “hard core” values.

I recently met with the leadership team of a large health care organization.  Being a  values based organization, they wanted to bring their core values alive inside of their 18,000 person organization.

They had 10 core values. So where do you think I started?

Yup. Take this list and cut it down to 4.  Figure out what your real core values are. Strip away the values that you “think’ that you have to have, or the values that you keep just to “please” certain stakeholders. Take out the values that are simple “get in the game” values. Take out the values that every other health care company has (probably a good indicator of a value that they “think” they need to have.) And take out the values that simply don’t live inside of your people and your organization.

Its time to get back to the core.

There is no way that you can have 10 core values and expect everyone inside of your company to live them at all times. Impossible.

First, how can you expect your employees to live your core values when they cant even remember them (when was the last time that you had to remember a list of 10 things?).

Second, how can you, as an organization, possibly focus on trying to bring 10 core values alive inside of your company? You cant. At least not very well. So its time to cut them down to the “hard core” ones.

And don’t tell me that Zappos does it, because they don’t. Zappos is the leader in building a  core values based company out there, and they do have 10 core values, but I bet all 10 aren’t core.  I bet  they have 4 or 5 hard core values. The rest are either versions of the same core value (but worded differently) or aren’t as much of a focus as others.

How can I say this so emphatically? Because I have toured through Zappos multiple times, and I always ask their  culture guides  the same question “can you tell me your 10 core values”?”

They always do a great job until core value # 5. Then they flip over their name badge, and read off the rest of the core values.

And when they get to #5, they have to turn over their badge and read them.  But the great thing is, that they all say the same ones. This is why I can say that they probably have 4 or 5 “hard core” values. The rest? I bet individual values resonate with different people inside of the organization. They may be values, but they aren’t hard core.

One of the reasons why we have been so successful at bringing our core values alive at Nurse Next Door is the simple fact that we have only 4 core values. We can focus on 4 (although 3 would be easier!)

So do your organization a favour by getting rid of all of those values. Stop trying to be everything to everybody. Your core values should make you unique. They should make you stand out from the crowd. They should tell the world (and your customers) exactly who you are and what you stand for. And if you really do live them; if they really are alive inside your company, then your customers will also experience it when they interact with your brand.

That is why I call them “hard core” values.

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