“Las juventudes cacarearon bastante y no convencen ni por solo un instante
pidieron comprensión, amor y paz
con frases hechas muchos años atrás.”
– La Voz de los 80, Los Prisioneros

Here’s an exercise for tomorrow, when you get back to work: look at your company’s values, read them, explore what they mean. Ask your coworkers what they mean, or your bosses. Or maybe something more basic: go find your company’s values. They should be in some document, or in a nice frame hanging in a human resources office, right?

When those values are there, hanging on an office wall or on the corporate web page, we find texts written in the passive voice, full of stock phrases and well-meaning, politically correct words that seem to have no value at all. I’m not saying it always happens, but I suspect the vast majority of these lists of corporate values were written without much conviction, and it shows when they aren’t applied in the company’s day-to-day.

There are all kinds of statements. There are the vague or generic ones:

“..

\[it is\]

as important to achieve the economic and financial objectives and results as the way in which those results are obtained.”

“Beyond strict compliance with laws, codes of conduct and internal rules, all our professionals work with the utmost transparency and honesty, integrating into the performance of their work our institution’s commitment to the economic, social and environmental progress of the communities where it is present.”

Or the pompous and self-centered statements:

**Leadership: **Our calling is leadership in every market where we are present, relying on the best teams of people and being customer- and results-oriented.…

Being Better: We contribute to our customers’ success through the use of our products and services, to which end we commit a permanent deployment of innovation, excellence, quality of service...

Or simply the lists of words:

• Commitment

• Service Attitude

• Teamwork

• Flexibility

The gringos have a wonderful word for all of that:

BULLSHIT!

That’s why I liked it so much when I read the values of Atlassian, which I transcribe below:

Open Company, No Bullshit

Atlassian embraces transparency wherever at all practical, and sometimes where impractical. All information, both internal and external, is public by default. We are not afraid of being honest with ourselves, our staff and our customers.

Build with Heart and Balance

Everyday we try to build products that are useful and that people lust after. Building with heart means really caring about what we're making and doing–it's a mission, not just a job. When we build with balance we take into account how initiatives and decisions will affect our colleagues, customers and stakeholders.

Don't #@!% the Customer

When we make internal decisions we ask ourselves “how will this affect our customers?” If the answer is that it would 'screw' them, or make life more difficult, then we need to find a better way. We want the customer to respect us in the morning.

Play, as a Team

We want all Atlassians to feel like they work with Atlassian, not for Atlassian. We think it's important to have fun with your workmates while working and contributing to the Atlassian team.

Be the Change You Seek

We think Gandhi had it pretty right when he said “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world”. At Atlassian we encourage everyone to create positive change–we're constantly looking for ways to improve our company, our products and our environment.

We could argue that it’s just another way of presenting the same thing, but no. Go and read Atlassian’s values page. There is dedication there. You can tell they took the time to write, prepare and present those values to all of us. There’s even a video:

It’s no coincidence that in a TED talk Daniel Pink uses this company as an example of intrinsic motivation:

That is what we need in our companies, in our workplaces: to make values truly have value, not just to know them and spread them. It’s about living them, accepting them, understanding them, and wanting your whole team to feel them as part of who they are, as their real motivation.

Sometimes these values aren’t stated explicitly, but they are lived by the leaders, by the people in charge of directing and motivating the team. That, probably, matters more than stating them in a nice frame.

Have you taken the time to think about your team’s values, about your company’s values? Do they feel right to you, well expressed, something that truly commits you? If not, then discuss them with your bosses, your peers and your team, because having values that commit us is the best way to have the job we want.