We close the essence stage with values, and I will be honest with you: this is the most abused tool in branding.
Almost every company has values. Very few of them are real. So before we write yours, I want to reset what values are for.
Values are the standards you refuse to abandon when abandoning them would be profitable, convenient or invisible. A culture page is where most companies stop. The operative word is refuse. A value that has never cost you anything is a preference with good branding.
The standards behind behaviour
Values matter strategically because organisations are decision machines, and most decisions are made when you are out of the room.
Your team faces hundreds of small choices a week: how to answer an awkward customer question, what to promise a prospect, how to describe results, when to flag a problem. You cannot be present for those. Values are how you are present anyway. Clear behavioural standards mean people at every level can make the call you would have made, which is what makes a brand consistent where consistency counts most: conduct.
And there is a trust dimension that compounds over time. Markets are very good at detecting the gap between stated values and observed behaviour, and the penalty for that gap is far worse than the penalty for having modest values honestly kept.
Values are only useful when they create choices
Here is the test that separates real values from decorative ones: a real value creates choices. It must be possible to act against it. It must, at some point, be tempting to act against it.
Run your draft values through this filter. Integrity: nobody in your market positions themselves as the dishonest option, so integrity, stated alone, excludes nothing, costs nothing and means nothing. Innovation has the same problem. So does excellence. These words are unfinished. They become values when you sharpen them to the point where they would change a specific decision, and where a reasonable competitor might legitimately choose the opposite.
That last part matters. A value is a position, and a position implies an alternative. If no sane company could hold the opposite of your value, you have written a platitude.
Find the real ones
You find real values by interrogating behaviour. Brainstorming admirable words gets you a poster. Three questions do most of the work.
What behaviours must be protected as the organisation grows? Think about how you work now, at your best, and what scale will threaten. Those fragile, valuable behaviours are value candidates.
What standards should govern decisions under pressure? Think of the hard day, when the deadline, the revenue and the standard cannot all survive, and ask what wins.
And the sharpest one: what would the company refuse to do, even if it could make money? Your refusals are your values in their purest form. If you cannot name a refusal, what you have found so far is your marketing.
Then, for every value you keep, write the behaviour beside it. A value without a named behaviour is a word. A value with a named behaviour is an instruction.
FieldArc values example
Worked example · FieldArc331 words · about 1 min
FieldArc's values, written as they should be recorded, with the behaviour and the refusal beside each one.
We describe complexity as it is; we refuse to simplify ecology to make the product look cleaner.
We design around the landowner's constraints; we refuse to treat land as a resource to be acquired.
No outcome claim without a measurement behind it; we refuse to match a competitor's unprovable number.
We optimise for the ten-year relationship; we refuse deals that would close faster by overpromising.
We structure so the landowner genuinely wins; we refuse extractive structures.
Notice that a value without its behaviour is just an adjective. Record all three columns.
Take evidence before claims and see how it creates choices. Restoration is a field full of inflated numbers and glossy promises, and inflated numbers win deals in the short term. This value commits FieldArc to publishing what it can prove and saying "we do not know yet" when it cannot, including in sales conversations where the competitor will happily claim more. That is a value with a price tag, which is exactly what makes it worth stating. The behaviour beside it: no outcome claim without a measurement behind it, anywhere, including the pitch deck.
Take shared value with landowners. The tempting model in this market treats landowners as a resource to be acquired. This value commits FieldArc to structuring deals where the landowner genuinely wins, even when an extractive structure would close faster. A competitor could legitimately choose the opposite approach. That is what makes this a position.
Practical stewardship keeps the company from romanticising the work. Ecological honesty governs how complexity gets communicated: nature stays as complex as it is, even when a simpler story would make the product look cleaner. Long term trust sets the time horizon for every relationship decision. Each one creates choices, names behaviour, and would cost something to keep. That is the standard.
Keep the list short
Five values is the ceiling, and three strong ones beat five decent ones. Beyond five they stop being remembered, which means they stop being used, which means you are back to a poster.
This completes your brand essence: purpose, mission, vision and values, four statements that should now read like one mind speaking at four altitudes. In the next stage we turn outward, to positioning: who this brand is for, and why they should choose it. That is where essence starts earning revenue.
Key takeaways
- A value with no price tag is a preference with good branding.
- Start from refusals: what you would refuse to do for money.
- Five is the ceiling. Three strong beats five decent.
Go deeperCommon mistakes, a self-check before you move on, how this differs by kind of company, and where the thinking comes from.
Common mistakes
- Listing admirable words nobody could disagree with.
- Keeping values that have never cost anything.
- Going past five, so nobody remembers or uses them.
Before you move on
- Could a sane competitor legitimately hold the opposite of each value?
- Does each value have a named behaviour beside it?
- Can you name three things you would refuse to do for money?
How this differs by kind of company
- B2B. Values about how you sell (no overclaiming, no lock-in) are unusually credible because they are rare.
- Consumer. Values live in product and service behaviour more than in messaging. Name the behaviour.
- Services and consultancy. Values about what you tell clients they would prefer not to hear are the ones that build reputation.
- Non-profit and impact. Guard against values that are really beliefs about the cause. Values govern your conduct.
Set your company type in the dashboard and each lesson will lead with the note that applies to you.
Where this comes from. Patrick Lencioni's distinction between core, aspirational and permission-to-play values underlies the refusal test.
Do this now
- In the Values section of your workbook, start with refusals: list three things your company would refuse to do even for money. Work backwards from each refusal to the value underneath it.
- Draft three to five values, and write each as three parts: the value, the behaviour it requires, and what it refuses. All three go into the decision; the strategy document keeps them together.
- Stress-test each one: name a realistic situation where keeping this value would cost you something. If you cannot, sharpen it or cut it.
- Read your full essence, all four statements, in one sitting. This page is the foundation everything else in the course builds on.
Unlock the workbook
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