Adopt-and-Evolve Values
Borrow proven values, then adapt them with your team
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 94%
An early-stage company already has values because leadership behaviour communicates priorities, even when nothing is written down. Instead of spending excessive time inventing an original set, the founder can study values published by established organisations and select a version that genuinely resonates. That borrowed set becomes a provisional baseline, not a permanent copy. The team then tests it against actual work, notices where the language or expected behaviours do not fit, and evolves it as the company develops. This approach reduces premature wordsmithing while still making expectations explicit. Its output is a living values system grounded first in proven language and later differentiated by the team's experience. The method is intentionally lightweight at the beginning and increasingly specific over time.
Origin
Extracted from The Foundr Podcast
Core principles
- 01Early values do not need to be original
- 02A proven starting point is better than prolonged wordsmithing
- 03Values should resonate before they are adopted
- 04The team should evolve them as the company grows
How to run it
- 1
Search for proven examples
Read values that companies have already published. Focus on examples that describe qualities your team actually needs.
Pro tip Use public company values as a research library rather than starting from a blank page.
- 2
Choose what resonates
Select the clearest existing version that reflects how you want the company to operate. Treat authenticity as more important than originality.
Watch out Do not adopt fashionable language that leaders will not enact.
- 3
Use it as a starting point
Make the provisional values available to the team and apply them to current decisions. Avoid polishing them beyond what the present stage requires.
Watch out Borrowing the words does not remove the need to live the values.
- 4
Evolve with the team
As the company grows, revise the values alongside the people using them. Preserve what works and adapt what the team's experience disproves.
Pro tip Use concrete incidents to identify necessary changes.
In the wild
A five-person startup reviews several public values sets and adopts a concise version centred on ownership, learning, and inclusion. After using it for a quarter, the team adds examples from its own customer work and removes language that never affects a decision.
→ The team gains immediate guidance and later develops values grounded in its own experience.
Common mistakes
Demanding originality too early
Inventing novel wording can consume time without improving how the team behaves.
Never revisiting the borrowed set
The starting point should evolve as the team discovers what is distinctive and useful in practice.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for young teams that need a practical cultural baseline quickly.
Not ideal for
It is not ideal for mature organisations whose inherited values conceal serious behavioural conflicts.
From the transcript
“i don't think you need to spend a ton of time early on like making your own”
“find one that really resonates with you and use that as a starting point”
“alongside your team evolve it as 07 00 you grow”
From the episode
334: What This Tech Pioneer Is Betting On Next
Matt Mullenweg