Some clients have got a bit upset when I've said this to them, but there are times when it's okay, even advisable, to take company values for a kind of test drive.
They get upset because they think - rightly - that values should be authentic and enduring, and comparing them to a shirt or shoes or jeans that you try on makes it sound like it's okay to be fickle about them. For the record, it's not. I can see how the analogy makes values sound disposable, but that's not the intention.
The thing about values is that, especially early on in an organisation's life, some values sound good in theory. Same way a shirt may look good in a store window. But then you try it on and maybe it doesn't suit you, or isn’t as comfortable or just doesn't fit as well as you'd hoped. Without trying it on, you wouldn't have known. Values can be like that, too. And companies should feel okay about putting them to the test before they commit.
Take a rather popular and generic value, like transparency. Sounds well-intentioned, right? But what if your business doesn't want to be transparent about everything? What if it doesn't want to be open about what everyone earns, or how the company is performing? What if it's happy to be transparent in some ways but it gets nervous about other ways? Or if there were times when, despite the best intentions, your business wasn't really, truly, fully transparent? Maybe transparency isn't such a good fit, after all.
Trying on a value means really examining it, interrogating it and putting it to the test. And being honest about it. Because maybe your bum really does look big in it.
It's not just when a business is young. Our personal values may change as we get older (and wiser), and a company is no different. Businesses get bigger, they merge or split, they evolve, they pivot, the commercial landscape (and their place in it) may change over time. Should companies stick to their old values even if they're no longer appropriate, no longer serve the company well, or are no longer true to who the company is? No. Just as you probably wouldn't keep a wide-collared psychedelic shirt with stains on it (at least not for any good reason other than nostalgia).
It's not about changing your values to suit the season - any company that does isn't doing itself any favours and will probably get found out one way or another. It's about taking a good, honest look at who you want to be as a company, who you really are, and seeing if they are aligned.
Sometimes values look and feel as good as they did the day you first put them on. Sometimes they can be ironed out or taken in. And sometimes they’re better replaced or thrown out, because they just aren’t you anymore.