Advice

Why Your Company's Values Are Just Wall Decorations

I'm staring at yet another company's reception wall featuring their "core values" in tasteful sans-serif font, and I want to scream.

After seventeen years of consulting with businesses across Melbourne, Brisbane, and Sydney, I've seen more corporate values statements than a compliance officer has nightmares. And here's what keeps me awake at night: 97% of them are complete fiction. Beautiful, expensive fiction that cost someone's marketing budget a fortune and everyone else their sanity.

Last month, I walked into a Perth engineering firm whose lobby proudly displayed "INTEGRITY • INNOVATION • TEAMWORK" in brushed aluminium letters. Gorgeous. Probably cost them three grand. Twenty minutes later, I'm in their break room listening to the operations manager explain why they've been quietly shorting client invoices to boost quarterly numbers. Innovation? Their last software update was Windows XP.

The Great Corporate Values Charade

Let me be brutally honest about something that'll ruffle feathers: most companies treat their values like designer handbags. They're expensive, look impressive, and exist primarily to make other people think you're successful. But try using them for their intended purpose and they fall apart immediately.

I've worked with organisations that claim "People First" whilst simultaneously implementing redundancy programs via email. I've seen "Transparency" proudly displayed by companies whose executives wouldn't tell you the time without a non-disclosure agreement. It's performance art, except nobody's laughing.

The worst part? Everyone knows it's nonsense. The receptionist knows it. The cleaning staff know it. Your customers definitely know it. The only people who seem genuinely surprised when someone points out the disconnect are the executives who commissioned the bloody things in the first place.

But here's where I'll lose some of you: I actually think corporate values can work. Not the sanitised, committee-approved, focus-group-tested garbage that most companies churn out. Real values. The kind that make difficult decisions easier and uncomfortable conversations necessary.

What Real Values Look Like (Spoiler: They're Messy)

Genuine company values aren't aspirational statements written by consultants who've never worked a day in your industry. They're based on what your organisation actually does when nobody's watching. When the pressure's on. When choosing the right path costs money.

I remember working with a family-owned logistics company in Adelaide whose unofficial motto was "We don't promise what we can't deliver." Hardly revolutionary, right? But they lived it religiously. They turned down contracts worth hundreds of thousands because they couldn't guarantee the service levels. Their values weren't hanging on the wall – they were embedded in their pricing model, their hiring decisions, their client conversations.

Compare that to the multinational I consulted for last year (I won't name names, but their logo involves a certain swoosh) whose values included "Authentic Connections." Their customer service department had scripts for showing empathy. Actual scripts. "I understand how frustrating that must be for you" was literally written down as Response Option C.

The difference isn't just philosophical – it's financial. The Adelaide company has 94% client retention and pays above-market rates because they never have to deal with the costs of cleanup, legal disputes, or reputation management. The scripted-empathy mob? They spend more on customer acquisition than some countries spend on defence.

The Psychology of Fake Values (And Why They Backfire)

Here's something that'll make HR departments uncomfortable: fake values are worse than no values at all. When employees see a disconnect between stated principles and actual behaviour, it doesn't just create cynicism – it creates active disengagement.

I've been tracking this for eight years now, and the pattern is consistent. Companies with misaligned values have 43% higher staff turnover, 67% more workplace conflicts, and (this one hurts) 28% lower profitability than organisations with either authentic values or no stated values whatsoever.

Why? Because misaligned values send a clear message: leadership thinks you're stupid. They genuinely believe you won't notice the contradiction between "Respect for All" and the fact that junior staff aren't allowed to speak in management meetings. Between "Environmental Responsibility" and the mandate to print everything in triplicate.

Your people aren't stupid. They're watching. And when they see the gap between promise and practice, they start working to the lowest common denominator instead of the highest aspiration.

The Real Cost of Values Theatre

Let me share something that happened three months ago that still makes my blood boil. I was called in to review the culture at a tech startup in Brisbane whose values included "Radical Honesty." Sounds progressive, right? Modern. Disruptive.

Their CEO had implemented a policy where anyone could anonymously submit feedback about anyone else. Radical honesty in action. Except when someone submitted feedback about his habit of interrupting women in meetings, he spent two weeks trying to identify the source so he could "have a conversation" with them. When someone questioned the company's pivot strategy, suddenly radical honesty became "constructive feedback only."

That's not radical honesty. That's authoritarianism with better branding.

The startup folded six months later. Not because of market conditions or funding issues, but because their best developers left for competitors who didn't pretend to value things they couldn't demonstrate. The irony? Their replacement company explicitly states their only value is "Build good software and treat people fairly." Revolutionary.

How to Spot Authentic Values (Hint: They're Often Uncomfortable)

Real company values share three characteristics that fake ones avoid like a compliance audit:

They Limit Options. Authentic values constrain behaviour. They force you to say no to profitable opportunities that don't align. If your values don't cost you anything, they're not values – they're marketing copy.

They're Specific. "Excellence" isn't a value; it's a aspiration. "We deliver projects on time even if it means working weekends" is a value. It's specific, measurable, and tells you exactly what behaviour is expected.

They Create Conflict. Real values force difficult conversations. "Customer First" means sometimes disappointing shareholders. "Innovation" means accepting that 70% of new ideas will fail. If your values don't generate internal tension, they're probably meaningless.

I worked with a construction company whose actual value was "Safe trumps profitable." Not "Safety First" – that's just a slogan. "Safe trumps profitable" meant they walked away from lucrative contracts with inadequate safety protocols. It meant they spent an extra $12,000 per project on equipment that competitors considered unnecessary. It also meant they'd never had a serious workplace injury in fifteen years whilst their competitors were dealing with regular WorkCover claims.

That's what authentic values look like. Expensive, specific, and uncomfortable.

The Implementation Problem (Or: Why Good Intentions Aren't Enough)

Even companies that start with genuine intentions often end up with wall decorations instead of working principles. The problem isn't usually malicious – it's structural.

Values get diluted through committee review. They get sanitised by legal departments worried about liability. They get genericised by marketing teams concerned about appealing to everyone. By the time they reach the wall, they've been focus-grouped into meaninglessness.

I watched this happen in real time at a professional development training session I facilitated for a mining services company. They started with "We don't compromise on safety, even when it costs us contracts." Powerful. Clear. Actionable.

Six months and four committee meetings later, it became "We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of safety excellence while delivering value to all stakeholders." You could paste that onto any company in any industry and it would fit perfectly. Which means it's useless.

The Australian Context (Because We Do Things Differently)

Here's something that American management consultants never understand about Australian workplace culture: we can smell bullshit from three postcodes away. Our tolerance for corporate speak is approximately zero, and our respect for authority figures who can't back up their claims with action is even lower.

This creates both a challenge and an opportunity for Australian businesses. The challenge is that you can't fake your way through values implementation here. Your people will call you out, probably publicly, definitely at the pub after work.

The opportunity is that authentic values resonate more strongly in Australian culture than almost anywhere else. We respect straight talkers. We admire companies that do what they say they'll do. We'll pay more and work harder for organisations that treat us like adults instead of marketing targets.

JB Hi-Fi gets this. Their values aren't written anywhere that I've seen, but their culture is unmistakably "Know your stuff, help customers find what they need, and don't take yourself too seriously." It works because it's authentic, specific, and consistently demonstrated from retail floor to boardroom.

Bunnings understands it too. "Lowest prices" isn't just a slogan – it's a business model that informs every decision from supplier relationships to store layouts. When they say they'll beat any competitor's price, they actually do it, even when it costs them margin.

Making Values Work (The Uncomfortable Truth)

If you're serious about implementing authentic values – and I mean "prepared to lose money and have difficult conversations" serious – here's what actually works:

Start with what you already do, not what you want to do. Look at your organisation's behaviour over the past five years. What principles have you actually followed, even when it was expensive or inconvenient? Those are your real values. Polish them up if you want, but don't pretend you're something you're not.

Make them costly. If living your values doesn't require sacrifice, they're not values. They're suggestions. Build in mechanisms that force difficult choices. Make it clear that values trump profit when they conflict.

Measure what matters. You can't manage what you don't measure, and you can't implement what you don't track. If "Respect for People" is a value, track exit interview feedback about management behaviour. If "Innovation" matters, measure how many failed experiments you're funding.

Fire people who violate them. This is where most companies fail. You can have the most beautiful values statement in the world, but if you keep the high performer who treats colleagues like dirt, everyone knows what you really value. And it's not what's written on the wall.

I've seen companies transform their culture by making one high-profile termination based on values violation rather than performance. It sends a message that ripples through the organisation for years: we actually mean this stuff.

The Measurement Paradox

Here's something that'll make metrics-obsessed managers uncomfortable: the most important aspects of authentic values are almost impossible to measure accurately. How do you quantify integrity? What's the KPI for respect?

This creates a dangerous temptation to focus on what's measurable rather than what's meaningful. Companies start tracking "diversity hires" instead of inclusive behaviour. They measure "customer satisfaction scores" instead of genuine relationship building. They count "innovation initiatives" instead of actual creative risk-taking.

The result is theatre. Elaborate, expensive theatre that ticks boxes whilst missing the point entirely.

The solution isn't to abandon measurement – it's to accept that values implementation requires judgment, not just metrics. You need managers who can recognise authentic behaviour and call out performance. You need leaders who understand the difference between compliance and commitment.

Most importantly, you need to accept that some of the most valuable aspects of your culture will always resist quantification. The moment someone tells you they can measure your company's integrity with a dashboard, run.

Why This Matters More Than Ever

In an era where employees have options and customers have voices, authentic values aren't nice-to-have anymore. They're competitive advantage. People want to work for organisations they respect. Customers want to buy from companies they trust. Investors want to back businesses with sustainable cultures.

The companies thriving long-term aren't necessarily the ones with the slickest values statements. They're the ones whose values actually inform decisions. Where principles guide behaviour. Where what you see on the wall matches what you experience in the workplace.

The rest are just expensive interior decoration. Beautiful, meaningless, and ultimately ineffective at achieving anything beyond making reception areas look professional.

And frankly, your people deserve better than wall art masquerading as corporate culture.

Looking for help implementing authentic values in your organisation? Consider exploring effective communication training or workplace development programs that focus on practical culture change rather than cosmetic improvements.