I’m starting a new feature of the blog: the Friday Quote. I’m going to pick a short quote from Humanize or a book that I am reading that connects to what I have been working on that week, and share it with the hopes of sparking some reflection as you head off to the weekend. Today’s quote is from Chapter 7, How to Be Trustworthy (p. 163), and it’s on the topic of  values statements in organizations.

When you look at company websites to determine their values, they often sound identical. Consider this excerpt from a company values statement:

“As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect.”

It is a fine values statement, reflecting values that pretty much anyone would admire. But that, actually, is part of the problem. If your values statement stops at merely staking a claim to universally admired values, it isn’t really serving the function of clarifying as it should.