How to introduce and reinforce a shared set of team values.

Importance

A shared set of values allows a team to define and communicate the characteristics and principles they expect from each other.

Without a set of common values, teams struggle to find behavioral norms. Without that, it can be difficult to set consistent expectations:

• From a manager, of your direct reports
• From team members, of each other
• And from the team as a whole, to communicate to the rest of the company (either implicitly or explicitly).

Context

To grow the scope and responsibility of my team, we needed a common rubric on which to lean. One that defined the characteristics we valued as a team; one that defined success and what it looked like within our team; one that made explicit the responsibilities and competencies we valued in each other.

…

What resulted were a handful of discussions, a few All-Eng meetings and a living document that outlined the core characteristics our team valued. These core values act as a store of accountability within the team, as metrics for personal and professional growth, and as acceptance criteria for potential team members.

It’s important to note that it remains a living document. This document isn’t one that’s modified all the time, but it is always open for pull requests as our team evolves; this document continues to guide our decisions to this day.

Introducing and Reinforcing Shared Values

It’s helpful to have a set of characteristics in mind that you think are important before starting. I found it useful to categorize and group these different characteristics into high level buckets before bringing them to the team.

The steps below are a gentle way to introduce this concept to your colleagues:

1. Eng Leadership Buy-In: Get other Eng leaders involved. Talk to them about your motivation for introducing the conversation to the team and have them help refine the characteristics you’ve identified.
2. Start Small: Once you have a refined set of characteristics defined, start with your immediate team and repeat the process. Reinforce the motivation here; its important to share with them why you think it’s important have a discussion about team values. Reinforce the fact this list is simply a jumping off point; that this document should be a living, breathing thing and should be owned by the team. Get people thinking outside the box about the positive characteristics they see (or would like to see) from their teammates, the competencies they take pride in themselves (maybe it’s positive communication in pull requests, maybe it’s an increased focus on test coverage) and the characteristics they want potential candidates to demonstrate. The manager should drive the discussion, but this should ultimately be a list that the team shapes and owns.
3. Document: Hold a meeting and encourage teammates to openly share their thoughts. Refine the list as necessary and document everything in a public place so that people inside and outside of your immediate team can see it.
4. Use That Document: Refer to it in 1:1s (when appropriate). Use it to structure and drive goals and performance evaluations. For instance, if “active participation in the peer review process” is something that the team values (in themselves and of each other), set individual goals like “Each team member is responsible for reviewing at least 80% of all opened pull requests; Meets Expectations == 80%; Exceeds Expectations >= 80%”. Use it to shape your team’s culture; use it to drive decisions; use it to probe and filter interview candidates.
5. Monitor & Share: Let the team live with it for a bit. Take a few quarters and see if behavior or cultural norms change (even subtly). If so, share the process with other teams to see if they might find it useful. If not, it may be worth revisiting the list yourself to see if they align with existing behavior; take it to the team and have an open conversation about why it’s off the mark and what needs to be refined.
6. Revisit: Come back to it every few quarters to see if anything has changed (on the team, to the environment around the team, to technologies, priorities or processes that may have shifted) that would cause the document to become stale.

Hopefully this serves as a guideline for introducing a consistent set of shared values across your team. Drop me a line if you have questions or feedback about anything discussed above.