It’s been incredibly exciting in the past week to receive many congratulatory wishes via social media and email in response to the
launch of our new website and, particularly, in response to the unveiling of our Core Values.
As we said on the
Core Values section of our new site, “When we started Far Reach, we did not have a master plan with every detail laid out…What we do have is a vision, along with a set of 11 guiding principles we call our
Core Values.”
The concept of a company adopting a set of core values is not a new one. Most famously, online retailer
Zappos has attributed much of its
success to the company’s unwavering commitment to its core values.
We’ve known from the time we started Far Reach five years ago that we wanted to do the same thing. About a year ago, we decided it was time to further integrate
the values Far Reach was founded on into our day-to-day operations.
We’re a bigger team now, business is booming, and we know how easy it can be in those conditions for a company to drift. Once we formally defined our 11 Core Values,
we invested in a few initiatives to bring the team on board:
We
hired artist Mike Rohde to create original illustrations that depict each of our 11 Core Values. These new illustrations are framed and displayed throughout
our office space as a daily reminder of what Far Reach is all about. (And they make our space look pretty awesome.)- We printed a booklet, “Our Core Values,” for every team member that includes the artwork along with a description of what each Core Value means in our day-to-day lives at Far Reach. We also created an online portal where our team can share related articles and resources.
- We nixed our Friday team meetings (yay!) and replaced them with Monday morning Team Huddles. Instead of reviewing exhaustive lists of project details, we do a brief update of our current projects and then move on to a fun and interactive discussion of our Core Values. We’re devoting a week or two to dive into each one by playing games, watching videos, and sharing insights on what these Core Values mean to us as a team.
Putting these initiatives into place has been, and will continue to be, a significant investment of resources. We believe the investment will pay off in a happier and more productive team, and better-served clients.
We’ll cover each of our Core Values individually in upcoming posts. In the meantime, what values do you believe are critical for a company’s success? Is it worth the investment of time and money to implement this type of initiative?
We’d love to hear your opinion.