This guide explains how to turn our team's five core values into small, daily tasks. It provides concrete examples and methods for integrating these values into our work using Slack and an Agile-like process.
- Transparency: Clear, honest, and genuine communication, both internally and externally. We say the hard things when needed and focus on human-centric language.
- Continuous Improvement: A commitment to personal and professional growth, job satisfaction, and pragmatically doing better in the future. We keep up with the times and seek opportunities to upskill.
- Thought Leadership: We aim to lead, not just follow. We contribute our ideas, share our learnings, and turn challenges into opportunities for innovation.
- Good to Work With: We cultivate a non-toxic, psychologically safe internal environment and are responsive, human, and expert partners to our clients. We build long-term relationships based on care and pride in our work.
- Everything in Balance: We recognize the importance of life/work balance, making pragmatic trade-offs, and taking shared responsibility for a sustainable and high-quality work life.
- Our Five Core Values
- Our Core Values in Action: A Detailed Guide
- Creating Microtasks from Team Values
- Using Slack for Asynchronous Tasks
- Using an Agile Scrum Structure
- Summary of Key Methods
Here are specific, actionable microtasks for each of our core values.
- Default to public channels: For any work-related discussion, start it in a public team channel instead of a DM.
- Explain the 'why': When you can't share certain information (e.g., with a client), communicate why it can't be shared.
- Share learnings from failures: In a retrospective, share one thing that went wrong and what you learned from it.
- Practice honest estimates: When asked for a timeline, give a realistic one that includes buffer time, and be prepared to explain your reasoning.
- Block out learning time: Schedule at least one hour per week for personal or professional growth.
- Share one new thing: In a
#learningschannel, share one key takeaway from an article, course, or talk you engaged with this week. - Upskill during code reviews: When reviewing a PR, suggest one improvement that teaches a better pattern or a new language feature.
- Seek feedback: Actively ask a colleague, "What is one thing I could do to improve my work on this project?"
- Propose an improvement: In a team meeting, propose one new tool, process, or idea that could help the team.
- Share your expertise: Write a short internal post or start a Slack thread about a new technology you've explored.
- Contribute externally: Make one contribution to an open-source project or answer a question on a public forum like Stack Overflow each month.
- Lead from where you are: You don't need a title to lead. Take the initiative to organize meeting notes, clarify ambiguous requirements, or mentor a teammate.
- Give specific kudos: Use the
#kudoschannel to give a shout-out to a teammate, explaining the specific action and its positive impact. - Be responsive, not reactive: Acknowledge client messages within a few hours, even if it's just to say, "Got it, I'll look into this and get back to you by EOD."
- Offer help proactively: If you see a teammate is blocked or struggling, send them a DM offering specific help.
- Check for psychological safety: In meetings, actively invite quieter members to speak: "Sarah, we haven't heard from you yet, what are your thoughts on this?"
- Respect work hours: Avoid sending non-urgent messages or meeting invites outside of a colleague's stated working hours. Use Slack's "schedule send" feature.
- Take your breaks: Block out lunch on your calendar and step away from your computer.
- Advocate for yourself: If your workload is unsustainable, have a conversation with your manager about priorities and trade-offs.
- Celebrate logging off: Encourage teammates to sign off on time. A simple "Enjoy your evening!" can help reinforce boundaries.
Here are three methods to turn your team's values into concrete actions.
This collaborative workshop helps your team define what a value looks like in practice.
- Start with one value. For example, "Transparency."
- Ask questions to define behaviors. Use a whiteboard or shared document to ask:
- What does Transparency look like in our client communications?
- What does it sound like during a project planning meeting?
- What should we not do if we want to be transparent?
- Brainstorm specific actions (microtasks). Your team's answers become the microtasks.
Example Microtasks for "Transparency":
- In client comms: "When a delay happens, we communicate it proactively with a reason and a new timeline, instead of waiting for the client to ask."
- In planning: "Clearly state the known risks and unknowns for a project, rather than presenting a plan as perfect."
- In meetings: "If you disagree, state your perspective with your reasoning, rather than staying silent."
- Prioritize and assign. Choose one or two microtasks to focus on for the next sprint or week. This makes the effort manageable.
This method integrates values into your regular meetings.
- Define a value and a "commitment phrase." For a value like "Continuous Improvement," the phrase could be, "What is one thing I will learn or improve this week?"
- Add it to your meeting agenda. At the end of a weekly meeting, each person shares their commitment for the week.
- Use a shared document. Create a simple table to track commitments.
Example Commitment:
- Value: Continuous Improvement
- Team Member: Alex
- Commitment: "I will learn how our deployment pipeline works and document one part of it."
- Follow up. At the next meeting, quickly check in on the commitments. This reinforces accountability.
This is a fun way to focus the whole team on a single value.
- Choose a value to focus on for the week. For example, "Thought Leadership."
- Define a clear challenge. Create a small, achievable task for everyone.
Example Challenges for "Thought Leadership":
- "This week, everyone finds one article about a future trend in our industry and shares the link and one key insight in the
#insightschannel." - "Pair with a teammate to brainstorm one 'what if' idea for our main product and present it at the end of the week."
- "This week, everyone finds one article about a future trend in our industry and shares the link and one key insight in the
- Debrief. At the end of the week, take 15 minutes to discuss what everyone learned.
Using Slack is an excellent way to practice values without needing more meetings. Here are three asynchronous methods.
This method creates a dedicated space to celebrate your values.
- Create a dedicated Slack channel. Name it something like
#values-in-action. - Use a recurring reminder. Set up a weekly reminder in the channel.
Example Reminder:
/remind #values-in-action "What's a small action you saw this week that demonstrated our value of being 'Good to Work With'?" every Friday at 2pm. - Encourage sharing. Team members can reply in a thread with specific examples. Others can react with emojis (like 💙 or 🙌) to show appreciation.
- Pin the values. Pin a message or a Slack Canvas in the channel that lists your team's five core values so they are always visible.
This is a lightweight and fun way to reinforce values in daily work.
- Assign emojis to your values. This creates a quick, visual connection.
Example Emojis:
- Value: "Transparency" → 🔍
- Value: "Continuous Improvement" → 🌱
- Value: "Thought Leadership" → 💡
- Value: "Good to Work With" → 🙌
- Value: "Everything in Balance" → ⚖️
- Encourage team members to use them. When someone sees a teammate demonstrating a value, they can add the emoji reaction to a message or post a shout-out.
Example Shout-out: "Huge thanks to Maria for creating that detailed guide on the new API. That's amazing Thought Leadership! 💡"
- Summarize weekly. In a weekly thread, you can summarize the shout-outs to celebrate collective wins.
This method uses Slack's Workflow Builder for a more structured process.
- Choose a value to focus on for the week. For example, "Everything in Balance."
- Use Workflow Builder. Create a workflow that posts a challenge to a channel on Monday morning.
Example Workflow Message: "This week's value challenge is 'Everything in Balance.' Your challenge: Schedule a 30-minute break in your calendar every day this week and actually take it!"
- Automate a Friday check-in. Create a second workflow that posts on Friday, asking how the challenge went.
- Review the results. Discuss what the team learned from the challenge in your next retrospective meeting.
Applying an Agile structure to your values work creates a cycle of continuous improvement. This process treats your values like a product you are building together.
This phase is for selecting a value and a microtask to practice for a set period (e.g., 2-4 weeks).
- Values Backlog: Your list of five core values is your backlog.
- Sprint Planning (Asynchronous):
- Choose a Focus Value: Use a Slack poll in your values channel to decide which value to focus on for the sprint.
- Define the Microtask: Once a value is chosen, the team agrees on a specific, observable microtask in a Slack thread.
Example:
- Value: Good to Work With
- Microtask: "For the next two weeks, we will start every client meeting by stating a clear agenda and desired outcome."
- Create a Commitment: Pin the chosen microtask in the channel so everyone knows the focus for the sprint.
This is a lightweight, asynchronous reminder to keep the microtask in mind.
- Set up a recurring Slack reminder. This is a prompt for awareness, not a progress report.
Example Reminder:
/remind #team-dev "Reminder: Today we are practicing our 'Good to Work With' microtask of setting clear agendas." every day at 9am - Keep it low-effort. Team members can react with an emoji (like 👀) to show they've seen it. They can optionally share examples in a thread.
This meeting closes the loop, allows for reflection, and helps plan the next sprint.
- Schedule the Retrospective: At the end of the sprint, schedule a short 15-30 minute meeting.
- Use a structured format. A "Start, Stop, Continue" format works well.
- Start: What new habit should we start doing?
- Stop: What hindered our practice of this microtask? What should we stop?
- Continue: What worked well? What should we continue doing?
- Document and decide. Based on the feedback, the team decides whether to continue with the same microtask or if it has become a habit. Then, you plan the next "values sprint."
Here is a summary of the most critical parts of turning team values into practice.
- "What Does This Look Like?" Workshop: A collaborative session to break down a value into specific, observable behaviors.
- "Commitment" Check-In: A weekly public commitment from each team member to a specific microtask, with a follow-up.
- "Value-of-the-Week" Challenge: A fun, team-wide focus on a single value for one week with a related task.
- "Value Highlight" Channel: A dedicated channel with recurring reminders for team members to share examples of values in action.
- "Kudos" System with Emojis: A spontaneous recognition system where emojis are assigned to values for quick, public praise.
- "Value Challenge" Workflow: A structured, automated weekly challenge using Slack's Workflow Builder.
- The "Values Sprint": A 2-4 week cycle where the team commits to practicing one specific microtask related to a chosen value.
- The Daily "Stand-up" (Check-in): A low-effort, daily Slack reminder to keep the current microtask top of mind.
- The Retrospective: A short meeting at the end of each sprint to reflect on progress using a "Start, Stop, Continue" format and plan the next sprint.# Turning Team Values into Actionable Tasks
This guide explains how to turn our team's five core values into small, daily tasks. It provides concrete examples and methods for integrating these values into our work using Slack and an Agile-like process.
- Transparency: Clear, honest, and genuine communication, both internally and externally. We say the hard things when needed and focus on human-centric language.
- Continuous Improvement: A commitment to personal and professional growth, job satisfaction, and pragmatically doing better in the future. We keep up with the times and seek opportunities to upskill.
- Thought Leadership: We aim to lead, not just follow. We contribute our ideas, share our learnings, and turn challenges into opportunities for innovation.
- Good to Work With: We cultivate a non-toxic, psychologically safe internal environment and are responsive, human, and expert partners to our clients. We build long-term relationships based on care and pride in our work.
- Everything in Balance: We recognize the importance of life/work balance, making pragmatic trade-offs, and taking shared responsibility for a sustainable and high-quality work life.
- Our Five Core Values
- Our Core Values in Action: A Detailed Guide
- Creating Microtasks from Team Values
- Using Slack for Asynchronous Tasks
- Using an Agile Scrum Structure
- Summary of Key Methods
Here are specific, actionable microtasks for each of our core values.
- Default to public channels: For any work-related discussion, start it in a public team channel instead of a DM.
- Explain the 'why': When you can't share certain information (e.g., with a client), communicate why it can't be shared.
- Share learnings from failures: In a retrospective, share one thing that went wrong and what you learned from it.
- Practice honest estimates: When asked for a timeline, give a realistic one that includes buffer time, and be prepared to explain your reasoning.
- Block out learning time: Schedule at least one hour per week for personal or professional growth.
- Share one new thing: In a
#learningschannel, share one key takeaway from an article, course, or talk you engaged with this week. - Upskill during code reviews: When reviewing a PR, suggest one improvement that teaches a better pattern or a new language feature.
- Seek feedback: Actively ask a colleague, "What is one thing I could do to improve my work on this project?"
- Propose an improvement: In a team meeting, propose one new tool, process, or idea that could help the team.
- Share your expertise: Write a short internal post or start a Slack thread about a new technology you've explored.
- Contribute externally: Make one contribution to an open-source project or answer a question on a public forum like Stack Overflow each month.
- Lead from where you are: You don't need a title to lead. Take the initiative to organize meeting notes, clarify ambiguous requirements, or mentor a teammate.
- Give specific kudos: Use the
#kudoschannel to give a shout-out to a teammate, explaining the specific action and its positive impact. - Be responsive, not reactive: Acknowledge client messages within a few hours, even if it's just to say, "Got it, I'll look into this and get back to you by EOD."
- Offer help proactively: If you see a teammate is blocked or struggling, send them a DM offering specific help.
- Check for psychological safety: In meetings, actively invite quieter members to speak: "Sarah, we haven't heard from you yet, what are your thoughts on this?"
- Respect work hours: Avoid sending non-urgent messages or meeting invites outside of a colleague's stated working hours. Use Slack's "schedule send" feature.
- Take your breaks: Block out lunch on your calendar and step away from your computer.
- Advocate for yourself: If your workload is unsustainable, have a conversation with your manager about priorities and trade-offs.
- Celebrate logging off: Encourage teammates to sign off on time. A simple "Enjoy your evening!" can help reinforce boundaries.
Here are three methods to turn your team's values into concrete actions.
This collaborative workshop helps your team define what a value looks like in practice.
- Start with one value. For example, "Transparency."
- Ask questions to define behaviors. Use a whiteboard or shared document to ask:
- What does Transparency look like in our client communications?
- What does it sound like during a project planning meeting?
- What should we not do if we want to be transparent?
- Brainstorm specific actions (microtasks). Your team's answers become the microtasks.
Example Microtasks for "Transparency":
- In client comms: "When a delay happens, we communicate it proactively with a reason and a new timeline, instead of waiting for the client to ask."
- In planning: "Clearly state the known risks and unknowns for a project, rather than presenting a plan as perfect."
- In meetings: "If you disagree, state your perspective with your reasoning, rather than staying silent."
- Prioritize and assign. Choose one or two microtasks to focus on for the next sprint or week. This makes the effort manageable.
This method integrates values into your regular meetings.
- Define a value and a "commitment phrase." For a value like "Continuous Improvement," the phrase could be, "What is one thing I will learn or improve this week?"
- Add it to your meeting agenda. At the end of a weekly meeting, each person shares their commitment for the week.
- Use a shared document. Create a simple table to track commitments.
Example Commitment:
- Value: Continuous Improvement
- Team Member: Alex
- Commitment: "I will learn how our deployment pipeline works and document one part of it."
- Follow up. At the next meeting, quickly check in on the commitments. This reinforces accountability.
This is a fun way to focus the whole team on a single value.
- Choose a value to focus on for the week. For example, "Thought Leadership."
- Define a clear challenge. Create a small, achievable task for everyone.
Example Challenges for "Thought Leadership":
- "This week, everyone finds one article about a future trend in our industry and shares the link and one key insight in the
#insightschannel." - "Pair with a teammate to brainstorm one 'what if' idea for our main product and present it at the end of the week."
- "This week, everyone finds one article about a future trend in our industry and shares the link and one key insight in the
- Debrief. At the end of the week, take 15 minutes to discuss what everyone learned.
Using Slack is an excellent way to practice values without needing more meetings. Here are three asynchronous methods.
This method creates a dedicated space to celebrate your values.
- Create a dedicated Slack channel. Name it something like
#values-in-action. - Use a recurring reminder. Set up a weekly reminder in the channel.
Example Reminder:
/remind #values-in-action "What's a small action you saw this week that demonstrated our value of being 'Good to Work With'?" every Friday at 2pm. - Encourage sharing. Team members can reply in a thread with specific examples. Others can react with emojis (like 💙 or 🙌) to show appreciation.
- Pin the values. Pin a message or a Slack Canvas in the channel that lists your team's five core values so they are always visible.
This is a lightweight and fun way to reinforce values in daily work.
- Assign emojis to your values. This creates a quick, visual connection.
Example Emojis:
- Value: "Transparency" → 🔍
- Value: "Continuous Improvement" → 🌱
- Value: "Thought Leadership" → 💡
- Value: "Good to Work With" → 🙌
- Value: "Everything in Balance" → ⚖️
- Encourage team members to use them. When someone sees a teammate demonstrating a value, they can add the emoji reaction to a message or post a shout-out.
Example Shout-out: "Huge thanks to Maria for creating that detailed guide on the new API. That's amazing Thought Leadership! 💡"
- Summarize weekly. In a weekly thread, you can summarize the shout-outs to celebrate collective wins.
This method uses Slack's Workflow Builder for a more structured process.
- Choose a value to focus on for the week. For example, "Everything in Balance."
- Use Workflow Builder. Create a workflow that posts a challenge to a channel on Monday morning.
Example Workflow Message: "This week's value challenge is 'Everything in Balance.' Your challenge: Schedule a 30-minute break in your calendar every day this week and actually take it!"
- Automate a Friday check-in. Create a second workflow that posts on Friday, asking how the challenge went.
- Review the results. Discuss what the team learned from the challenge in your next retrospective meeting.
Applying an Agile structure to your values work creates a cycle of continuous improvement. This process treats your values like a product you are building together.
This phase is for selecting a value and a microtask to practice for a set period (e.g., 2-4 weeks).
- Values Backlog: Your list of five core values is your backlog.
- Sprint Planning (Asynchronous):
- Choose a Focus Value: Use a Slack poll in your values channel to decide which value to focus on for the sprint.
- Define the Microtask: Once a value is chosen, the team agrees on a specific, observable microtask in a Slack thread.
Example:
- Value: Good to Work With
- Microtask: "For the next two weeks, we will start every client meeting by stating a clear agenda and desired outcome."
- Create a Commitment: Pin the chosen microtask in the channel so everyone knows the focus for the sprint.
This is a lightweight, asynchronous reminder to keep the microtask in mind.
- Set up a recurring Slack reminder. This is a prompt for awareness, not a progress report.
Example Reminder:
/remind #team-dev "Reminder: Today we are practicing our 'Good to Work With' microtask of setting clear agendas." every day at 9am - Keep it low-effort. Team members can react with an emoji (like 👀) to show they've seen it. They can optionally share examples in a thread.
This meeting closes the loop, allows for reflection, and helps plan the next sprint.
- Schedule the Retrospective: At the end of the sprint, schedule a short 15-30 minute meeting.
- Use a structured format. A "Start, Stop, Continue" format works well.
- Start: What new habit should we start doing?
- Stop: What hindered our practice of this microtask? What should we stop?
- Continue: What worked well? What should we continue doing?
- Document and decide. Based on the feedback, the team decides whether to continue with the same microtask or if it has become a habit. Then, you plan the next "values sprint."
Here is a summary of the most critical parts of turning team values into practice.
- "What Does This Look Like?" Workshop: A collaborative session to break down a value into specific, observable behaviors.
- "Commitment" Check-In: A weekly public commitment from each team member to a specific microtask, with a follow-up.
- "Value-of-the-Week" Challenge: A fun, team-wide focus on a single value for one week with a related task.
- "Value Highlight" Channel: A dedicated channel with recurring reminders for team members to share examples of values in action.
- "Kudos" System with Emojis: A spontaneous recognition system where emojis are assigned to values for quick, public praise.
- "Value Challenge" Workflow: A structured, automated weekly challenge using Slack's Workflow Builder.
- The "Values Sprint": A 2-4 week cycle where the team commits to practicing one specific microtask related to a chosen value.
- The Daily "Stand-up" (Check-in): A low-effort, daily Slack reminder to keep the current microtask top of mind.
- The Retrospective: A short meeting at the end of each sprint to reflect on progress using a "Start, Stop, Continue" format and plan the next sprint.