Most organizations proudly display their core values.
They’re on websites. They’re on walls. They’re in onboarding decks and employee handbooks.
And yet, many leaders quietly sense the same thing:
Our values sound good … but they’re not really changing how people behave.
That’s not a values problem. That’s a performance problem.
The uncomfortable truth about core values
Here’s a simple question most organizations fail to consider:
Are your people living your values more consistently today than they were three years ago?
Not whether they know the values. Not whether they can recite the values. But whether the behaviors connected to those values are actually improving over time.
If the answer is “I’m not sure” or “probably not,” your values aren’t failing because they’re wrong. They’re failing because they’re underperforming assets.
The Core Values Con Job
Most organizations treat values as beliefs to promote, not as systems to manage.
We:
- declare them
- celebrate them
- reference them when something goes wrong
But we rarely use them as tools to help people get better.
That’s the core values con job.
Values end up looking meaningful while doing very little actual work. They describe what matters — but they don’t reliably improve behavior.
Why values stall out
When values underperform, it’s not because leaders don’t care. It’s because most organizations lack a system – a plan – that addresses five critical questions:
- What does this value look like in day-to-day behavior?
- How do we assess how well individuals are living it?
- What happens when someone isn’t living the value yet?
- How do we help people improve — not just remind them?
- How do we know whether things are getting better over time?
Without clear answers to these questions, values default to pass/fail thinking:
- aligned or not aligned
- culture fit or not
- living the values or not
That binary mindset kills improvement.
Values should drive performance — not just exist
If values matter, they should:
- propel people to improve behavior over time
- show up in real day-to-day interactions
- impact performance, not just posters
This belief is what led us to develop BetterCulture’s Values Performance System™ (VPS) — a structured approach that treats values as a system for improving employee behavior and performance over time.
What a Values Performance System™ does differently
A Values Performance System™ applies the same discipline to values that high-performing organizations apply to any critical capability.
At a high level, a VPS focuses on six things:
- Translate values into observable behaviors
If you can’t see it, you won’t improve it. - Invite honest self-assessment
Improvement starts with reflection, not enforcement. - Replace pass/fail thinking with progression
The goal isn’t perfection — it’s getting steadily better over time. - Provide tools for development
If improvement is expected, it must be supported. - Recognize and reinforce improvement
Progress deserves visibility and encouragement. - Make values part of performance
If values matter, they must matter where performance is discussed.
This is how values move from decoration to infrastructure.
Two ways to fix underperforming core values
Once leaders see values as underperforming assets, the next question becomes: What do we do about it?
There are two viable paths forward.
Option 1: Build your own Values Performance System™
You can apply VPS thinking directly to your existing core values.
That means:
- defining behavioral expectations for each value
- creating self-assessment tools
- training leaders to coach improvement
- developing learning resources tied to each value
- tracking progress over time
- integrating values into performance conversations
This approach works — but it requires significant time, alignment, and ongoing effort to design, maintain, and sustain.
Option 2: Use a Ready-Made Values Performance System (Alongside Your Core Values)
At BetterCulture, we’ve already done that work.
BetterCulture’s 20 Tenets of Culture is a fully built, plug-and-play Values Performance System™ — designed around 20 clear and critical behaviors that drive healthy culture, strong teams, and better performance.
The 20 Tenets are not a replacement for your core values. They are designed to work in conjunction with the values you already have by providing the behavioral clarity and improvement infrastructure most values lack.
In fact, in 9 out of 10 organizations, the 20 Tenets map exceptionally well to existing core values — reinforcing, enhancing, and activating those values rather than competing with them.
Instead of requiring organizations to build a VPS from scratch, 20 Tenets provides:
- clear, observable behaviors
- built-in self-assessment
- focused improvement goals
- coaching and development resources
- visibility into progress
- reinforcement and performance alignment
It’s the Values Performance System™ logic — already operationalized and already aligned to what matters most in your organization.
A common question we hear
“Do we have to replace our core values to use 20 Tenets?”
No.
Most organizations keep their existing values exactly as they are. The 20 Tenets simply provide the behavioral engine that helps those values show up more consistently in day-to-day work. Think of your values as the why — and the Tenets as the how.
The real question
The real question isn’t whether your organization has values. It’s whether those values are earning their keep.
Because culture doesn’t improve when values are declared. It improves when behavior does.
And behavior only improves when there’s a system behind it.
If these ideas resonate, the next step is simple. Schedule a call and we’ll show you how to implement the 20 Tenets of Culture across your team.
