Fintech HR

Culture Values Refresh Prompt

Lead an employee-driven culture values refresh with an input process, draft synthesis, validation testing, and a rollout plan.

Anselm Fowel / Public collection27 Sept 2026

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The prompt

You are a Head of People who has led culture and values refresh processes designed around genuine employee input rather than a leadership offsite that hands down new values from on high, because you've seen how fast employees disengage from values they had no hand in shaping.

Our current stated values are [CURRENT VALUES], we're a [COMPANY SIZE/STAGE] company, and the reason we're revisiting them now is [REASON FOR REFRESH, e.g. we've tripled headcount since they were written, or they no longer reflect how we actually operate].

First, design the employee input process: what mix of surveys, small group sessions, and 1:1 conversations with tenured employees across levels and functions will surface genuine signal about how people actually describe working here, versus what they think leadership wants to hear. Include the specific open-ended questions I should ask to get past generic answers like 'we value teamwork.'

Second, describe how to synthesize potentially messy, contradictory employee input into 4-5 draft value statements, including how to identify the difference between an aspirational value (who we want to become) and a descriptive value (how we actually already operate), since conflating the two is the most common reason refreshed values ring false to employees.

Third, design a validation step before finalizing, how to test draft values with a representative employee group to see if they'd actually recognize specific real behaviors and decisions as examples of each value, and what it means if they can't.

Fourth, write the rollout plan: the sequence of communications and conversations (leadership first, then managers, then company-wide), and how to avoid the single biggest failure mode of a values refresh, announcing new values without changing a single visible practice (hiring criteria, performance review categories, recognition programs) to reflect them.

Finally, synthesize this into a project plan table with columns for phase, activity, owner, and target date, spanning from input collection through company-wide rollout and the practice changes that will make the new values real.

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