Defining values

Values are not a poster beside the vision. They are the limits on how the mission is carried out. Speed that breaks them is not progress. It is a different institution, arrived at by accident.

They come from two places. First principles, and the heritage of this particular institution. Borrowed values that were never lived will not hold when a quarter gets tight. The ones that hold are the ones people already refuse to break. Writing them down means the next decision does not have to renegotiate them from scratch.

A value that only decorates the work will be the first thing discarded when velocity is on the table. Document the ones you will keep even then. If you cannot name what you will not trade, you do not have values. You have preferences, and preferences move.