THE ALLIANCE
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The CEO and her executive team should create a
rough draft of the company’s values, present the draft
to a broader audience of Foundational nonexecutive
employees, and be open to feedback and refi nement.
Only when the Foundational core of the company
agrees should the CEO expand the process to the
entire company.
A CEO can’t convene all one thousand employees
in an auditorium and ask them to defi ne the values
from scratch, but she can’t do the opposite either, by
carving her preferred values in stone and then asking
for “voluntary” buy- in.
If the company is larger than seventy- fi ve people,
break employees up into smaller cross- functional
groups and have each one hold a separate meeting to
discuss the draft values. ...