Issue 135: Introducing B+E Values

Hi all!

Long time Early Bird, first time newsletter-writer Lauren M here. This week, I want to talk to you about values. As someone who cares deeply about our planet, humankind, my job, and everything in between, identifying my personal values has been one of the best things I’ve done to stay intentional and design a life I love.

Organizations, whether they announce them aloud or not, are also guided by values. Being thoughtful about developing them can save you time and headaches by giving your team a clear map of what is expected of them and what your organization stands for.

For example, I once had a client who expected their employees to be entrepreneurial, finding ways to make or save money. The problem was, they never communicated this; they just thought it should be obvious. Without written values to point to, their team failed to focus where they wanted, and leadership had to tell each employee, again and again, that it was important. When leadership gets busy and has less time for these feedback conversations, any unspoken value gets lost.

Another team had "collaboration" in place as a value, a holdover from their in-office startup days. Ten years later, consensus was getting in the way of speed. There were too many decision makers and key projects were late or delayed, causing frustration across the board. The value was no longer serving them.

When we work with teams to help them build their compensation frameworks, career paths, company handbooks (ok, just about anything), we always start with their values as a grounding place. An organization with speed as a value is not going to promote people in the same way as one that values a slow, crafted approach. A highly collaborative sales team is not going to design their pay the same way a highly competitive one will. Every well-designed people program is built on a solid foundation of values.

The problem? Many organizations, especially in their early stages, have struggled to define their values. And we've struggled to help them, mostly because we believe values should generally be founder-led, and exactly the right balance of authentic and inspirational. Many consultants and workshops that help you define your values simply describe the current state, and fail to inspire a future vision. Others focus entirely on pie-in-the-sky vision, and fail to resonate with the people on the ground, leaving you with a deck you clap politely for (and then never actually use). We wanted to build something better.

After years of testing, we've developed B+E Values, a signature process designed to define and build out the values that drive your organization, and roll them out in a way that connects. Whether we’re starting from zero or exploring whether your existing values are the right ones, we’ll take the time to deeply understand your group, your aspirations, and where you want to go.

Our process includes:

• A facilitated, deep-diving workshop session with your leadership team on what behaviours you want to encourage, discourage, and reward

• A full review of your company culture, people programs and decision-making processes

• Specific implementation advisory from team B+E for how to embed your new values in your hiring decisions, employer brand, performance management systems and compensation philosophy and more. This is unique to Bright + Early!

Ready to supercharge your organization with true-to-you values? Our newsletter subscribers get first dibs at the program before a wider launch. Drop me a note at [email protected] (or just reply to the newsletter), and we’ll send you more details.

Warmly,

Lauren Mercurio-Smith

From Early Magazine:

Bright Reads 🌞

• Juro has open-sourced a great example of a manager playbook. Want to make your own? We have a guide for that.

• Musk’s DOGE Brings in HR Consultant Focused on ‘Non-Woke’ DEI’

• Many Democrats and activists are rallying to defend diversity programs, but others say they distract from deeper efforts to address inequality.

• Looking for a break from the news? Why not be moss for 100 seconds?

Bright Jobs ☀️

Every week, we’ll share a curated list of exciting jobs at Bright + Early partners. Bright + Early organizations are all committed to building human, inclusive places to work. Note that we’re not involved in hiring– please apply directly!

• Unbounce is building a one-of-a-kind website platform for marketers and agencies and they're hiring for several roles.

• The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness is looking for a Strategy Lead.

• Voiceflow, a leader in the conversational AI space, is hiring for a Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer.

• Blue Door is on a mission to enable housing stability in Canada, and they're hiring for their program teams.

• The Logic is hiring a Senior Director, Events and Special Projects

• Help shape the future of democracy at Change.org as a member of their product or campaign communications teams.

Coming Up 👀

• February 14 is Valentine’s Day

• February 17 is Family Day, a day off for many Canadian provinces

• Ramadan begins February 28

• February is Black History Month

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