Getting our values right has made us a better company
Adam Rozenhart and Tyler Butler, Co-Founders of Adverb Communications
We started with values.
Before we launched Adverb Communications, Tyler Butler and I talked for hours about the kind of business we wanted to create together. We talked about the types of clients we wanted to work with. And the kind of work we wanted to tackle.
But every single one of these conversations—all of them—turned into a chat about values.
Mostly we talked about the things we liked and didn’t like about previous jobs. And how we could establish a creative digital agency that didn’t burn out its employees (or its founders), and instead helped employees feel energized and creative.
Now, we’re not unique. Almost every company on the planet has a vision, mission and values. We’re all taught to develop it so we can articulate the what and the why behind our businesses.
But we wanted our values to be more meaningful than a simple list of nouns. We believe in doing business in complete sentences (to steal and improve a line from The West Wing).
So our values are complete, imperative sentences with short descriptions. We wanted them to not only be loaded with meaning but to be statements we live by in our everyday work (you can read our current list of values here).
Our values dictate who we work with, how we do our work, and how our team shows up to work every day. And although we set them before we started the company, we knew they would evolve.
So we decided to do something that we think is pretty unique. Every year, we meet as a team to review and discuss our values—are they still relevant? How are we living them? Which of them needs to change? Or do we need to realign ourselves to what’s already written down?
Our values are at the core of everything we do, and because of that, we strive to make sure they are always relevant, useful, and meaningful.
It's part of our commitment to our team and to our clients, and it's why we take the time to review and discuss them every year.
Our values guide our decisions, tell us when we're doing the right (or wrong) thing, and ensure that we work with clients and team members that fit us best.
It’s why we started Adverb: to do great work on our terms.
And you know what?
It’s made every Adverbian on the team happier at work.
Listen to the conversation Tyler and I had about Adverb's values on the latest episode of Ask Adverb.