Not what's on the wall. Here's what a values page actually needs to become before it changes anything.
Every company already has one
“We haven't really got round to culture yet” doesn't describe a company without one. It describes a culture that assembled itself out of whatever your first ten people happened to do.
Sometimes that turns out well, by accident. It is fragile, because nobody knows why it works, so nobody can protect it.
Culture is not a statement of intent. It's the evidence of what a company rewards, tolerates, and quietly punishes.
Values only work as behaviours
“Integrity.” “Excellence.” Nobody has ever changed a decision because of these words — nobody has ever believed they were against them.
A value only works when it's specific enough that a reasonable person could disagree with it.
Rewritten as behaviours
“Transparency” → Decisions get written down within a day, including the reasoning we rejected.
“Respect” → We disagree in the room, not in the corridor afterwards.
“Ownership” → If you find the problem, you own it until you've handed it to a named person who accepted it.
“Work-life balance” → Nobody is expected to reply outside their working hours. If it's genuinely urgent, ring.
The mechanisms that actually build it
How meetings end
No named owner and a date at the close of a meeting teaches everyone that decisions are optional.
How decisions get recorded
One short note per decision: what we chose, what we rejected, why. Cheapest habit on this list, longest tail.
How recognition works
If praise only flows downward from the founder, you've built a court, not a company.
What happens when someone crosses a line
The first time it's addressed, your values become real. The first time it isn't, they become decoration.
The first time it's addressed, your values become real. The first time it isn't, they become decoration.
Where I'd start
Pick the two behaviours that would most change how your company works if they became automatic. Write them in a sentence a person could fail.
Then model both, visibly, for six weeks.
Two behaviours done properly beat eight values on a wall, every time.
Culture sets by default. Better to choose it. If the informal way things worked is starting to strain, that's the moment to make it deliberate.