If there is a disconnect between people's values and their team values, people are more discouraged and demotivated in their work life. Defining values with your team can help provide shared direction and connection in your team. 

Here's how you do it 👇

Schedule about 40 minutes to an hour for the activity, and provide writing materials for the team members, and a sheet or board that can be seen by the whole group. If you do this online, you can use other tools such as Google Docs or Trello. 

If your team does not come up with a set of values during the time allocated, you should allow them to stop and find another time to finish the workshop. It is better to come back to the topic and agree on what values are actually important to your team than to come up with some values because you are in a time crunch.

Explain the purpose of the workshop and why it is important.

1. Give the team five minutes to write down one value per post-it or note. They can write down as many as they like. 
2. Ask them to put the notes on the board so it is visible. Group together similar values.
3. Have a team discussion about the values, and try to narrow them down to 3-5. When your team has agreed on the values you can start making value statements. Examples of value statements:
   
   Respect

   - We respect each other differences and try to approach each other with understanding

   - We speak to each other with respect and do not cross boundaries when people make them clear

   Sustainable

   - We create meaningful and sustainable products/service

   - We take care of each other and our customers so that we create sustainable relationships

4. When you have your values and value statements, create visual symbols of them in the workplace so that your team and you can be reminded of your values and your shared purpose. 

Use the values as a reminder of what standard your team chose together to uphold.

Congratulations you are on your way to becoming a happy motivated team!