Engagement Technique: Values Stories

Company values often sound great.
They’re designed carefully. Printed neatly. Added to the website. Maybe even painted on a wall.

And yet, if you ask most employees what they really mean in practice, you’ll either get hesitation, or in a lot of cases not actually know what those values are!

That’s where Values Stories comes in. This is a simple, powerful exercise that brings your values to life by connecting them to real people and real stories. It has an added bonus of providing you with employer brand content, and developing presentation skills of your employees (or at least their confidence).. I’ll explain…

What it is

Values Stories gives employees a three-minute public speaking opportunity.

The brief is straightforward:

“Choose someone in the public eye who embodies one of our company values. Tell us why.”

It’s short. Insightful. And surprisingly energising.

This isn’t compulsory. Not everyone wants to speak publicly, and that’s fine. But for those who do, it provides a safe space to practise, try, improve, and build confidence. Some will stumble. Some will be brilliant. Both outcomes are valuable.

An example

Let’s say one of your company values is Resilience. Someone might choose Marcus Rashford.

They could talk about how he used his platform not just as a footballer, but as an advocate for children facing food poverty. They might describe how he faced criticism and pressure, but stayed focused on the bigger picture.  Suddenly, “Resilience” becomes a story. It’s relatable, and – assuming Rashford is a significant inspiration to the employee – it’s human.

And even if they used AI to help them find someone (which I’ll admit, does happen in this exercise), when employees hear that story, they start to interpret what resilience looks like in their own work.

Why it works

Values Stories helps people:

• Connect emotionally to company values

• Interpret values in their own language

• Develop communication and confidence

• Learn about inspiring individuals

It also surfaces potential values champions. You may discover employees who care deeply about a particular value and naturally embody it. In larger organisations, these talks can become brilliant intranet content. In smaller ones, they can feed directly into employer brand storytelling.

You’re shining a spotlight on your values (obviously), but also your people, and connecting them. It’s building employee confidence and a better culture too.

What to watch out for

Keep it optional.
Keep it supportive.
Keep it short.

This isn’t about presentation skills, or debating political positions. It’s about storytelling and interpretation. If people don’t feel comfortable, they shouldn’t feel pressure to take part. Find other ways that people can communicate these stories, if not in front of their peers!

Make it clear that different people may interpret the same value differently – don’t try to force the narrative, but if you’re wary they’re not ‘getting it’, it will demonstrate that more work needs to be done from the top to educate (i.e, if employees don’t articulate the values as you want them to, that’s on you as a senior leader/CPO)

The takeaway

Values only work when they’re lived.  Values Stories moves them from corporate language to real-world meaning. They create conversation, develop skills, and helps employees see the organisation’s values reflected in THEIR wider world.

When people can explain a value through a story, they’re far more likely to recognise it in themselves.

This post is part of our Engagement Techniques series of practical, low-cost ideas to bring more connection and meaning into work. Find the rest here

👉 Want to explore techniques like this in more depth? I run interactive employee engagement workshops where we bring these ideas to life.